Instead of taking leave for holidays, Paul Lim commits some days off from his fulltime job in the social service sector to volunteer as a befriender. About twice a week, the 60-year-old knocks on the doors, talks to lonely seniors, and invites them down to the nearby Presbyterian Community Services (PCS) Martha Active Ageing Centre (AAC).
He’s not alone. Across Singapore, around 400 newly recruited Silver Guardians are also dedicating their time to the initiative, launched in April. Some, like Paul, focus on befriending, while others plan and facilitate activities at AACs.
The senior-centric volunteering programme is part of the recently launched Age Well SG action plan, which, like its name suggests, seeks to further active ageing in a rapidly maturing Singapore.
Other initiatives in that action plan include an expansion of senior engagement programmes, improvements to transport facilities and enhancements to homes and neighbourhoods.
This makes the Silver Guardians programme one of the more direct senior engagement initiatives, since silvers are both the beneficiaries and primary targets for recruitment (though anyone above the age of 18 is free to join).
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The Agency for Integrated Care (AIC), which runs the programme, is looking to secure 2,400 Silver Guardians in all by 2028.
The Silver Guardians are not to be confused with Silver Generation Ambassadors, a pre-existing volunteer outfit under AIC that’s been around since 2014. The erstwhile programme, which falls under the similarly named Silver Generation Office, focuses on communicating government schemes and policies, befriending, and home check-ins, whereas the Silver Guardians are designed to draw seniors to volunteer at AACs.
Silver Guardians find meaning in volunteerism
Mike Khoo (right), a self-employed 60-year-old, is similar to Paul in that he’s been volunteering with the Silver Guardians since it was first piloted last April.
The Silver Guardian programme works like this: Volunteers like Paul and Mike are first recruited, then trained in basic first aid and befriending skills. They are then assigned to AACs depending on location and interests, where they are split into befrienders or activity facilitators.
Mike opted for the latter. Most of his volunteering experiences so far at the PCS Martha Active Ageing Centre in Hougang, where he was assigned along with Paul, centres around providing logistics support during community events.
He finds the work of “passing out food packets and generally helping out with whatever during events” a “fun and a relaxing way to pass time”.
“Volunteering is a way for us seniors to go for ‘H2O’, as in healthy, happy, and occupied meaningfully,” he adds.
Fellow volunteer Paul also finds meaning in befriending – not just for the senior beneficiaries, but their caregivers too.
It’s an important task, as some of the older seniors in their 70s and 80s have been working their whole lives, and now that they’re free, they don’t know how to enjoy themselves.
Hoping for more programmes like Silver Guardians
Credit: AIC
Mike says that he hopes to see “more engagement” between AIC and Silver Guardians in the longer term, so that the organisation can benefit from the seniors’ accrued skillsets.
“Having gotten to know a few of the other volunteers since joining, I can say that many have that golden heart to serve,” he observes.
"We are just looking for ways to give back that best use our skills."
As an example, the IT professional moots the suggestion of implementing live websites for AAC event schedules, accessible via a QR code placed in senior residents’ homes.
AIC, for its part, has already conducted focus group discussions with selected Silver Guardians from the pilot programme and plans to follow up with another round of feedback gathering later this year.
Its AAC partners are also tapping directly on volunteers’ individual skills to co-create programmes at the centre-level.
Active ageing activities that’ve been successfully led by Silver Guardians at other AACs thus far include chair Zumba exercise classes, communal cooking sessions and arts and craft workshops.
Eventually, AIC aims to refer volunteers to upskilling opportunities at learning institutes, while also recognising Silver Guardians who’ve made an outsized impact in their community.
