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SINGAPORE: Fancy being a "big brother" and mentoring youth on the management of their finances? The Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) may need you as it beefs up recruitment of volunteers to serve the community better.
The self-help group plans to recruit 400 new volunteers and reach out to workers and families who have benefited from its assistance schemes as new volunteer sources.
These groups will complement the traditional pool of student beneficiaries who return as volunteers, said Member of Parliament (Tanjong Pagar GRC) Baey Yam Keng, who is leading CDAC's volunteer management.
One CDAC beneficiary who has returned as a volunteer is Mr Lee Woon Leong, Steven Jr, who has been helping out since 2006. Besides receiving subsidised tuition for five years, he received guidance as his working parents were busy. "When I was younger, there was no one to be my big brother. I want to show what I missed out was not a big problem," Mr Lee said.
Of the 400 new recruits, CDAC is targeting 100 between the ages of 15 and 25 to support its new youth projects, including a youth seminar next month for Normal Academic and Normal Technical stream students and a board game that will teach students how to manage their finances.
The self-help group is also targeting 100 families - or at least 200 family members - to volunteer their services, which will include mentoring other families or spreading information about CDAC's help schemes.
Mr Baey said recruitment efforts have been encouraging, with almost 160 volunteers signing up in the first two months of the year. Apart from getting more volunteers on board, CDAC aims to enhance training and development of its volunteers. The self-help group is also on the look-out for volunteer leaders who are able to start and design new programmes.
CDAC has about 1,600 volunteers in all, with nine in 10 being an active volunteer.
Mr Ernest Ong, who has been volunteering at CDAC for the past 15 years, felt the training and development focus will give new volunteers a head-start and help older ones in personal development. "Volunteers cannot keep doing the same thing for 15 years as this may lead to burn-out," the 36-year-old Singapore Civil Defence Force officer said.
- TODAY/sc
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