LEARNING THE FUN WAY!

How do I plan for an event? What about motivating volunteers based on personality traits? And how do I engage the media’s interest in my social cause and fund raising efforts?

These questions and more were on the minds of numerous Citibank-YMCA Youth for Causes participants, mentors and Voluntary Welfare Organization (VWO) representatives as they attended a series of 8 training workshops organized by the secretariat of Youth For Causes.

Conducted by experienced trainers, the main aims of these workshops are to better equip participants with the necessary skills and techniques to successfully implement their respective entrepreneurial ideas. The training comprises of eight comprehensive topics:

• Performance Control and Problem Solving
  
• Service Learning
  
• Fund-raising and Public Relations
  
• Project & Financial Management
  
• Event Management
  
• Volunteer Management
  
• Sales and Marketing
  
• Event Safety Management

“Attending these workshops made me understand the mindset of the general Singaporean public, how to approach them for assistance and reach out to the less fortunate!” quipped Ms Joanna Fong, a participant from “Cook-a-doodle do”. Indeed, many youth participants found these sessions unusual from their daily classroom learning as they were engaged in various brainstorming activities and challenged with new learning methods. “Kudos to the trainers who could connect well with us youths, driving home complicated concepts through effective and lively presentations”, commented Mr Jonathan Szeto, participant from another team “Y-stars”.

A crucial aspect of these workshops is the presence of successful 2004 and 2005 past participants of Citibank-YMCA Youth for Causes, as they shared their real life struggles in juggling the demands of their project and in handling a heavy schoolwork load. This informal platform gave many first time participants, such as Ms Tan Mee Cheng, the chance to ask pressing questions and gain insights regarding tricky issues such as allocating CIP hours and managing team cohesiveness through the project duration. “Seeing how the past participants have become successful, my team is inspired to do the same!” raved Ms Tan, after the interactive session came to a closure.

Participants were not alone in their excitement during these workshops; many mentors felt that more can be done to bring such interactive platforms and training courses to a whole new level. For Mr Patrick Ang, mentor to “Reach”, he certainly agrees that these sessions have been “relevant and substantive”, but shared that “an excellent session would be extended to a 1-2 day workshop.” “By giving the participants more time to interact and engage in topical research on the various themes introduced”, Mr Ang noted, “participants learning would be maximized as they engage in lively sharing with such informal settings!”

Truly special mention goes out to all our volunteer trainers-- Ms Marie Anne Gutierrez, Mr Jimmy Png, Mr Jon Chia, Mr Christopher Lock and Mr Goh Ann Tat.--for your spirit of excellence and commitment to Citibank-YMCA Youth for Causes 2006!