SINGAPORE - With community needs shifting and evolving over time, volunteerism must continue to adapt in order to serve both the needs of volunteers and the people they help.

More emphasis has, therefore, been placed on encouraging skills-based volunteering, which leverages on volunteers’ specific skills and expertise.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and president of the Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda), Ms Indranee Rajah, said this on Saturday.

Ms Indranee, who is also Second Minister for National Development and Finance, was delivering a speech at Sinda’s inaugural volunteer conference at Singapore Management University that was attended by several Indian community organisational leaders.

An app to connect volunteers, so they can help more beneficiaries, was also announced during the event. Sinda said it can be downloaded from Sept 1.

Speaking to journalists, Ms Indranee described the conference as a major milestone marking Sinda’s consolidation of resources and its readiness to work with other community partners.

She said: “It is the culmination of a journey of about six to seven years, where we wanted to build up a volunteer base, equip our volunteers, find the right way to train them and connect them with opportunities.”

One aim of the conference, she added, was to help smaller volunteer organisations network with other groups to share resources.

She added: “It has taken us some time, and it was interrupted by Covid-19 as well. But we’ve arrived at a stage where we think we have managed to get a lot of things done.”

Mr Anbarasu Rajendran, Sinda’s chief executive officer, said Sinda, which is 32 years old, has increased training for volunteers.

In the case of house visits to approach new beneficiaries, for example, more workshops were held for new volunteers on how to communicate with unfriendly households and elderly residents.

During such sessions, volunteers are taught to anticipate different scenarios, manage their responses and defuse tense situations when needed, he added.

Sinda has more than 1,200 volunteers and Mr Anbarasu said he hopes it can recruit more via the conference.

As for the app, Mr Anbarasu said it will make it easier for Sinda to announce opportunities for volunteers to participate in to help more people. “The beneficiaries can come from Sinda, or from some other organisation. Someone needs to help them. That is our ultimate goal,” he added.

Entrepreneur Luo Chen Jun, 34, who has been volunteering with Sinda as a youth leader since 2021, said the app would help young professionals juggling careers and families to find and be made aware of opportunities to let them contribute effectively.

He said: “I think it’s a good way to let everyone know that whether you are an active volunteer or not, you are still part of the family.”