E-Learning: An Age-Unfriendly World

The picture shown is an example of an age-unfriendly world as the traffic light at this pedestrian crossing does not allow people such as the elderly to increase the time the green light is shown unlike  other pedestrian crossings. This thus causes problem for the elderly as they may not be able to cross the long road within the short period of given time which might endanger their lives.

Some old lifts present in Singapore do not go to all floors which causes inconveniences for people such as the elderly and the physically disabled such as wheel-chair bound people as this would mean that they will have to take the stairs if the lift does not go to the floor they stay on. Thus, this is an example of an age-unfriendly world as the elderly and wheel-chair bound people will be disadvantaged.

The lack of ramps in some locations to HDB flats brings inconvenience for people with disabilities such as wheel-chair bound people as they have to find a longer alternative route to go back home. This is an example of an age-unfriendly world as the wheel-chair bound people will be at a disadvantage.

Overhead bridges are a form of pedestrian crossing. however, some overhead bridges do not have lifts present which results in having the elderly to take the stairs. The elderly may then face some inconvenience when climbing the stairs of the overhead bridges as they might have weaker legs and knees and the climb would cause them to become tired and bring pain to their knees. Similarly, wheel-chair bound people would have to find an alternative route to cross the road. Thus, this is age-unfriendly as people such as the elder will face difficulties when using this overhead bridge.

E-Learning: An Age-Friendly World

The addition of priority queues in NTUC supermarkets are an example of an age-friendly world as the elderly are able to buy their daily necessities faster which thus shortens the time they need to stand in queue which may cause some difficulties for the elderly who cannot stand for too long as they have weaker legs.

Many clinics are now CHAS supported which helps Singapore citizens from the low to middle income household who have applied for CHAS to receive more affordable healthcare as they are able to receive more subsidies. CHAS clinic also allows the elderly with the pioneer generation card to receive more affordable healthcare when visiting these clinics as they will receive more subsidies. This is thus age-friendly as everyone regardless of age and financial background are able to receive affordable healthcare.

NTUC Foodfare has priority seats for the elderly which brings more convenience to the elderly as they do not have to spend time waiting for a vacant seat for them when coming to NTUC Foodfare for a meal. As such, the elderly do not have to spend time standing which might be a difficulty for some elderly that have weaker legs. Similarly, places such as MRT trains have reserved seatings for people who need them more such as the physically disabled. These are all age-friendly as they help to bring more convenience to these people and help meet their needs.

The presents of ramps alongside staircases help people with disabilities such as wheelchair-bound people to have easier movement moving around places as they do not have to take a long detour to find a way that they can take to get around. This is an example of an age-friendly world as it helps wheelchair-bound people to be given the same opportunity as everyone to move around easily.

Support given to Social Enterprises

In the news article “Social enterprises to get more help” in The Straits Times by Priscilla Goy, the article explained about the early-stage funding scheme under the VentureforGood initiative by the Singapore centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) which gives start-up social enterprises start-up funding of up to $20,000 to try out their ideas. With this news article, the topic of challenges that social enterprises face surfaces, with one of the early challenges that a social enterprise face being the lack of funding during its start-up.  However, with the social enterprise sector growing bigger each year, more help and support such as the early-stage finding scheme mentioned above has been given to social enterprises in Singapore to help social enterprises overcome the challenges they face.

In a speech by Mr Tony Tan, the president of Singapore, Mr Tony Tan explained that the social enterprise is a young but growing sector in Singapore and hence faces many challenges such as the lack of funding and knowledge in business. As such, there are many key initiatives taken to help the social enterprise sector including the forming of raiSE. Mr Tony Tan then shared about the President’s Challenge Social Enterprise Award which rewards successful social enterprises that has created a social impact in society with money. The award also serves to help more social enterprises receive help from other partners including mentorship which would help the social enterprise to develop and grow further (The Istana, 2015).

The Tote Board and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) are also supporting the social enterprise sector by providing $30 million worth of funding in investment and grants for social enterprises to help grow and expand the sector (toteboard, 2016). raiSE was also formed to raise awareness about the social enterprise sector in Singapore and to help increase the support given to social enterprises to encourage the growth of this sector in Singapore. raiSE provides many kinds of support for social enterprises to help them overcome challenges such as the lack of funding which is a common challenge a social enterprise face when starting up, mentorship and training for social enterprises to gain relevant expertise such as knowledge in business management and by also providing relevant resources to social enterprises (raiSE, 2016).

Other corporates such as DBS are also providing support for social enterprises with DBS providing $340,000 worth of project funds for social enterprise and creating loan schemes that are catered for social enterprises which allows social enterprises to focus more on building their business. DBS also shares process improvement expertise with social enterprises that has further expansion plans in the hopes that social enterprises can provide more job opportunities for others when they develop in the future (DBS, 2014).

In conclusion, with the growing social enterprise sector in Singapore, more support has been provided to social enterprises in various ways to help social enterprises become sustainable and to help create a social impact in our society. With more support provided to social enterprises in Singapore, passionate people with a social cause they want to improve on and other social enterprises should go to the various stakeholders that support social enterprises to seek assistance and advice for these social enterprises to have a more successful start-up thus helping our society as the growing social enterprise sector helps to improve on the various social issues in our society. 

Reference Articles

Development Bank of Singapore. (2014). DBS commits to developing social entrepreneurship in Singapore and Asia with  

Social enterprise project grants. Retrieved from https://www.dbs.com/newsroom/DBS_commits_to_developing_social_entrepreneurship_in_Singapore_and_Asia_with_social_enterprise_project_grants_MIGRT

Goy, P. (2015, August 1). Social enterprises to get more help. The Straits Times. Retrieved from

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/social-enterprises-to-get-more-help

Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise. (2016). What we do. Retrieved from
            https://www.raise.sg/what-we-do/

The Istana. (2015). Speech by President Tony Tan Keng Yam at the launch of Singapore Centre

for Social Enterprise (raiSE) and the President’s challenge social enterprise award 2015 on 27 May 2015. Retrieved from http://www.istana.gov.sg/news/speeches/2015/speech-president-tony-tan-keng-yam-the-launch-singapore-centre-social-enterprise

toteboard. (2016). Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise. Retrieved from

http://www.toteboard.gov.sg/grants/application/apply-through-our-partners/strategic-initiatives/singapore-centre-for-social-enterprise

E-Learning Item 4: Innovation Starts with the Heart, Not the Head

The article “Innovation Starts with the Heart, Not the Head” on Harvard Business Review by Gary Hamel discussed about the importance of compassion in innovation by sharing a story about Lakeland Health where compassion is found in their working style. The article showed the story of Dr. Loren Hamel, the CEO of Lakeland Health which faced the problem of having poor patient satisfaction scores despite the above average care treatment provided and the changes Dr. Hamel implemented. I agree with the article that innovation starts with the heart instead of the head. I think that Dr. Hamel’s innovative ways to improve Lakeland really shows the importance of empathy and compassion in innovation.

In the article, Dr. Hamel’s idea of improving the patient satisfaction scores Lakeland received was by encouraging his staff to bring their hearts to work by saying simple words of care and concern to the patients to help the patients forget their worries and feel cared for. Dr. Hamel also did some research to understand the emotions and feelings of patients admitted to the hospital so that the staff of Lakeland could more effectively connect with their patients so that they will feel cared for. Dr. Hamel also went further by doing rounds to learn about the progress of his staff on making heartfelt connections and also helping them learn how to do it even going further by commending each effort of every staff in making a heartfelt connection by rewarding the staff with a heart to pin on his or her badge (Hamel, 2015).

I feel that Dr. Hamel was very innovative and resourceful in his ways to improve the patient satisfaction scores by firstly understanding them before having his staff to make heartfelt connections to each patient so that each patient will feel cared for. Through the acts of heartfelt connections of Lakeland staff with patients, the patient satisfaction scores of Lakeland soared which shows the effectiveness of Dr. Hamel in having empathy in his innovative ways to improve the satisfaction of each patient. One of the stories of Lakeland included the meltdown of a husband whose wife was dying. One of the employees of Lakeland showed a simple gesture of offering a hug to the devastated husband to help him recompose himself which helped in keeping the situation under control (Hamel, 2015).

In conclusion, it is important to have compassion and kindness in innovation as it is only through empathy where the needs of others can be addressed successfully which is shown in the article where patient satisfaction scores improved. If Dr. Hamel only improved the care provided to patients, the needs of patients might still not be addressed which results in a waste of effort and resources. As Dr. Hamel was empathetic, he was able to find a new and innovative way of improving satisfaction scores by showing patients how much the staff cared about them instead of just improving healthcare like other hospitals which further supports the point that innovation comes from the heart.

Reference Articles

Hamel, G. (2015, June). Innovation Starts with the Heart, Not the Head. Harvard Business

Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/06/you-innovate-with-your-heart-not-your-head 

E-Learning Item 2: The Heart of 'Bao'

The article “‘Bao’ seller touched by flood of offers to help” on Channel NewsAsia by Kane Cunico shows what Mdm Sarah Tan has done in the spirit of social entrepreneurship and her acts of kindness to help many people such as needy children, the homeless and unwed mothers. I think that what Mdm Tan has done is a good example of social entrepreneurship as she has hired unwed mothers to work at her stores which not only provides them with a job but also with more opportunities to spend time with their children due to the flexible working hours.

Cunico (2016) explained how Mdm Tan first started out by volunteering at a women’s shelter before going on to hire single mothers to work at her ‘Bao’ store to provide them with a source of income. Mdm Tan also went further by extending a helping hand to many other people in need such as foreign workers, homeless children and teenage mothers by giving them a place to stay in her house. However, over the years, Mdm Tan’s many ‘Bao’ stores has closed down due to various reasons but that does not stop Mdm Tan from helping others as she still perseveres to continue to help others in need despite her worsening financial situation.

I feel that what Mdm Tan has done shows how much more society can do to help those in need and that we can learn from her acts of kindness and compassion. Mdm Tan went the extra mile to help others in need by allowing people such as foreign workers, teenage mums with their babies and homeless children to stay at her house while treating them as family instead of just ignoring these people, showing an example of what society can do. Mdm Tan also shows a good example of social entrepreneurship as she has hired single mothers to work for her as a social cause which helps the mothers solve the problem of having to find a job while also taking care of their children as the workers have flexible working hours and a stable income. When monetary help was extended to her, Mdm Tan declined the offer as she prefers support in her business (Cunico, 2016) instead of acts of charity which shows her want for her business to be sustainable in order to help those that stays in her house in the long run.

In conclusion, I feel that there is a lot that we can learn from Mdm Tan such as her spirit of social entrepreneurship and more importantly her acts of compassion and kindness which are lacking in our society. If everyone could do more by showing more compassion to those in need in our own ways of extending a helping hand, more help will be able to reach those who need it.

Reference Articles

Cunico, K. (2016, May 27). ‘Bao’ seller touched by flood of offers to help. Channel NewsAsia.

Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/bao-seller-touched-by/2822598.html?cid=FBins