[11 June 2010]
New Programme empowers students to taken on community service projects they care about
The inaugural iGlocal by SMU's Lien Centre for Social Innovation gives meaning to community service, taking it beyond duty to passion.
Singapore, 11 June 2010 – It is a programme aimed at firing up students' passion for community service. The inaugural iGlocal programme hopes to get students excited about volunteering projects rather than seeing them as compulsory hours to be clocked. The iGlocal initiative is a part of the broader capacity-building efforts for schools and non-profit organisations by the Lien Centre for Social Innovation (??????????) at the Singapore Management University (Lien Centre at SMU).
iGlocal provides a sample of Singapore secondary schools with in-depth exposure to the student-centric approach to social service volunteerism practised by the United World College of South East Asia's (UWCSEA) highly successful Global Concerns programme. iGlocal is a joint initiative between UWCSEA, the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) and Lien Centre at SMU.
“We want to change the mindsets of those secondary school students in Singapore who treat social service as no more than “shaking cans” on the street to collect money without any real understanding of the organisation they are collecting money for,” explains Professor of Information Systems Practice Steven Miller, a board member of Lien Centre at SMU. Professor Miller, who is also the Dean of the School of Information Systems at SMU, is the brainchild behind this new programme. “Through iGlocal, we are doing an important experiment. We are testing the proposition that if teachers both enable and guide their students to take more personal responsibility in choosing the causes they support, and get the students to learn about that organisation and the people it supports, then the social service hours will become a more meaningful and useful investment on the part of the students and the schools,” he adds.
This pilot effort was guided and mentored by Mr Anthony Skillicorn, a history teacher at UWCSEA, who has also guided the international school to create meaningful social service and service learning opportunities for thousands of students over the past 25 years. "We have to let our students know that they are needed and that even now, as young people, they are able to make worthwhile contributions to improving society,” says Mr Skillicorn.
55 teachers and students from six schools attended a workshop on 23 Jan 2010, where they learnt best practices for community service projects from Mr Skillicorn and his students. The participating schools were Dunman High School, Global Indian International School, International School of Singapore (ISS), NorthLight School, St Hilda's Secondary School and St Anthony's Canossian Secondary School (SAC). These six schools were picked for being a diverse representation of the student population in Singapore.
Following the training, the students returned to their schools to decide on the project they wanted to champion. They were also facilitated in the course of their project by staff from the Lien Centre at SMU and NVPC. As part of the programme, the Lien Centre at SMU has given each school a S$1,000 grant to realise their projects. (Annex A)
The schools have each taken on projects to meet wide-ranging needs, including animal welfare, at-risk youth, promoting good sportsmanship and empowering needy students.
15-year-old Jasper Tan (???) from St Hilda's Secondary School is part of a team working with needy students in St Hilda's Primary. Jasper reflects on the lessons he has picked up from this iGlocal experience. “I've learnt to persevere and be patient when faced with challenges. And I've also learnt that we need to plan events that will serve the needs of our beneficiary and not our needs.”
“NVPC feels that the best time to encourage community service is when the givers are young and are receptive to learning lessons that will last their lifetime. Hence, we are delighted to partner UWCSEA and the Lien Centre at SMU to share UWCSEA's well-established way of developing service projects and service learning,” says Mr Laurence Lien, CEO of NVPC and Board Member of Lien Centre at SMU.“ The iGlocal pilot shows that we have the potential to do much more in our schools to bring the Community Involvement Programme to the next level. With the involvement of more of our schools, we are optimistic that we can succeed in igniting many students' passion for social causes,” he adds.
Some of the projects are continuing even after this programme. ISS is passing on the baton of working with Evercare Welfare Centre to its Middle School students, while SAC students' council will continue the school's engagement with their chosen beneficiary. The NorthLight team also plans to continue collecting can tabs for the manufacture of prosthetic limbs for landmine victims.
About the Lien Centre for Social Innovation
The Lien Centre for Social Innovation, a partnership between the Lien Foundation and Singapore Management University (SMU), was established in 2006 to advance the thinking and capability of the not-for-profit sector. Social innovations are new ideas and insights implemented to create impactful social value. The Lien Centre exists for the non-profit sector and works through a diverse range of stakeholders in the social ecosystem. Based in Singapore, the Lien Centre posits itself in enabling global thinking and best practices related to social innovation in Singapore and beyond. www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg
About the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC)
The NVPC is the national body that promotes and develops volunteerism and philanthropy, functioning as a first-stop centre, catalyst and networking agency to foster the giving spirit in Singapore, whether of time, money or in kind. We work with nonprofit organisations, companies and public sector bodies to facilitate and strengthen Community Giving efforts through our promotional and networking platforms, public education programmes as well as grants, research and publications.