Not all who stumble are caught in time. Our skills and the difference we can make.

“We live air-conditioned lives.” I heard this said at a dinner once. When it’s hot and humid, the ensuing irritability gets in the way of couch-potato-ing comfortably, causes our IQ to plummet, makes us dysfunctional, hinders the progress of a paradigm-shifting strategy PowerPoint i.e. procrastination. A flick of the AC control and the blast of cool air restores our internal ‘optimal performance’ factory setting.

That isn’t the point, of course. It’s that we live such comfortable lives that it’s easy to forget there are others living very different, and difficult, journeys. Or worse, that we’re aware but apathetic. Maybe next year, I said. Maybe when this project ends and I have a breather. Maybe when I’m travelling less. Maybe I’ll just donate money for now. The kind of apathy brought on by our busy-ness, our easy, though not intended, dismissal of action-right-now, the ‘comfort’ that someone else is surely taking care of tough issues in our community.

Issues such as homelessness, sudden accidents that create insurmountable bills, the burden on caretakers’ well-being and finances, the poor losing their jobs that leads to deeper poverty, sole breadwinners with little sleep who juggle multiple jobs to take care of their families, the stress of wading through paperwork to define one correctly as qualifying for external aid while time ticks away, payment deadlines loom, and loved ones wane.

This is not the everyday for most of us, but it is the everyday for many amongst us.

Photo from Ray of Hope

2020. Covid cast a stark light on disadvantaged lives. The pandemic laid bare what busy-ness made easy to put aside, “just for a while.” Every day, we read more about the disruption to livelihoods and increasing burdens on many who were already struggling before the pandemic. But we also saw shining examples of our collective spirit in these difficult times, a keener awareness of the disadvantaged in our midst and the willingness to help. We were inspired by the heartfelt work that ground-up groups do such as ItsRainingRaincoats , Willing Hearts , Food from the Heart and many others. We saw more people stepping up to volunteer and to rally friends and family around a cause. We discovered more ways to help.

One such way is skills-based volunteering. It lets us help those who help others. talenTtrust is an incredible bunch of folks who make that happen.

Not many are aware that contribution can be skills-based, at least not on a structured formal basis. We lend our skills directly to a non-profit when asked by friends or associates in the sector, or through company-led activity. The joy of talenTtrust is that they have done the homework – the research, identification of needs, the networking – and created a platform for constructive matchmaking, linking non-profit organisations to people with the skills they need, so they can continue to do good. You and me? We simply say yes when tapped.

Photo credit Rachel Hind

Skills-based is a wonderful way to volunteer. Efficient, engaging, impactful. You leverage skills you already have, you do this with fellow mentors as a team, and you drive your knowledge towards causes that are hugely meaningful. It’s an intuitive way to give back, allowing me and my fellow mentors-now-friends Peter Bithos , Richie Eu and Rachel Hind to hit the ground running without having to reinvent the wheel, yet providing opportunity to learn from Ray of Hope , our non-profit partner who do so much good with so little, and to learn from the beneficiaries they serve.

We’re rarely the same people we were. Sure, fundamental traits may remain but we’re hopefully more evolved at our end than at our beginning, and that’s often reflected in a desire to give more than we take. In professional lives, you start wanting to teach, to impart, to pull others along. You start thinking about clearing paths for the generation that follows, creating ways that lead to their growth, wanting others to do better than you. Outside of work, you start to appreciate that your parents really did know best (my dad will fall off his chair reading this!), that what you’d deemed nagging are lessons in values that hold families and communities together, and the glitz and shine of ‘must be, must have, must possess’ blind you less. There’s a persistent voice that says, “Ok, you procrastinating root vegetable on the couch, you can do more.”

The ‘more’ that fellow mentors and I hope will make a difference to Ray of Hope are the same skills you and your teams likely possess and can, and should, pass on. Managing scale and diversification, identifying opportunities for growth, improving a product, service or process, managing teams through crisis, accounting and operational frameworks, brand and marketing, digital and design know-how, IT and tech, customer outreach, fundraising approach, business modelling, pitching an idea to investors, the board, your boss (or spouse!), the ins and outs of running a start-up or a mature business…and much else that leads to doing better and benefitting more.

Photo credit to Alicia - At Rindu, The Colours of Life showcase of ceramic works by children of drug offenders, a collaboration between the Harun Ghani Education Fund , Ray of Hope and National Gallery Singapore .

Non-profit organisations invest so much of their time and finances to helping others, and are unwilling to spend on themselves if they can channel what they have to their beneficiaries. These beneficiaries don’t have the luxury of waiting for a better day. Their needs are often acute and immediate. Our non-profit partners juggle many roles and multi-task against daunting deadlines.

This is where we can help. talenTtrust is how you can help.

I'm heartened there is an avenue like talenTtrust for us to give back through skills. They themselves leverage their own skills and network so they can help more who help others…and they do it with such heart. They’ve done the ground work to create a space where ordinary (and not so ordinary) folks can show up as we are, with skills we already have, and give back to our community with ease.?

Even if you have one skill, and one skill only, you can volunteer. Trust me. I’ve stretched my limited talent quite far now! The kind folks at talenTtrust and Ray of Hope often thank us mentors for what we do, but the real thanks belong to them – their vision, hard work and indomitable spirit of willingness.

What non-profit organisations ultimately do is to restore dignity. Helping others to get through tough times, to get back on their feet, to piece together lives that cracked a little, sometimes a lot.

So, go on now and share your skills.?

For more information about how you can use your skills to create real and sustainable change in the community, get in touch with @Aren Tang or visit www.talenttrust.org.sg