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Lighting the Way Together: CFS Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival with the Association for Persons with Special Needs

Events

Home Resources Events Lighting the Way Together: CFS Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival with the Association for Persons with Special Needs

Events

Lighting the Way Together: CFS Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival with the Association for Persons with Special Needs

November 25, 2024

The Mid-Autumn Festival held special significance for the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS) team this year. They joined trainees at APSN Centre for Adults (CFA) for a creative lantern painting activity, transforming simple lanterns into vibrant artworks. The event served as an excellent icebreaker, sparking conversations and even some impromptu dance performances.

CFS staff and APSN trainees proudly show the vibrant, hand-painted lanterns they created together

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The activity was followed by a delicious lunch at the APSN Café for All, prepared and served with care by the trainees. The café showcases APSN’s mission to empower individuals with special needs, highlighting their skills and dedication. Mr Philip Li, Principal Centre Lead of CFA, then conducted a tour of the facilities, offering insights into CFA’s vital work in preparing adults with mild intellectual disabilities for meaningful employment and independence.

Since its founding in 1976, the Association for Persons with Special needs (APSN) has provided special education, vocational training, and employment support to over 6,000 individuals. CFA is a shining example of this mission, fostering self-reliance and dignity through programmes in food and beverage, horticulture, and urban farming. The day’s activities deepened CFS staff’s understanding of CFA’s transformative impact.

We are immensely grateful for the support from CFS donors, which enables us to achieve what would otherwise be impossible. Thank you to the CFS staff for spending your day with us and for being invaluable partners in our mission.

Philip Li, Principal Centre Lead of CFA

Reflecting on the experience, Sarah, a member of the CFS team, shared, “I learned how essential it is to see each trainee as a person first, beyond their disabilities. They are differently abled, and we should celebrate their uniqueness. I truly enjoyed singing ‘Wa Meng Ti’ with my trainee!”

Our Donors’ Support

CFS’s generous donors have supported APSN trainees through its Horticulture Training Programme, which offers employment and skill development opportunities. The programme focuses on urban farming and food sustainability, incorporating a farm-to-table concept where harvested crops are supplied to the APSN Café for All.

As a community foundation, CFS bridges resources and community needs. At the core of its mission is uplifting lives and fostering thriving communities. This Mid-Autumn Celebration was a memorable one, and we look forward to future collaborations that will continue to bring joy and learning opportunities to all.

Related Topics For You: CHARITY STORIES, COLLABORATION, IMPROVING EMPLOYABILITY, PARTNERSHIP STORIES, STORIES OF IMPACT

News

The Straits Times: The ST Guide To… giving to charity

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For those with fatter wallets and who hope to create a greater impact with their gift, they can even consider setting up a charitable fund to give to causes close to their hearts.

For example, the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS), a non-profit group, helps donors find a more structured and sustainable way of giving by providing advice and managing their charitable fund.

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To set up a named charitable fund in the CFS, where the donor decides on the fund’s name and the causes to give to, donors must pledge at least $200,000.

For those with slimmer bank accounts, there is no minimum sum to give if they want to donate directly to the Community Impact Funds that have been set up by the CFS to support lesser known causes, such as helping migrant workers in distress and taking home-bound seniors on outings. Read more.

Related Topics For You: CHARITY STORIES, COLLABORATION, IMPROVING EMPLOYABILITY, PARTNERSHIP STORIES, STORIES OF IMPACT

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Stories Of Impact

2023 Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award Winner Megan Low: Music is her Ikigai

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Congratulations to Megan Low, this year’s winner of the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award, which supports young Singaporean musicians who have consistently demonstrated outstanding musicianship and performance. The Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Fund, a donor-advised fund which CFS has managed for over a decade, honours the legacy of Mr. Goh Soon Tioe, a pioneering and accomplished violinist, conductor, and teacher.

Megan is thrilled to be joining the community of previous award winners and is excited about the performance opportunities that come with the award. The prize money will help defray the cost of a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance, which Megan hopes to pursue after graduation. She is currently in her final year of a Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree in Violin Performance at the prestigious Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of internationally-renowned violinist Zuo Jun.

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Of her success, she says, “My parents have been my biggest inspiration in my music journey and have supported me every step of the way. They taught me that success only comes with hard work. They also taught me the concept of Ikigai – where one’s passion, mission, vocation, and profession overlap and becomes your reason for being.”

It was her parents who filled their home with classical music and inspired her to ask for violin lessons at the age of three and then piano lessons at seven. At sixteen, she made her solo debut with the Orchestra of the Music Makers.

Megan’s passion for performance has taken her to many stages locally and abroad, from Asia to Europe and the US. Most recently, her piano trio won the first prize at the 17th Cecilia International Music Competition 2023 in Japan.

The young musician is most accomplished at playing Romantic music, yet her most memorable experience was performing the complex Baroque masterpiece, Bach’s ‘St John’s Passion’. Megan says, “I most enjoy collaborative music-making in chamber music and small ensemble groups. I would love to dive deeper into that in the future.”

A believer in the restorative power of music, Megan also harnesses her musical talent as a gift to uplift others. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she and her peers held a workshop for the staff at Sengkang General Hospital, in which they introduced music as an avenue for stress relief and creative expression. The tunes created during the workshop were sampled and turned into an original soundtrack, which was then played in the hospital lobby. During the Christmas season, Megan and her friends also brought cheer to the residents at the All Saints Home by performing familiar tunes.

As she embarks on a promising music career, this young lady hopes to continue performing and teaching music – her ikigai – for as long as she can.

Learn how you can work with CFS to support talented musicians like Megan and boost Singapore’s arts scene – https://www.cf.org.sg/giving/ways-to-give/

Related Topics For You: CHARITY STORIES, COLLABORATION, IMPROVING EMPLOYABILITY, PARTNERSHIP STORIES, STORIES OF IMPACT

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Stories Of Impact

LEAD Academy – Empowering youths to lead and influence

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The LEAD Academy was set up in 2014 as a collaboration between CampVision, UBS Singapore and the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS) to impact marginalised youths in neighbourhood schools.

LEAD provides a platform that partners youths with professional volunteers to develop self-leadership abilities and cultivate effective communication skills. The aim is to empower youths to be an effective leader of their peers and a positive influence on others. This unique programme puts youths on a shared journey of equals guided by executive leadership coaches who create an engaging and transformational learning experience for them and their mentors.

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Through a series of structured facilitated sessions by the coaches, youths and volunteers learn to own their personal feelings and manage their individual confidence physiology. They also learn verbal and non-verbal communication skills and how to engage with other adult volunteers. Both youths and volunteers set personal goals – relating to leadership and communication – that need to be achieved when they graduate in six months’ time. At every session, they meet in small groups to hold one another accountable for their actions.

During the journey, youths have been observed to increasingly gain confidence in themselves. They take on opportunities to lead games, speak in front of their peers and practise small talk with adult strangers. The youths also interact and engage with different working professional volunteers who represent a broad range of professions including banking, sales, legal, marketing, technology, HR and the military.

“CFS has been instrumental in facilitating the partnership between CampVision and UBS. We would not have been able to achieve the impact with LEAD without the support of CFS. They have also been helpful in helping us to better understand the youth landscape so we can focus our efforts on the relevant youth population,” said Yeo Suan Wei, Co-founder of CampVision.

LEAD is an affirming, safe and empowering community of youths and professionals who find the courage to be vulnerable in their efforts to be better individuals. The connections that are built through the LEAD journey broaden the youths’ exposure and their world view. These connections also contribute towards the building of social capital between two groups of people who may otherwise not cross paths and be personally impacted by each other. LEAD aims to continue its impactful run by engaging and empowering 70 youths and 70 volunteers each year.

Photos: CampVision

Related Topics For You: CHARITY STORIES, COLLABORATION, IMPROVING EMPLOYABILITY, PARTNERSHIP STORIES, STORIES OF IMPACT

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Events

Donor Learning Trip – St Joseph’s Home’s Inspirational Inter-Generation Programme

August 7, 2024

At CFS, we work closely with over 400 well-governed charities to link donors to programmes that achieve meaningful impact. With our deep experience, we understand the importance of improving lives through community initiatives. St Joseph’s Home (SJH) is a good example of this.

About St Joseph’s Home (SJH)

SJH is a not-for-profit organisation set up by the Catholic Welfare Services in 1978 to provide shelter, care and love for the aged and destitute, regardless of race or religion.

Since then, SJH has innovated to pioneer unique models of care that meet the community’s evolving needs. This includes the hydrotherapy, night respite care for persons with dementia and the co-located Infant and Childcare Centre (ICC).

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SJH’s beautiful premise is situated at the heart of the Jurong Innovation District. It has wheelchair-accessible playgrounds, walkways and community spaces such as Café Verona and Funhouse to encourage chance interactions. Spaces are also configurable to accommodate structured programmes that require more privacy and comfort.

An Intergenerational Care Community

In August 2017, SJH pioneered Singapore’s first intergenerational community with an Infant and Childcare Centre (ICC) co-located in a nursing home.

Infants as young as two months old to children up to age six get daily opportunities lasting 45 to 90 minutes to interact with nursing home residents. Children and residents engage in activities such as shared newspaper reading, puzzles, LEGO building, singing and storytelling.

These interactions form part of the children’s curriculum, where they learn about culture, and pick up motor and literacy skills. They also form part of the resident’s daily care, which is made possible only because of the close collaboration between the ICC and the clinical team of SJH.

Our donors were recently invited to visit St Joseph’s Home and witnessed their recently-launched intergenerational art therapy programme. Joy was evident on the faces of both residents and children as they waved to one another.

Gladys and Nathan (children on the right) learning about the dragon boat festival with Mdm Quek* (resident on the left)

Intergenerational Programmes as a Therapeutic Intervention

With all the buzz around intergenerational programmes (IGPs), here’s what sets SJH apart.

Every programme has a therapeutic outcome and St Joseph’s Home Infant and Childcare Centre teachers work closely with SJH’s clinical team to develop IGPs that:

Resonate with both generations
Intentionally facilitate conversations and relationship-building
Have therapeutic outcomes such as improve mood and increased social wellbeing

Our visit coincided with the fifth of eight sessions conducted by an Occupational Therapy Assistant. Residents and children were collaborating on a calligraphy painting.

Mdm Tan*, one of the participants who had been hesitant to join social activities, is observed laughing and making eye contact with Estelle, the spritely five-years-old that she’s paired with.

Estelle (left) sharing a conversation with Mdm Tan* (right). She has learned to move closer to Mdm Tan as the resident is hard of hearing.

Another resident, Mdm Wee*, has shown remarkable improvement, eating better and faster on days when she meets the children.

It’s inspiring to hear about Mdm Wee’s progress. She used to take two hours for lunch, often breathless and discouraged, preferring to stay in her bedroom. Now, after just a few sessions, she’s more motivated, energetic, and engaged, even asking about the children. She can now finish her meal in half an hour

Imelda Anthony, Principal of St Joseph’s Home Infant & Childcare Centre

The donors of CFS witnessed the energy within the group and comfortable interactions. These took hours to foster, and cannot be justly put in words.

Developing such results is an art. It calls for a careful integration of the medical and psychosocial needs of the residents, their unique interests and the developmental stage and disposition of the child that they’re paired with.

Teachers need to be equipped with an understanding of the residents and constantly communicate with the therapist before and throughout the IGP to ensure that the therapeutic outcomes are met.

Intergenerational Programmes as Education

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” – Aristotle

Since its inception in 2017, the teachers at St Joseph’s Home Infant and Childcare Centre have focused on investing in the character of the children. Empathy, kindness, and respect are not just taught but also demonstrated.

Children observe the staff and teachers interacting with residents, learning to respectfully gain the attention of those who may be weak or frail. They also practise handling wheelchairs and being considerate in their movements and volume around residents.

During the IGP, children will progressively pick up the residents’ names, interests, or areas in which they might need help with. For example, children might help residents by repeating instructions closer to their ears or uncapping the tools that require more fine motor skills.

Intergenerational Programmes as an Innovative Care Model

As pioneers in integrating the preschool curriculum with elderly-inclusive activities, SJH has learned and experimented along the way, all while remaining committed to their vision of providing person-centred, dignified care.

Their experience has since inspired other organisations. Looking ahead, SJH envisions the intergenerational programme as an integrated part of person-centred, holistic care for elderly residents. They continue to experiment with various programme types and structures, monitoring their impact and collaborating with research partners.

How You Can Help

St Joseph’s seeks $150,000 annually to run the programme, which involves childcare teachers, music, art, and occupational therapists that serve 20 children and 40 to 60 elderly residents. To find out how to become a CFS donor, click here.

*Names changed to protect confidentiality.