To provide a helping hand to the lower income families during this current economic downturn, the Women's Integration Network (WIN) Council initiated the "GRACE" (GRoom-A-Child-To-Excel) Mentorship Programme.

The objective of the programme is to enable young girls (who are in their pre-teens, aged between 9 and 12 years old) to develop their potential with given opportunities from the community. The Council hopes that the girls will grow up to be optimistic and responsible individuals with a sense of belonging to the community.

Under this programme, the WIN Council members together with their WECs will be mentors to the girls who come from families with household income of $1,800 and below. This is the unique feature of this programme whereby the whole WEC helps to mentor the mentees assigned to them. The WIN Council and WEC members will seek the support from the whole grassroots network within their constituencies and volunteer welfare organisations to render help to the girls if they are weak in their studies, enrol them in enrichment courses at the community centres/clubs to develop their academic and non-academic talents and involve them in community activities (including bringing them out for excursions).

For a start, the programme is piloted by the WECs of the WIN Council members in the five districts in Singapore. They are: Ang Mo Kio WEC, Queenstown WEC, Tanglin WEC, Tampines Changkat WEC, Tampines North WEC, Pasir Ris Elias WEC, Sengkang WEC, Admiral Garden WEC, The Jelutung WEC, Sembawang WEC, Braddell Heights WEC, Fengshan WEC, Hong Kah North WEC, Gek Poh Ville WEC, Bukit Gombak WEC, Nanyang WEC and Jurong Green WEC.

The eventual target is for every WEC to mentor at least one girl for a period of 2 years or more after this pilot programme has been running for about a year.

The GRACE Mentorship Programme was officially launched by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence on Sunday, 1 March 2009 at the International Women's Day Celebration Carnival.