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Making A Difference As A Youth

What do I Want My Teenage Years Look Like?

Your teenage years can be a time of great adventure and exploration! We start acquiring knowledge about the world. We contemplate on issues that we have never considered before. We meet new people on a regular basis, and constantly figure out our personal preferences and causes we care for.


The teenage years are a time to make sense of what is out there in the world!

Most of us are familiar with the concept of giving back, whether it be to our friends, family members or society as a whole. Some of us are passionate about social issues like poverty and unemployment, while others are passionate about environmental and sustainability causes, as documented in a recent Mothership article: Singapore youths teach beginners and families how to fish in a sustainable way.

Volunteering with a group aligned with your interests and values is exciting and a real value-add to your life. Here are some groups you may consider joining!


“I can help with delivering food or put my culinary skills to use!”

  • Willing Hearts: This is a non-affiliated charity that sends ~11, 000 packed meals to 70 locations in Singapore, for beneficiaries including the elderly, the disabled and the low-income families. You can take part in preparing ingredients, cleaning dishes and utensils, or packing lunch boxes for distribution.

  • Meals-on-Wheels: This is an initiative under TOUCH community service that delivers meal twice a day to about 700 home-bound elderly residents. The elderly residents usually live alone and depend on volunteers from the programme to deliver their daily meals.


"I'm concerned about animals welfare, or love working with animals!"

  • Animal Concerns Research and Education System (ACRES, Singapore): ACRES is committed to animal protection. They have various volunteers teams: Wildlife Rescue, Wildlife Sanctuary, Project-based Volunteering and Outreach Programmes.

  • Therapy Dogs Singapore: This is a non-profit, voluntary welfare organisation that reach out to the underprivileged through pet-assigned therapy. Volunteers and their canine companions work together in sessions planned to meet physical, social and emotional needs of the organisation's beneficiaries.

  • Oasis Second Chance Animal Shelter: This is a non-profit dog shelter run entirely by volunteers since 2006. All the dogs in the shelter were recused from the streets or from being culled.


"I would like to join an established group!"

  • Youth Corps Singapore: This organisation focuses on causes that include education, environment, health, special needs, arts, sports and heritage. They provide various ad-hoc, regular and project based service projects.

  • East Youths: This is a youth volunteer organisation that is not associated with any agency or association. Current activity line-ups include food distributions, befriending sessions, kids' excursion programme or the Food-Makers Programme, where you can get cook and bake for the underprivileged.

Making a difference as a youth

At the end of the day…

Through giving back, you contribute not only to society, but also gain a deeper understanding of yourself. You will also broaden your social circle and worldview. These experiences will help you in understanding your life values and goals better.


A parting message:

For those who are passionate about these issues: Keep pressing on in this journey together! For those who are new to contributing to causes: Give yourself a chance to see what happens



Written by: Gladys Heng | Edited by: Wong Su Ting | Designed by: Goh Ting Wei

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