It has tapped about 120 young working adults who will meet monthly to share perspectives
By Tay Suan Chiang & Janice Tai, The Straits Times, 5 Apr 2012
ABOUT 120 people aged from 28 to 35 have been tapped by the National Youth Council (NYC) to be members of a community of youth leaders.
They will meet monthly to network and share perspectives on their own industries and how the country is run, in the first such platform for young working adults.
The NYC plans to grow the group into one that is a few hundred strong, but will start with 120 people. More will be made known about these individuals and its official name when the group is launched next Tuesday.
Until now, the youth leaders engaging in social initiatives under the NYC banner have done so mostly in isolated groups.
To find this pioneering group of 120, the NYC invited organisations in the community, private and public sectors to nominate potential youth leaders.
NYC chairman Chan Chun Sing, who is also Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, made no bones about the group going on to be a nursery for those who could eventually take on leadership roles in the country.
Noting that the NYC was reaching out to people of varying backgrounds, he said: 'We don't want people from the same circle. As long as you are a leader of a group, we want to get to know you.'
He was speaking to reporters at the NYC Academy in Somerset, where he explained that the NYC's vision was to have committed and inspired young people.
Apart from developing a community of youth leaders, it will also grow the youth sector.
Among the initiatives in the works is a grant to be set up to support programmes serving young people or grooming outstanding youth leaders into agents of change and role models.
The NYC will also support youth leaders who want to be trained to lead community projects or start social movements.
More details on the fund will be unveiled at the National Youth Sector Conference next month.
Mr Chan also told reporters that the focus of *Scape, a youth hangout off Orchard Road, will be reviewed.
'We want *Scape to be an incubator for emerging youth-sector organisations. More areas will also be given to youth activities,' he said.
The *Scape building now houses a mix of commercial tenants and spaces for organisations offering youth-oriented activities - such as O School, a performing arts centre, and Ocean Butterflies music school.
Mr Chan also said the NYC and the Ministry of Education will work more closely to address the problem of students who take part in good causes in school, only to find that they cannot continue the work after they finish school.
'Schools will be linked up with youth-sector organisations so students can still continue to keep up their causes,' he said.
Chan Chun Sing on...
Racist remarks aired by youngpeople online recently:
'We must never justify the comment by responding to it in a manner that validates the comment. These are opportunities for the community to define and defend the kind of space we want. In terms of deciding what is acceptable or out of bounds, the community is more effective than rules or regulation.'
Youth participation:
'We need to continue to harness their energy beyond school. What we are seeing now is the 'bathtub effect' whereby they are very active in various causes in school, but that activism dips when they are occupied with their careers and families, and their participation comes back up only when their children are grown or when they retire.'
The concept of a youthParliament:
'We don't want the young people to be bogged down and caught up with the mechanics of form like knowing how and when to address the Speaker. What's more important is having a plethora of platforms for them to discuss and own the issues.'
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