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

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, workshops 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, and even learn how to deliver an effective pitch through creative storytelling. You will also get access to mentors and 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*:
  • 2 October 2021 – Mental Well-being and Environment & Sustainability
  • 3 October 2021 – Support for Vulnerable Groups and Jobs & Mentoring
• Picking Winning Ideas Workshop – 16 October 2021
• Solution Development & Testing Workshop – 23 October 2021
• Mid-point Sharing – 18 December 2021
• Final Open Mic – 29 January 2022

A NETS Flashpay card with $150 value will be given to all participants who attend at least 4 of the 5 sessions above, to reimburse the costs incurred because of your participation in the programme (e.g. transport and meals for team meetings, research costs). At least 50% of all teams are to be represented even at the non-mandatory sessions.

As the YAC is intended to support youth 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 2022.

^*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 do an in-depth sharing 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' sessions as well.

No, you do not need to form a team before registering. We will be facilitating team formations with other participants on 2/3 October 2021 and 9/10 October 2021.

Definitely! Please get everyone in your team to register individually so that we have everyone's details. If you already have a team, there is no need for you to attend the team formation sessions on 2/3 and 9/10 October 2021. However, if your team is still recruiting members, you are encouraged to join the team formation sessions, during which there will be time for everyone to get to know one another and form teams.

Each team should comprise 3 to 5 members.

Each team should have a minimum of 3 members. If you are unsuccessful in forming a team after the team formation sessions, you are encouraged to join other teams or invite your friends to join you by getting them to register for the YAC by 14 October 2021. 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 team formation sessions. The list of team members must be finalised by 14 October 2021.

Any change to the team members should be done before 14 October 2021.

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.

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. Past consultants and mentors who have participated in previous seasons of the YAC include Richard Koh (Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Singapore) and Alin Dobrea (Head of Marketing Strategy, Marketing Solutions and Partnerships, Zalora).

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%).

Teams that are gunning to be selected as one of the two Youth Co:Lab Champions (refer to Q17 for more info) will additionally be assessed on their financial viability and sustainability. This has no bearing on the YAC grant amount, but will be considered in the selection of the two Youth Co:Lab champions, who will each receive US$20,000 funding from CVC Capital as part of the Youth Co:Lab programme.

All teams will pitch their ideas at the Final Open Mic on 29 January 2022 to a panel of judges, who will decide the grant amount awarded to each team. Teams stand to receive between $5,000 to $50,000 grants at the Final Open Mic, depending on the merits of the project. There is no limit to the number of teams that can be awarded at each grant tier.

Teams that are awarded a grant at the Final Open Mic will also have the option to take part in a Participatory Budgeting exercise and stand a chance to receive additional funding by a panel of up to 50 youths. The total combined funding received from the Final Open Mic and Participatory Budgeting exercise will be no more than $70,000.

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 29 January 2022, 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 teams 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. [www.youthcolab.org/about]

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 participants of the YAC will also have 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. Youth Co:Lab will also support aspiring social entrepreneurs and provide mentorship support, access to an extensive regional network of experts, consultants, mentors, investors and accelerator programmes. In addition, two teams from YAC Season 3 will be selected as Youth Co:Lab champions, and will have the opportunity to represent Singapore in the Youth Co:Lab Regional Summit in mid-2022. Each of the two teams selected will also receive extra funding (US$20,000 in grants) and a one-year mentorship support from CVC Capital Partners.

Teams that indicate interest to continue their journey after the YAC as social entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to join the Social Enterprise (SE) track, which is coordinated by the Youth Co:Lab team.

Teams in the SE track will have access to the following components, according to the maturity stage and needs of each team:

• Two teams to be selected as Youth Co:Lab Champions and represent Singapore in the Youth Co:Lab Regional Summit, have access to additional funding and exclusive mentorship from senior leadership at CVC Capital Partners
• Long-term support (up to 1 year) from UNDP and the Youth Co:Lab team to build and scale their business idea and achieve financial sustainability
• Nomination to join the Regional Youth Co:Lab Springboard Plus Programme, an online programme for outstanding young social entrepreneurs to excel, scale, grow, while connecting and learning from your peers
• Opportunity to be featured regionally and nationally on Youth Co:Lab channels
• Access to exclusive 1-1 Consultation Sessions with high profile industry experts in areas related to marketing, budgeting, business development and technology, among others
• Exclusive access to support from other partners which could include access to co-working spaces, invitation to regional and global entrepreneurial events, access to early stage investors, nominations to join key programmes to further develop your solution and more