Remarks by President Halimah Yacob at NCSS 40-Under-40 Young Leaders' Dialogue 2022

Ms Anita Fam, President, National Council of Social Service

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning. I am pleased to join you at the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) 40-Under-40 Young Leaders’ Dialogue. This is my fourth year sharing at the dialogue and I am glad to see everyone in person again. The dialogue remains an important platform for our young leaders to network and learn from one another on ways to build a better Singapore.

The past two years have been challenging, but we persevered. The social sector adapted in an agile manner to deliver services more effectively throughout the pandemic. Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, we grappled with heightened geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. These global events have and will continue to fuel inflation, driving up the cost of living. The impact will be felt most keenly by those in need.

On the domestic front, our society is aging, compounded by a declining fertility rate. We will need to spend more to address our rising healthcare needs. Similar to other advanced economies, our society is at risk of becoming socially stratified. These challenges underscore the importance of the work that you do. We must support communities in need, remain resilient, and continue to strengthen our social compact.

A social compact is a shared understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities that each of us plays in society. This has been the focus of the recent Forward Singapore exercise. Today, our social compact is one where the Government creates the conditions for opportunity and growth. As a community, we continue to look out for the less fortunate. As families, we are the first line of support for our loved ones. And as individuals, we take personal responsibility for our lives and work hard to support ourselves and our families.

As young leaders and professionals of the social service sector, your experiences, knowledge, and insights will enrich and shape the social compact for the next generation. Singapore’s future belongs to all of us. A sustainable social compact requires deep investment and collective ownership. ‘Forging a Better Future for All’ is more than just the theme for this year’s event. It presents us with an opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved, envision what a better future entails, and explore how we can support one another as a sector to achieve change. No one has all the answers and solutions. Increasingly, the answers and solutions needed for us to move forward will come from the communities that we serve.

To do this, we must lead with our heart and place social service users at the centre. For example, Teo Ying Ying is participant at this year’s NCSS 40-Under-40 programme who took part in the Sector Design Challenge 2021, an innovation platform organised by NCSS. As part of the challenge, her team was awarded a seed grant to pilot an interactive site for caregivers of persons living with dementia. Through the design thinking process that took a person-centred approach to understanding user needs, Ying Ying and her team discovered that caregivers of persons living with dementia often felt lost and had difficulties navigating through the various resources and services available. To empower caregivers to better care for their loved ones, the team developed a self-help-robo-advisor platform. The platform aims to be a one-stop resource site for caregivers to access information in a personalised and organised manner according to their loved ones’ stage of dementia.

It is not only the caregivers of persons living with dementia who need more accessible information but others too. Today, we are confronted with various platforms, information, and applications. It can be challenging. Your role is to be the intermediary in connecting those in need to the right resources. Personalised information is important because it helps people sieve through the resources, especially those who are not as savvy at navigating through them. We have to think about the user at the receiving end.

I am sure there are many of you working on equally meaningful projects to help communities in need. I am glad that the alumni of the programme have kept in touch with one another, exchanged information, sought advice, and discussed areas for collaborations. Some have also contributed to this year’s 40-Under-40 programme by hosting the participants and sharing your personal reflections and journeys.

I encourage you to continue building meaningful partnerships. Creating opportunities for inter-agency or inter-sector partnerships should also be at the forefront of our work. We can achieve greater impact when we join hands. Collaborations will effectively strengthen the spirit of collective ownership and impact, and allow us to deliver more coordinated service and support to those who need it.

In the spirit of encouraging collaborations, NCSS recently launched the Community Capability Trust (CCT). The CCT includes an Open Grant to fund social service agencies (SSAs) for projects which involve a partnership with at least one other SSA, and which can be scaled to benefit other SSAs. As future leaders, I encourage you to explore possible collaborations with each other and to take advantage of schemes like the CCT Open Grant to implement and amplify ideas that can benefit the larger social service sector. This is important because SSAs should not be operating in silos as there will be duplication and wastage. You can leverage each other’s strengths and learn from each other’s experiences because then you will not have to start from ground zero.

How we plan ahead and what we do today will affect tomorrow and the future. Seize the opportunity to be brave, ask the tough questions and explore unchartered territories. Challenge your creativity and think outside the box in designing and delivering services. Be bold and united in envisioning a better future where every member of our society is empowered to achieve self-reliance, lives with dignity, and takes care of one another.

I look forward to hearing your reflections and insights.