Besides focusing on promoting financial literacy, Citi Singapore also supports and organises programmes that encourage creativity, innovation and community leadership amongst youth. These programmes include:
Citi-YMCA Youth for Causes (YFC)
Citi-YMCA Youth for Causes is community initiative launched in 2003 by Citi and the YMCA of Singapore. YFC aims to be catalyst to promote social entrepreneurship and develop community leadership among youth in Singapore.
It provides youths aged 13- 25 years of age with seed funding under the guidance of mentors to execute creative ideas that they believe will benefit and support Non-profit Organizations (NPO). Each participating youth group is also assigned mentors from Citi staff and YMCA members who impart advice, guide and provide project management supervision throughout the duration of the projects.
This programme has seen huge success since its launch. Each year, the teams continue to exceed all our expectations, not just because of the multiplier effect of raising funds that are three or four times the amount of the seed funding, but also in building a sustainable pool of resources for the VWOs in terms of volunteers, ideas and social enterprise prototypes that they can tap on.
With seed funding of $160,000, the participating teams of 2011 reached out to one million people and raised over $712,000 which benefited 46 VWOs. In addition to fund raising, they also managed to mobilise an amazing pool of 14,000 volunteers. To date, YFC mobilised more than 100,000 volunteers island-wide, involved more than 450 Citi staff as mentors and raised more than $4.6 million in funds about 102 local VWOs.
In 2008, Citi-YMCA Youth for Causes was awarded the highest national accolade as a programme when it won the National Youth Award from the President of Singapore.
For eight consecutive years (2005-2012), YFC also received the endorsement of the President of the Republic of Singapore, Mr S.R. Nathan, to be an event under the President's Challenge. It is one of 19-nation wide community programmes to be accorded recognition on a national level.