Author: Kaisa Clark
Kids United Home is a short-term residential care program run by Beyond Social Services for children aged 7 to 14 that are unable to stay home for various reasons. In 2008, the report looked at the effectiveness of the residential home in having the child’s best interest in mind compared to other residential homes worldwide. This effectiveness is due to the small group atmosphere and the emphasis on individual development.
Author: Nurashikin Bte Hassan
By using Beyond’s framework, this research looked at whether contact between parents and community facilitators was related to the amount of parental involvement in their child’s education. The positive correlation found between type of contact and involvement leads to recommendations to Beyond that include having weekly meetings with parents to update them on their child’s progress and having the parent participate in programs with their child.
As we start our journey to build competent communities, we use this document to take stock of which stage our community is at and why it is that stage. From here, suggestions are given for the kind of activities that can create direction and momentum for the community that we are working with.
ArtsWok Collaborative is an arts-based community development organisation that nurtures thriving communities by harnessing the power of the arts to create dialogue, invite social participation and build bridges across difference. In partnership with them, we are aiming to get our youths to develop and showcase an original play at the Esplanade next year which deals with the issue of poverty in Singapore. This effort is part of M1 Peer Pleasure Youth Theatre Festival which is a platform for young people aged 13-25 to stage productions at professional theatre venues, under the mentorship of theatre professionals, for audiences young and old.
Last Saturday, 4 of our youths joined 40 drama students and their teachers from Anderson Secondary School and Anglo Chinese School (Barker Road) to kick-off a process of deepening their understanding of poverty; gathering information and insights that facilitate their ability to produce theatre pieces for next year’s theatre festival.
Listening to the stories shared, was an exercise in value clarification. What do we make of someone who raised money illegally out of desperation but eventually found legal employment to alleviate her family’s debts and to stay in school? Do good intentions or good outcomes justify morally ambiguous means? Such and other questions got the group pensive and the notion of poverty was expanded. Many commented that poverty comes in many forms and it was suggested that emotional poverty affects people badly too. The process enabled young people to have a conversation with their peers about an issue that they normally would not touch. As a result, they communicated perspectives that widened and enriched our collective understanding of poverty.
Asnur, an 18-year-old was moved by the experience to speak up. During a question and answer segment, he whispered to a friend, “I want to say something, but I feel so uncomfortable.” Eventually, he raised his hand and took the microphone with shaky hands. “This will be a long story. I think I am one of the few here who lives in a rental flat and let me tell you it is hard.”
He elaborated that as a teenager he felt like he could not fit in anywhere because he had to keep making excuses not to accept invitations from friends to lunch or the movies. The room caught on that he was feeling very vulnerable and offered at supportive presence that enabled Asnur to confidently end his sharing forcefully, “When you guys say you are broke, you just mean that you have run out of pocket money. But when I say I’m broke, I mean my whole family is broke. There is no money! It’s real!”
Today is the 15th and last day of the Lunar New Year festivities. May the festive cheer remain with you throughout the year.
Sincerely,
Gerard
Beyond Social Services embarked on a joint exercise with National Council of Social Services and Just Cause Asia to illustrating how our services are organised to meet the long term outcomes of social mobility for our members.
In TodayOnline newspaper April 1, 2017:
“Fresh out of school after completing his GCE ‘A’ Levels in 1997, national sprinter UK Shyam took a job waiting tables at an American diner, eating patrons’ leftovers because he could not afford to pay for meals.”
In TodayOnline newspaper Feb 20, 2018:
“Every day, single mother Azizah Mohamed Noor wakes up at 5am in the morning to shower and prepare for work in her two-room flat at Lengkok Bahru, which is shared with her four children and a wheel-chair bound mum.”
In The Pride magazine Oct 09, 2017:
“For the past 35 years, he’s kept at-risk youths off the streets and helped vulnerable individuals find new purpose in their lives.”
First appearing in Straits Times newspaper Oct 20, 2013:
“In a Singapore where many cry out for more social services, a lone voice in the wilderness is crying out for a scale-down.
It belongs to Mr Gerard Ee, executive director of Beyond Social Services, a voluntary welfare organisation which helps curb delinquency among young people from low-income families.”
In Straits Times newspaper Feb 23, 2017:
“In fast-paced Singapore, there are those in need – and those who take up the cudgels on their behalf. This is the fifth in a series on noteworthy causes that The Straits Times will be spotlighting.”
