At SCC, we strongly believe in the authenticity and equality in human connections with every individual and families that comes into our contact. With our vision of Poverty Transformation With-in Empowered Communities, Community-centric Casework and Counselling continues to be an essential intervention tools in our work alongside with the low-income and vulnerable families (“members”). In FY2018/19, we were privileged to journey along with our members residing in Lengkok Bahru (46.2%), Bukit Ho Swee (26%) and Henderson (22.2%). All in all, we supported 446 families from different ethnic groups. Of these, 88% resides in a one or two-room HDB rental flats while 12% in various housing types, such as transitional shelter and other types of HDB flats.
Asset-matching within the Larger Community
Connecting the Immediate Community
Supporting Members in Core Community
Blocks of 1 to 2 room rental flats in our boundary. This is 8.7% of the entire rental flat population in Singapore.
Residents living within our service boundary
Families served through casework
of families we serve live in 1 to 2 room rental flats
Children supported through casework
Pre-School
Primary School
Secondary
Post-Sec
Pre-School
Bukit Ho Swee
Henderson
Lengkok Bahru
Pre-School
SCC encourages community ownership and co-creation of bottom-up initiatives to meet the needs and challenges of the low-income families. Adopting the Asset Based Community-led Development (ABCD) approach, our programmes, community platforms/events are co-created and co-owned with the community, centering on the 5 domain practices of Housing, Employment, Education, Health and Nutrition, and Contribution Mind-set. Through these, we aspire to revive the gotong royong spirit of yesteryears, where neighbours help neighbours through sharing of community assets (“gifts”) and mutual help that enables the low-income and vulnerable families out of poverty.
The Community Garden is a visible expression of community engagement and ownership. Created by a pioneer group of 15 residents in the community, the Garden is run and maintained by these resident gardeners, with support and assistance from SCC. Our garden group also play host to visitors, taking pride in explaining the vegetable crops and herbs, and their involvement with the co-creation and success of the garden.
The Request & Offer Board is a bridge between those who receive goodwill from the community and those who give. Requests from our low-income families are put up through their social workers, and anyone from the community can offer their skills, job opportunities and pre-loved items like household appliances and furniture.
Food is one of the best ways to get people together. The Community Kitchen is ideal for gatherings, community events, celebrations, and a platform for our residents to showcase their cooking skills. It bridges the community from both rental and purchased housing, where individuals and families volunteer their time preparing or cooking food for our community events.
The Goodwill Xchange was set up as a way through which people in the community can help each other. Food, clothes, books, toys, and other “pre-loved” items are donated by the community who want to share, including our low-income families. The latter received not just food and essential items that help them tide over difficult times, they also receive goodwill and an affirmation that the community cares.
The Learning Kampung (“LK”) is a homework guidance and befriending programme where volunteers are matched with children from low-income and vulnerable families for weekly learning sessions. These sessions aim to support children in their homework comprehension and completion to maximise learning in school and to improve in their studies.
5
Volunteer-driven initiatives,
engagements & training activities
• Activities under Learning Kampung
• Family Partnership Platform
• Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
• Workshop on Teaching Maths using Heuristics
• Workshop on Therapeutic Conversations with Children
131
Families matched
167
Family partners
391
Valuable volunteers
4
Educational Institutions
26
Initiatives across CSWE, VMP, Keystart and Education & Learning Support
4289
Individuals outreached to across CSWE, Keystart and Education & Learning Support
2171
Individuals engaged across CSWE, VMP and Keystart
1362
Children supported across SW, Keystart and Education & Learning Support
SCC builds a community of people who are resources to each other. Our diverse pool of volunteers comprising of the vulnerable families, residents, individuals, students, and working adults are pivotal to our poverty transformation work. We are privileged to journey along with them in the various programmes and community platforms/events, all towards the vision of poverty transformation with-in empowered communities.
On 12 January 2019, SCC held its inaugural volunteer appreciation lunch, an event to celebrate and thank all volunteers who journeyed with us in our poverty transformation work. The event also saw the launch of SCC’s Volunteer Handbook, a useful resource developed for volunteers defining the work that SCC does and the roles of volunteers in supporting our members.
The appreciation luncheon brought together the various groups of volunteers from our programmes and community platforms, including our board members (those who attended) who hosted each table. New friendships were forged over a hearty meal and through the fun activities, with many sharing their volunteering experiences that they supported.
To support our volunteers who work directly with children, SCC collaborated with community partners in the running of two training workshops in early 2019. The workshops were designed to better equip the volunteers with the skills and knowledge as they journey with the children in their education learning. These include the use of heuristics to help children solve Mathematic problem sums, engagement of children in positive conversations to build their confidence, as well as awareness and sensitivity when working with children.