The article “New one-stop resource
centre for social enterprises to be launched” by Priscilla Goy on The Straits Times explained about the
launch of the resource centre for social enterprises through a partnership
between 4 key agencies. The centre was launched to help provide assistance to
social enterprises in forms such as mentoring and funding. The article then
went on to explain the reason why these kind of support are given to social
enterprise. The reason given is that social enterprises are able to help
disadvantaged groups present in Singapore society in a more sustainable way as
compared to other stakeholders or sectors in Singapore. As such, social
enterprises are important as they play an important role in helping
disadvantaged communities present in Singapore.
In Singapore, there are 4 key sectors
that aims to help the disadvantaged in Singapore. The 4 sectors are the
government, voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs), corporates and the social
enterprise sector. However, out of the 4 sectors that are mentioned, the social
enterprise sector is the sector that is able to help disadvantaged groups in
Singapore in the most sustainable way making them very important in providing
constant support and assistance to the disadvantaged in Singapore’s community.
Firstly, the first sector in
Singapore that helps the disadvantaged is the government. The government
provides assistance to disadvantaged communities in Singapore in many ways such
as in providing funding for these communities through subsidies, aid funds and
the funding of VWOs. These VWOs in turn helps to address social issues present
in Singapore with the aid of the government. The government also provides
services for disadvantaged communities by building facilities that cater to the
needs of these people such as wheelchair-friendly pathways for the
wheelchair-bound and tactile paving for the visually impaired which helps some of
these disadvantaged communities (Mathis & Mohamed, 2011). A good example of
what the government has done is the KidStart Scheme (Goy, 2016). In the
KidStart scheme, children from lower income-families are able to receive
funding of up to $20,000 for their studies to ensure that children are able to
receive an education regardless of their financial background. The scheme also
helps coordinate various support from different stakeholders to maximize the
resources and assistance that can be given to these students from lower-income
families. However, there are limitations to what the government can do to help
the disadvantaged communities in Singapore. The government are limited in many
areas with the key areas being that the government does not wish to create a
reliant-mentality of the disadvantaged group as this would mean that
beneficiaries will not do more to help themselves and thus become constantly
dependent on the government for support to live (Naidu, 2014). The government
is also reliant on tax for receiving money that will go to helping the
disadvantaged communities. This would then cause a problem for the government
as the expenditure on social issues in Singapore will only increase with time
and tax cannot rise too high (Chia, 2015). The government would also be unable
to help the disadvantaged community if there is an economic recession as less
funds would be available and thus, set aside for social issues.
Secondly, VWOs in Singapore, which is
the second sector, addresses social issues in Singapore alongside the
government. VWOs are important as they are able to prioritize helping the disadvantaged
community as that is the reason that the VWOs are established for. VWOs are
generally able to reach out better to the disadvantaged community in Singapore
as they are given more opportunities to interact with the beneficiaries to
allow the VWOs to cater their services or products to benefit the disadvantaged
(Miao, 2011). One example of a VWO is Food from the Heart (2015). Food from the
heart aims to help reduce food wastage in Singapore and at the same time,
benefit those that are unable to provide for themselves. Hence, Food from the
Heart collects surplus food from bakeries before distributing it to the needy
community in Singapore. The example of Food from the Heart shows how effective
VWOs are in addressing social issues as they were able to benefit two
communities at once. However, similarly to the government, VWOs have limitations
to what they can do. VWOs are usually heavily reliant on funding and
sponsorship which causes the VWOs to be unsustainable as once the funding or
sponsorship given to the VWOs is removed, the VWOs will no longer be able to
help its beneficiaries. VWOs are sometimes reliant on volunteers as well and
with a lack of volunteer, they will not be able to reach out to their targeted
beneficiaries as effectively (Miao, 2011).
Thirdly, we have the corporate sector
in which social issues are tackled through the Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR). CSR is usually known as giving back to the community in a business. CSR
is a good way to encourage corporates and businesses in giving back to society
by addressing environmental or social concerns (Cheam, 2015; Silva, 2016). With
the added support of CSR, more disadvantaged people can be reached and assisted
which would help Singapore become a more inclusive society. One example of a
company that has done CSR is Sony Singapore. Sony has aimed to create a
sustainable society by increasing the use of eco-technology to help reduce
environmental damage. Sony has also participated in many activities such as
contributing to Community Chest to help assist the disadvantaged in Singapore. This
shows how Sony has contributed in helping the disadvantaged through CSR initiatives
(Sony Singapore, 2016). However, there are many reasons that discourage
corporates from doing CSR. One of the reasons is that by doing CSR, a company
might have a shift in its focus from profit-making to addressing social issues
which might cause the company to lose sight of what they want to do and hence,
this discourages corporates from doing CSR. By doing CSR, companies might also
incur more costs which the company might not find profitable and hence, the
company will be discouraged from doing CSR. Companies might also start CSR only
when they feel that it helps to boost the reputation of their company (My
Assignmenthelp, 2014).
Lastly, we have the social enterprise
sector, the most important sector in helping the less fortunate present in
Singapore’s society. The social enterprise sector is important as it provides
new business ideas to address social needs in a sustainable way (Huang, 2016; Kanagasingam
& Lee, 2003; National Council of Social Service, 2016). Social enterprises
are also able to innovate and create new business models that will help empower
the disadvantaged in our community by teaching them how to be more independent
as opposed to providing continuous help for them which might cause these
beneficiaries to become over-reliant on the help provided (Chua, 2015). An
example of a social enterprise will be Eighteen Chefs. Eighteen Chefs is a
restaurant in the food and beverage industry where its social mission is to
help provide employment opportunities for ex-convicts and troubled youths as a
method for these people to reintegrate back into society. Eighteen Chefs hopes
that by going through the employment experience at the restaurant, ex-convicts
and troubled youths will be able to find a better life in which they will be
happier in (Eighteen Chefs, n.d.). As such, social enterprises are important in
Singapore as they are able to help disadvantaged communities in a more
sustainable way.
In conclusion, social enterprises are
important as they play an important role in helping the disadvantaged in
Singapore’s society through sustainable methods and by empowering the
disadvantaged community by teaching them how to be more independent such that
they require less assistance and aid over time. In comparison, other sectors or
stakeholders have several limitations which might hinder their ability to
provide assistance and support in addressing the social needs in Singapore. However,
all four sectors in society still play a part in helping the disadvantaged
community and should work together to maximize resources and manpower to enable
them to reach out to more people in need of help.
Reference Articles
Cheam,
J. (2015, September 1). The evolution of CSR in Singapore. The
Straits Times.
Retrieved
from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the-evolution-of-csr-in-singapore
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