Youth club to boost ties between generations
By Ted Chen, TODAY
SINGAPORE : Getting grandparents to go on food hunts across
Singapore with their grandchildren is the answer to family
bonding.
So says a youth volunteer group, and it will get $1,600 of funding
from the Citibank's Citigroup Foundation to develop a business idea
around this premise.
The Youth Culture Club (YCC), one of 50 four-member groups among
200 volunteers participating in this year's Citibank Youth for
Causes (CYFC) programme, plans to sell cards and discount booklets
to members of the public.
These will be their ticket to 20 restaurants in places like
Chinatown and Little India where they can vote for Singapore's best
local dishes.
Plans also include a food bazaar in which restaurants and
cardholders can participate to raise funds for charity.
Proceeds will be donated to an as-yet unnamed elderly charity
group.
Group leader Mr Radin Hassan, 31, explained: "Usually, the
relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is better
because grandparents tend to be more lenient. Their involvement can
help parents bond with their children."
Mrs Tan Chee Koon, executive director of the National Volunteer and
Philanthropy Centre and one of the seven judges who selected the
YCC for the programme, said the judges found the group's project
appealing because it "aimed at strengthening inter-generational
ties, when youths often tend to want to group with other
youths".
The CYFC programme is a social venture capital fund started by
Citibank and YMCA Singapore in 2002.
The Citigroup Foundation will provide $80,000 worth of seed funding
to the volunteers - aged between 15 and 35 - who will develop
business ideas and raise funds for 29 volunteer welfare
organisations over a 10-week period starting from May 29. -
TODAY
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opportunities for communication - hopefully to lead to better
understanding?