The Youth Action Challenge (YAC) is open to Singaporean and Singapore Permanent Resident (PR) youths aged 15 to 35 years old. Foreigners are welcome to join, but participating teams should comprise a majority of Singaporean or Singapore PR youths.

The YAC is designed for informal ground-up groups and young non-profit/social enterprises (less than two years from incorporation as a registered entity). Mature organisations that have been established for more than two years may instead contact the National Youth Council (NYC) at Partnership_Enquiries@nyc.gov.sg for partnership opportunities and support outside of the YAC.

You can look forward to an interactive context setting session by agency representatives on the existing landscape, a webinar on needs analysis and project scoping to identify your users and develop a user validation strategy, consult clinics with industry professionals from the people, public and private (3P) sectors, access to makerspace to prototype your solutions, and even learn how to deliver an effective pitch through creative storytelling. You will also get access to additional online learning modules to further strengthen your project and equip you with necessary project development skills.

You are required to attend all the mandatory sessions listed below:

• Context Setting:
• 3 October 2020 - Jobs & Future of Work and Mental Health themes
• 10 October 2020 - Support for Vulnerable Communities and Environment & Sustainability themes
• Webinar: Needs Analysis & Project Scoping (17 October 2020)
• Mid-Point Progress Open Mic (12 December 2020)
• Open Mic Pitch (30 January 2021)

As the YAC is intended to support youths to take action and realise their ideas, we expect all participating teams to not only commit to attending the sessions, but also implementing the projects subsequently after the final pitch in January 2021.

A NETS Flashpay card with $150 value will be given to all participants who attend at least 3 of the 4 sessions above, to reimburse the costs incurred because of your participation in the programme (e.g. transport and meals for team meetings, research costs).

*You are required to attend the Context Setting session in order to be part of the YAC.

There is no need to sign up for more than one track as the sessions for all tracks will be the same, except for the first session on context setting, during which we will have speakers to share in depth on each theme. The context setting sessions will be recorded and uploaded online, so you will be able to listen in on the other themes as well.

No, you do not need to form a team before registering. We will be facilitating team formations with other participants during the first session on 3/10 October 2020.

Definitely! Please get everyone in your team to register individually so that we have everyone's details. There will be time for everyone to get to know one another and form teams during the first session on 3/10 October 2020. You are encouraged to take in new members if possible, should there be interest from other youths. You may inform us of your team after the session.

Each team should be made up of 3 to 5 members.

Each team should have a minimum of 3 members. If you are unsuccessful in forming a team after the first session on 3/10 October 2020, you are encouraged to join other teams or invite your friends to join you by getting them to register for the Youth Action Challenge by 16 October 2020. Please note that they will need to be able to attend the mandatory sessions and commit to implementing the project. Please inform NYC if you have friends joining your team after the first session. The list of team members must be finalised by 16 October 2020.

Any change to the team members should be done before 16 October 2020.

Yes you may, though it is not encouraged. You may instead consider scoping your project to also address another theme's challenge statement, if relevant. For example, if you are working on a Mental Health project on improving mental wellness in the workplace, it is worthwhile to also consider the future workplace (Jobs & Future of Work).

They come from the people, public and private (3P) sectors and bring with them varied expertise ranging from business development, marketing, IT, policy and on-the-ground community experience, among others. These professionals are carefully selected based on their professional and volunteer/community experience and are mainly in mid to senior level management positions.

The ideas will be assessed based on the extent to which the team has validated the identified problem and idea (30%), feasibility (30%) and potential impact of the idea (25%), as well as how innovative the solution is (15%).

All teams will pitch their ideas on 30 January 2021 to a panel of judges, who will decide the grant amount awarded to each team. Teams stand to receive between $3,000 to $50,000 grants, depending on the merits of the project.

The grant will be disbursed on a reimbursement basis upon project completion. For projects awarded with grants of more than $5,000, the grant will be disbursed in two or more tranches, based on the completion of agreed milestones. A partial upfront disbursement will be given to projects awarded with more than $5,000 grants.

The grant covers all project-related expenses incurred after the pitch on 30 January 2021, except the following:

• Gifts and prizes including tokens of appreciation and awards such as trophies and medals
• Fixed assets
• Payment to team members
• Start-up and operational costs of an organisation, and other organisational-strengthening initiatives

Teams will be required to submit a budget with their projected expenses. NYC will advise accordingly on which expenses can be supported. The grant covers the supported project expenses in full, capped at the approved grant amount.

All teams will have to implement their projects within one year from the award of the grant. Projects that show potential for impact and scale may be considered for subsequent funding under the National Youth Fund (NYF). You are therefore encouraged to plan for sustainability in the long term, but scope your project and budget based on a one-year timeframe.

Youth Co:Lab positions young people front and center in order to solve the region's most pressing challenges. Co-created in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation, Youth Co:Lab aims to establish a common agenda for countries in the Asia-Pacific region to empower and invest in youth, so that they can accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship. Youth Co:Lab has been implemented in 25 countries and territories across Asia-Pacific: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong (SAR), Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. Refer to www.youthcolab.org/about for more information.

YAC is organised by NYC and MCCY in partnership with Youth Co:Lab. As partners, the project co-leads of Youth Co:Lab - UNDP and Citi - work together with the NYC and MCCY team and support on programming, expertise, resources and knowledge. The support includes access to mentors, speakers, domain experts and the overall network of social entrepreneurship. All the participants of the YAC also get access to the comprehensive Youth Co:Lab Springboard Programme, which is a set of 15+ online modules to help youth build and grow their ideas. The springboard programme is offered to all the youth participants across 26 APAC countries. In the Season 2 of YAC, Youth Co:Lab will also support with creating specific modules for aspiring social entrepreneurs and provide network access to funders and accelerator programmes. Two youth teams from the Singapore YAC, will also be selected as champions to represent Singapore in the Youth Co:Lab regional summit in early 2021.