The intention is to give young people a voice on national issues.

Synopsis: Every second and fourth Monday of the month, The Straits Times takes a hard look at Singapore's social issues of the day with guests.

The Forward Singapore exercise began in June 2022, and since then, over 14,000 Singaporeans from all walks of life have participated in about 140 engagement sessions on a wide range of topics. This is the second of four podcast discussions, and part of the ongoing conversation to refresh our social compact for the next lap of Singapore's journey.

We discuss the upcoming launch of the youth panels in the last quarter of 2023 - likely to be after October - that provides a new way for youth to work closer with the Government to understand policy considerations and make recommendations. Youth is typically defined as those aged 15 to 35 in Singapore.

ST's podcast editor Ernest Luis hosts three guests in this episode:

1. Mr David Chua, CEO of National Youth Council
2. Ms Pek Hailin, 34, senior manager, Sustainability (Estates), at Singapore Institute of Technology
3. Mr Chirag Agarwal, 36, the co-founder of Talk Your Heart Out - an online counselling platform that is primarily used by youth

This podcast is brought to you by the Ministry of Communications and Information, in support of Forward Singapore: https://str.sg/wFbY

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:07 What could be the biggest challenge these new youth panels will face?

10:55 Does the Government trust youths enough to involve them in processes of difficult policy-shaping?

12:42 What it will be like, when you sign up for the new youth panels

20:55 Hailin and Chirag offer feedback on areas for improvement for organisers of the new youth panels, having been involved in previous informal circles

22:49 How they would encourage young people to join these new youth panels despite today's cancel culture

More on:

Youth panels: https://str.sg/iT84

Register your interest in youth panels: https://str.sg/iT8J

Forward Singapore website: https://str.sg/wFbY

Produced by: Ernest Luis (ernest@sph.com.sg), Hadyu Rahim & Paxton Pang

Edited by: Hadyu Rahim

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