PM Lawrence Wong at the Youth Corps Singapore’s 10th Anniversary Carnival and Partners’ Appreciation

Chairman and CEO of the National Youth Council
My Cabinet and Parliamentary Colleagues
Youth Corps leaders and volunteers
Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning and it is very good to be here to mark the Youth Corps’ 10th anniversary.

Achievement

This is a very significant milestone for the Youth Corps.

Of course, it also has very special meaning for me.

Because I was at MCCY 10 years ago when we started the Youth Corps.

Our aim back then was to provide young people with more opportunities to make a positive impact on society and to help shape the Singapore we want for the future.

I believed that our youths would have the idealism, the energy, and the passion to make Singapore, and even to make the world a better place. And that all of you young people would step up if given the opportunity to do so.

I was not sure what response we would get when we mooted the idea of Youth Corps. I was not sure how many people would step forward, or whether the impact would be sustained.

So in many ways, setting up the Youth Corps then was a leap of faith into the unknown.

We started with an initial group of 90 volunteers.

It was not a very big group. But we thought it would be better to start well, regardless of the numbers. Start well, and make sure that everyone participating has a good experience, and then over time there will be positive feedback from the programme amongst young people, word of mouth will spread, and we can develop and grow organically.

And I am glad to see that this is indeed what has happened over the last 10 years.

From that initial group of 90 volunteers, we now have more than 30,000 Youth Corps volunteers.

All of you engage in a wide range of volunteering activities from mental health to caring for the elderly, for the environment, and helping those with special needs.

You rise to the challenge during times of need. In Singapore, for example during the pandemic, many Youth Corps volunteers like yourself stepped forward:

Distributing food for vulnerable groups.

Refurbishing shelters for rough sleepers, packing care packs for our healthcare workers and migrant workers.

And even befriending and helping seniors so that they will not be left behind especially those who are isolated at home.

Many of you have journeyed with us this past decade to develop and build up the Youth Corps.

Of course, the leadership team at MCCY and I am very glad to see all the ministers since my time are here today. The baton has passed from me to Minister Grace and then to Minister Edwin Tong. And we are all here today to support you. We have an excellent team at the NYC – David who is the CEO, and KK who is a team Director. They were both recruited by me and they have stayed on for 10 years.

Our many community partners who are here, mentor school leaders and staff, NYC staff. Thank you very much.

Of course, all the volunteers of the Youth Corps, all of you. We have volunteers from across the entire decade with us today, including several from the pioneer batch.

So thank you, everyone. Well done, and happy 10th anniversary once again!

Youths and Bringing Singapore Forward, Together

We will celebrate SG60 next year, Singapore’s 60th year of independence. It is a milestone in our nation-building journey.

It is a time to celebrate our achievements, and to honour the past generations that have enabled us to get to where we are today.

But it is also an opportunity to look ahead and think about what we can do to build the Singapore we want for the future.

We have heard from many young people when we undertook the Forward Singapore exercise. You have shared your hopes with us for a refreshed Singapore Dream.

To have a society that is anchored on values, solidarity, and purpose.

A society where opportunities abound to pursue your aspirations and dreams in different ways.

And a Singapore where we can all be the best possible versions of ourselves.

My team and I will work hard to realise these shared aspirations. But we cannot do this alone. We need your help too. All of you will play a part in writing the next chapter of our Singapore Story.

And I know many Youth Corps volunteers are already doing so. Like Sheila Manokaran, whom I met in 2014. I think Sheila is here today. She is one of those who was among the pioneer batch of Youth Corps volunteers, the 90 I spoke about just now.

She graduated from the programme and organised a donation drive for the Children’s Cancer Foundation and raised $55,000 for the Foundation. And she did not stop there; she continued to volunteer for other events like the Purple Parade.

She gives back to the community that has nurtured her, and today, she works with ITE – her alma mater – to develop internship opportunities for ITE students. And she is also a member of the Youth Corps Advisory Committee.

She does all these, on top of her full-time job as a co-founder of the River Valley Irregulars, which is a platform for young people to look for jobs, internships, and collaborative opportunities with other like-minded people.

I do not know how you find the time Sheila, to do everything. But well done and thank you for your contribution!

There are many, many other Youth Corp leaders and volunteers like Sheila who are making a difference, not just during the time that they volunteer in the Youth Corps programme but even after they have graduated, continuing to volunteer and continue to make a positive impact on our society. So thank you to everyone for going above and beyond and helping to build a better Singapore.

The government will provide more opportunities for young people to contribute. And that is why we recently set up youth panels, which NYC is helping to coordinate. These are panels led by the youths to deliberate on issues that you care about, and you can come up with recommendations to help all of us in Singapore do better.

We have four panels set up so far, looking at: financial security; careers and lifelong learning; digital well-being; and environment and sustainability.

These are already at work. In fact, they have been doing so since November last year. They have been meeting monthly to learn more about the issues, brainstorm ideas, and even discuss policy options with government agencies.

Some of the panels are also organising learning journeys on their own. For example, the youth panel that looks at digital well-being recently initiated a visit to Google to understand what the company has been doing to build trust and safety across its platforms.

And these youth panels, the four of them, will be presenting their ideas at the inaugural Youth Policy Forum next month. They will be sharing it with me and I look forward to hearing from them.

The Youth Panels are just one way for young people to contribute, there are many other opportunities which we will provide for all of you to continue to give back to our society and shape our future together.

Next Bound for the Youth Corps

Now, even as the Government develops more avenues for youth participation, the Youth Corps itself should refresh its approach to engaging young people and let me just quickly suggest three areas for the Youth Corps to consider.

First, make it easier for young people to take the first step towards volunteering.

Today, when youths sign up for a regular volunteering programme with the Youth Corps, at least the main programme, they typically have to commit about 8 hours per month, for 3 months.

That is a big commitment and youths have many things on their plate – they have schoolwork, internships, CCAs. Not everyone can make such a long-term time commitment for volunteering.

And that is why Youth Corps has already started some bite-sized programmes, with lower time commitments, so that young people can step forward and have a taste of volunteering.

So I encourage the Youth Corps to continue with this direction, develop more bite-sized volunteering programmes so that young people can step forward to do something not so large-scale, something small, and they can consider doing more at a later stage when they are ready.

Second, I will encourage the Youth Corps to develop more areas that young people can volunteer in.

You already have volunteering programmes across 8 areas – mental health; environment; special needs; seniors; community care; migrant workers; youth; and children and family.

These cover a lot of ground. But I think there is still scope to do more. For example, to support seniors well, which is one of your existing areas of focus, the Youth Corps volunteers help with health screening for the elderly.

But ageing well goes beyond physical health. We know that there are many seniors staying alone, and they face mental health challenges or the risk of becoming socially isolated if they are not engaged. So Youth Corps volunteers can also do more to befriend these seniors, to encourage them to go out of their homes, and to help them stay meaningfully engaged.

This is just one example. I am sure there will be many other ideas to expand the space for young people to make a positive impact.

Third and finally, I would encourage the Youth Corps to mount more overseas expeditions.

Today, the Youth Corps already provides volunteers to go on expedition projects to ASEAN countries, China, and India. And I think quite a number of Youth Corps leaders have had the opportunity to do so. And you have had very positive experiences when you go overseas.

Before Covid, we would mount about enough expeditions for about 4,000 youths a year. These trips were suspended during the pandemic. And then now that the pandemic is over, we have resumed the trips. But we have not been able to mount as many overseas expeditions as before. Last year, we only had about 2,000 youths going overseas, which is about half the pre-Covid levels.

So we will do more, we should do more to design attractive overseas programmes in the region, and encourage more young people to take this up, so that they can benefit from the overseas experience.

For example, the Youth Corps can create more opportunities for our young people to work with local youth volunteers in their respective countries. Then you can forge close relationships, build networks and friendships with your peers.

And eventually in time to come, we can build a stronger volunteer ecosystem beyond Singapore as well.

Conclusion

To conclude, we all know the world around us is changing, it is changing more rapidly than before.

For the last 30 years, we have enjoyed a region that was relatively peaceful, a world that was relatively peaceful.

Unfortunately, we are now in a new era of competition and conflict, where we see the rise of rivalry between major powers and a splintering of the world.

Singapore will have to navigate these very complicated geopolitical cross-currents.

But this is not the first time we have had to confront difficult external circumstances.

We have done so when we first became independent, and then many times over the last 60 years.

And each time, we have rallied together, we have weathered the storms and emerged stronger.

The key to us being able to do so is our strong sense of solidarity and trust amongst Singaporeans.

The Youth Corps contributes to this strengthening of our shared bonds, especially amongst our youths.

You have shown what is possible when we come together with a shared vision and common purpose.

You have touched lives and uplifted communities.

Your drive, your passion and your commitment to serve show us what it means to be a strong and united people.

So on this 10th anniversary, we not only celebrate your achievements, but we can also look ahead with confidence and hope for the future. Let us meet the challenges of our time with grit and gumption, and with faith in our fellow citizens. Let us work together to take Singapore Forward into a brighter future. Thank you, everyone and happy 10th anniversary once again!