Community Development in Singapore: New Directions and Challenges
September 10, 2018
What issues affect the future direction of Singapore’s community engagement programs?
The annual Community Chest Heartstrings Walk is an example of how Singapore approaches community engagement – by involving citizens at all levels of society, and engaging the government, private corporations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
According to A/P S. Vasoo (Department of Social Work), Singapore has had a long history of community-based social welfare practices. Under colonial governance, ethnic groups formed communities to address their needs so long as those communities did not come together in anti-colonial sentiment. In postcolonial Singapore, this practice has remained, and most social welfare programs are addressed by small communal committees. However, in this article, Community development in Singapore: New Directions and Challenges (Asian Journal of Political Science, 2001), Vasoo notes several challenges that need to be overcome in order to ensure the continuation of community development. The use of social media, for instance, potentially impersonalizes social welfare because it provides people with the facility to take part in social service from the comfort of their homes. The most important challenge, however, is the lack of youth leadership in Community Centre Committees and Town Councils. To remain relevant to the problems faced by members of the community, and also to sustain the healthy continuation of these committees, Vasoo argues that it is vital to have younger people involved in leadership roles.
Singapore is unique in the way that it involves the government, corporations, and NGOs in its community engagement programs. However, such programs should be wary of promoting dependency and should also focus on strengthening racial harmony. Most importantly, they must bring in young people for continued sustainability.
Read the full article here.