Collaborative giving
Community impact funds
FUN! Fund
Improving the Well-Being of Seniors
Everyone hopes to live well especially in our golden years. Staying healthy, keeping a happy outlook on life, and having friends who support us all contribute to our health and well-being as we grow older. To achieve this reality for our seniors and our future-selves, FUN! Fund wants to pilot creative ideas to foster the well-being of seniors, be more socially connected and enjoy life as they grow older.
Learning Initiatives for Employment (LIFT) Community Impact Fund – Training and placing marginalised individuals into stable jobs
The LIFT Community Impact Fund supports programmes that provide vocational training and social support for marginalised groups in Singapore before placing them in jobs in the open market. The programmes target persons with disabilities, persons recovering from mental illnesses, disadvantaged women and youth-at-risk.
Outing for Seniors Community Impact Fund – Bringing seniors out to improve their well-being
The Outing for Seniors Community Impact Fund enables non-profit organisations to bring home-bound seniors on regular, organised outings. It covers admission costs as well as transportation and refreshments and all charities taking care of seniors are eligible to apply for it.
Migrants Emergency Assistance and Support (MEANS) Community Impact Fund – Helping migrant worker in need
The MEANS Community Impact Fund helps disadvantaged migrant workers who are legally employed in Singapore. It provides immediate and short-term financial assistance to these workers who are exploited, abused or abandoned by their employers – paying for their medical care, shelter, basic necessities and transport costs.
Singapore Youth Impact Collaborative
Collaborative giving: How it creates social change
Today, with technology and the lean towards strategic, outcome-focused giving, collaborative giving is rapidly gaining traction as people recognise the complexity of social issues and the need for many helping hands. CFS counts it as our mission to enable donors to learn and tap on different models of collective giving.
Singapore Youth Impact Collective helps youths progress from classroom to working life
The Singapore Youth Impact Collective – a first-in-Singapore initiative – uses the collective impact model to empower disadvantaged youths to progress more smoothly from the classroom to fulfilling careers. The Collective launched two youth empowerment programmes and opened a new A.P.T.I.T.U.D.E. Centre at ITE College Central.
Berita Harian: Programme to prepare youths for the workplace launched
The Singapore Youth Impact Collective is an initiative in Singapore that uses the collective impact model and allows donors and non-profit organisations to solve complex social issues together. The Collective wants to increase the ability of youths from underprivileged backgrounds to advance in the workforce through training and skills development.
Lianhe Zaobao: By encouraging participation in interest groups to improve skills, youth collective helps students plan their careers
The Singapore Youth Impact Collective consists of six organisations including Changi Foundation, TOUCH Community Services and the Community Foundation of Singapore. It aims to help students from ITE improve their professional skills by encouraging them to participate in different interest groups and pick up workplace skills.
The Straits Times: From school to workplace: Help for disadvantaged youth
Called the Singapore Youth Impact Collective, these initiatives come after a series of discussions in the social service sector recognised that while education can help bridge social gaps, environmental factors – such as negative social influences or the home environment – can hinder youth from reaching their full potential. Changi Foundation, the Community Foundation of Singapore, Credit Suisse, Octava Foundation, Shine and Touch are behind the initiative.
Media release: The first Singapore Youth Impact Collective to empower disadvantaged youths
The Singapore Youth Impact Collective – the first such initiative here – launched two youth empowerment programmes and opened a new A.P.T.I.T.U.D.E. Centre at ITE College Central today, to help disadvantaged youths transition more successfully from the classroom to working life.
Colabs – Collaborative action Collective impact
Colabs drives collaboration by bringing together the public, private and social sectors to tackle complex social issues. It enables philanthropists, businesses, non-profits and sector experts to collectively build insights and co-create solutions for lasting change. Colabs is a philanthropic initiative by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre and the Community Foundation of Singapore.
The networks embark on a collaborative process comprising these three stages:
LEARN
ALIGN
ACT
Everyone collaborates for greater social impact. They take action by pooling their resources and expertise across sectors, and work towards achieving their shared vision for social change.
Colabs networks are formed around specific causes: disadvantaged children and youth, persons with disabilities and vulnerable seniors.
Children and youth
Disadvantaged young persons struggle with challenges on multiple fronts, and therefore find it hard to access the support needed to do well in life. Colabs sets out to understand what can be done to enable them to attain greater social mobility through education and employment
Persons with disabilities
While help is available during their growing years, persons with disabilities have limited developmental opportunities as they enter adulthood and old age. Colabs sets out to understand how persons with disabilities can be supported to live life as independent individuals.
Seniors
Despite a growing range of options, vulnerable seniors may not be able to access services that fulfil their care needs or lifestyle preferences. Colabs sets out to understand how vulnerable seniors can make choices that support their physical, psychological and social well-being.
A Call for Collaborative Giving: Scaling Greater Heights with Seniors
The third Colabs publication explores how we as individuals and as a society can help our senior citizens live more happily in our community, against the backdrop of an aging population.
A Call for Collaborative Giving: Bridging the Divide for Persons with Disabilities
This second Colabs publication reveals some of the challenges that persons with disabilities in Singapore face integrating into our community. This includes the lack of sustainable employment options and other opportunities to participate meaningfully in society. Some suggestions for collaborative solutions based on the collective feedback of over 80 participants in the series are outlined here.
Seniors Colabs learning journey #3: St Theresa’s Home – where horses and hawker centres help seniors feel at home
Through its human-centred care philosophy, the management at St Theresa’s Home firmly believes that as society progresses, nursing homes can be a conducive place for seniors to thrive as they age. In addition to empowered living, residents also look forward to regular equine therapy and visits to a nearby hawker centre.
Seniors Colabs learning journey #2: Wellness Kampung – entrusting the community to care for itself
Wellness Kampung, a network of three activity centres in Chong Pang, Nee Soon Central and Nee Soon East was launched with one simple belief – that taking charge of one’s health is easier with the support of the community. Run mainly by residents, it aims to give people of all ages a chance to adopt healthier lifestyles through health intervention programmes and social activities.
Seniors Colabs learning journey #1: Empower Ageing – mind over body for a better quality of life
Empower Ageing designs programmes to enable seniors to function at an optimal level and lead a fulfilling life through regular exercise and mindfulness. Providng the right support, environment, wellness programmes and most importantly, instilling a positive mindset helps seniors build confidence and motivation in tackling ageing issues.
Colabs launches Seniors series to tackle the question ‘How can our seniors live more happily in the community?’
The inaugural session of Seniors Colabs marked the start of a new collaborative journey, with participants expected to meet regularly over a six-month period to share knowledge, build insights and find practical ways to help seniors age well.
The Straits Times: New youth collective to level playing field for disadvantaged young
CFS and NVPC released a 17-page guide on closing the gap for disadvantaged youth. The youth collective is an early initiative sparked by Colabs, a series of discussions beginning last year that gathers disparate stakeholders across the social service sector to exchange ideas, including philanthropists, businesses, non-profit groups and sector experts. Colabs is led and funded by CFS and NVPC.
A Call for Collaborative Giving: Closing the Gap for Disadvantaged Young Persons
The first Colabs publication discusses the challenges that disadvantaged young persons face at home, such as an unconducive family environment. It examines how these challenges impacted the young persons’ educational attainment and social mobility, and offers suggestions as to how givers could collaborate to close the gap for these individuals.
Media release: CFS and NVPC initiate cross-sector collaborative effort to help disadvantaged young persons in Singapore
Colabs, an initiative by CFS and NVPC, drives collaboration by bringing together philanthropists, businesses, non-profits and sector experts to share knowledge, exchange ideas and co-create solutions. More than 100 representatives from 56 stakeholders took part in the first Colabs series that focused on the needs of disadvantaged young persons.
Making collaboration a reality
Collaboration for social change has been a hot topic of late, but how do we get there? These three factors could help, says Joyce Teo, Deputy CEO of CFS.
Colabs: doing more for persons with disabilities
The Colabs Disability series focuses on pathways of engagement and employment for persons with disabilities – exploring different pathways, identifying opportunities for action and catalysing collaboration to attain greater access to services for care and support.
Colabs workshop: A day in their shoes
“Poor people are just lazy.”
“Why won’t they just send their kids to school?”
“We don’t want them to be over-reliant on handouts.”
Is this how we think of those who are poor? Do we really know what it is like to be poor in Singapore?
Lunar New Year celebrations and collaborations 2017
CFS’s annual Lunar New Year appreciation lunch is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to our donors, charities and partners for their unwavering support. This year, NVPC joined CFS as co-host as we launched Colabs – a learning network that brings together different stakeholders in the giving system to enable greater and deeper social impact.
