SINGAPORE : The National Youth Council hopes to empower the young to reach their full potential in life with the help of a mentor.

It hopes to achieve this with a national youth mentoring programme, to be rolled out over the next three years.

Parliamentary Secretary for National Development and Chairman of the National Mentoring Workgroup Dr Maliki Osman announced the new plan at the 2008 Youth Mentors Summit on Saturday.

One initiative includes attracting more young working adults to volunteer as youth mentors.

Other initiatives are developing mentoring resources suited to the Singapore context and providing funding for new innovative programmes.

The council hopes these moves will grow and sustain the youth mentoring movement in Singapore.

Some 500 young people at the summit got the ball rolling by exploring some of the challenges involved, such as the smoking problem among youths.

According to findings of a survey in 2006 by the National Youth Council, one in 10 secondary school students smoked on at least one day in the past 30 days.

Also speaking at the event was Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. He told the audience that another survey in 2004 showed that 14 per cent of those aged between 18 and 29 admitted to binge drinking.

Cases of sexually transmitted infections in youths have also doubled in the last decade, as revealed in recent studies.

Highlighting these concerns, Dr Vivian said mentors can play a part to help wayward youths. - CNA /ls