About 3,000 volunteering opportunities for youths, cards encouraging civic conversations to be launched under Forward SG exercise

Close to 3,000 volunteering opportunities will be provided for youths in Singapore between October and December as part of the Forward Singapore exercise. 

These opportunities will fall under the Youth Corps Singapore’s second run of the Do Good Fest and come in varying durations, from daily volunteering stints to those lasting a few weeks or longer. 

The volunteering opportunities fall under various causes, including caring for seniors, children, persons with special needs, youth mental wellbeing and the environment. The full list of volunteering opportunities can be found on the Do Good Fest website. 

The first run of Do Good Fest came during June and more than 2,500 volunteering opportunities were taken up by students on the mid-year school break. 

Aside from volunteering opportunities, a commemorative Forward SG civic conversation toolkit will be launched next month for youths to facilitate their own conversations on this sensitive topic. 

The toolkit will come in the form of questions-based conversation cards, carefully curated by the National Youth Council following a series of civic conversations.

The first set of cards will focus on the topic of race and religion. It will encourage youths to reflect, share and discuss issues such as causal racism and discriminatory workplace practices in a safe and structured manner.  

Beyond race and religion, the conversation cards will be developed progressively to address themes such as intergenerational harmony and local-foreign relations. 

As part of the launch of the toolkit, NYC will also partner schools such as the Institute of Technical Education, Polytechnics and Universities, as well as civil society groups Whitehatters and Bold at Work to equip youths with fundamental civic discourse skills. 

These skills include active listening and understanding diverse perspectives. 

A digital campaign will also be launched to promote the values of inclusivity while empowering youths to engage in difficult conversations of their own. It will start this month and end in January 2023.  

The initiatives were announced by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong on Saturday (Oct 1), at the closing ceremony of the Our Singapore Leadership Programme. 

NYC’s efforts will come under the Unite pillar in the Forward Singapore exercise. It is helmed by Mr Tong, Mr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information, and Health, as well as Mr Maliki Osman, Second Minister for Education and Foreign Affairs. 

Mr Tong hopes that inviting youths in Singapore to participate in this exercise will help to show the world that our country can be a “shining example of what it means to be truly multicultural”, especially in light of the adversity and chaos that has happened around the world. 

“In the coming months, there will be new platforms such as physical pop-up exhibitions and also district engagements. I encourage all of you to not just take part in it, but to rally your friends… family and loved ones to come and contribute your views,” he added. 

For more content about Forward SG and how youths can participate, click here.