Importance of Social Enterprises

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

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