socialservice.sg presents: "Before the Ballot"

With Norvin Chan , founder of the AI therapist chatbot fire.place ( https://fire.place/ ) where folks can vent their feelings, we learn about how users can interact with the chatbot, tech development process, and how his growing-up experience has informed his work. We conclude with a discussion of positioning fire.place in a broader constellation of mental health and wellness support, from profess...

Today, we have assistant professor Walid Jumblatt Bin Abdullah from the School of Social Sciences in Nanyang Technological University, whose research focuses on religion and politics with a special focus on Singapore and Malaysia. On his Instagram page ( https://www.instagram.com/walidj.abdullah ), he hosts “Teh Tarik With Walid” (TTWW), a series of live chats with prominent socio-political figure...

"Beneath the Rug" ( https://www.solvenplus.one/btr ) is a Singaporean book compilation of 30 stories, written by 30 different individuals in the social service sector. Their honest sharing on the poor/marginalised/disadvantaged in Singapore was surprising, and in this episode with editor Lewin Low we discuss the project’s journey, the writers, and the plans of his social enterprise Solve n+1 ( htt...

In November last year, the publication titled " Scaled, citizen-led, and public qualitative research: A framework for citizen social science " explored improvements to qualitative research and suggested methods for the conduct of citizen social science. Drawing from two cases - one involving state and civil society organisations and public policy students, and another centred on low-waged migrant...

Co-operative A Good Space , a good friend to this podcast, ran two Listening Living Labs and produced two corresponding Listening Reports to document the experiences and insights of migrant worker communities and low-income communities in Singapore. With representative Nurulhuda Hassan today, we focus on low-income communities, focused on the three issues and recommendations revolving around lower...

Co-operative A Good Space , a good friend to this podcast, ran two Listening Living Labs and produced two corresponding Listening Reports to document the experiences and insights of migrant worker communities and low-income communities in Singapore. With representative Vandhana Jeyaram today, we focus on migrant worker communities, focused on the four issues and recommendations on high recruitment...

Co-operative A Good Space , a good friend to this podcast, ran two Listening Living Labs and produced two corresponding Listening Reports to document the experiences and insights of migrant worker communities and low-income communities in Singapore. Even though the issues and insights are not necessarily new, representatives Nurulhuda Hassan and Vandhana Jeyaram provide a preview in this first epi...

Member of parliament Louis Ng has been a leading legislative voice on the work and welfare of the Singaporean social worker . We touch on four themes in this episode - pay and compensation, burnout and retention, case management and caseload ratio, as well as community work - before sharing his ongoing public consultation for social workers . This episode is part of the "The Work of Social Work" s...

Two years ago, SG Climate Rally made headlines in September 2019 and created momentum for a range of activities and initiatives. Two years later in 2021, climate change activists in Singapore were frustrated by the lack of systemic or structural progress at COP26, or the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference. The frustration is perhaps compounded by persistent apathy or lethargy among Sing...

The work and welfare of the Singaporean social worker are scrutinised every now and then, most recently when member of parliament Carrie Tan raised the question on who is allowed to be a social worker. Episodes like this do help increase public awareness, but such discourse should instead be sustained with greater consistency. In introducing the new "The Work of Social Work" podcast mini-series, a...

So much ink has been spilled on Singapore’s healthcare and public health response to the ongoing pandemic. Yet, there will be an end to COVID-19, and the start of 2022 feels like a good time to shift some of the public focus to our country’s long-term, pandemic-linked social challenges. In this short episode, I summarise the most urgent and obvious problems - migrant, healthcare, and economically...

How happy are Singaporeans? Or what makes a Singaporean happy? Local social enterprise the  Happiness Initiative  ( happinessinitiative.sg ) sought to answer these questions through its 2021 State of Happiness Study. Here's what they found. With psychological and social factors, Singaporeans who have purpose, grit, and social support are happier on average. And with socio-demographi...

Since the publication of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) study ( whatsenough.sg ), which sought to establish what constituted basic needs in Singapore and the household budgets needed to meet those needs, public discussion has taken two related directions. First, focusing solely on the S$6,426 dollar figure needed per month for partnered parents with two children, and then extolling Singaporeans...

SG Mental Health Matters is a community of mental health advocates and researchers, and in 2021 they ran the #AreWeOkay poll to better understand the issues of access, affordability, and quality of mental healthcare in Singapore. With two of its members today - former nominated member of parliament Anthea Ong and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Rayner Tan - we learn more about the community’s work, th...

It's been more than 16 months since I first launched and produced this socialservice.sg podcast, and more than 80 episodes later I've been thinking a lot more about updating the format and perhaps reaching an even wider community of listeners and readers. The traditional interview format where I invite guests to speak to their initiatives, projects, or organisations still has some appeal, and I th...

This episode is the second of a two-part series covering ground-ups and their contributions in Singapore. If you’ve not heard the first part about the emergence and impact of ground-ups, be sure to listen to that before coming back to this . With Jen Goh of The Majurity Trust and Dr. Adrian Chan of Acerpacer Consulting, we previously discussed the value of start-ups, the emergence of new activator...

Through this platform, in the past year, we’ve heard from ground-up initiatives, community movements, as well as aggregators and intermediaries. In this two-part series, with Jen Goh and Dr. Adrian Chan , we go further by taking a deeper dive into ground-ups and their contributions in Singapore, focusing in particular on a recent research report published by philanthropic organisation The Majurity...

One year ago, we documented community initiatives and discussed structural challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. One year later, we are inviting the same guests back to talk about their work, how they are feeling, and what they think we have learnt or have yet to learn from the pandemic. Last year, Adriel Yong started a spreadsheet to collate opportunities for students looking...

One year ago, we documented community initiatives and discussed structural challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. One year later, we are inviting the same guests back to talk about their work, how they are feeling, and what they think we have learnt or have yet to learn from the pandemic. Today, we have Lim May-Ann , a volunteer with Engineering Good’s Computers against COVID in...

Informed by their interviews with individuals in Singapore who experienced online harassment, abuse, or harms, researchers Catherine Chang and Holly Apsley developed Solid Ground , at solidground.sg . Supported by the Association of Women for Action and Research and the National Youth Council, the Solid Ground project offers step-by-step guides and resources complemented by thoughtful aesthetics a...

One year ago, we documented community initiatives and discussed structural challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. One year later, we are inviting the same guests back to talk about their work, how they are feeling, and what they think we have learnt or have yet to learn from the pandemic. Today, we have Mock Yi Jun , who leads the youth-led non-profit Advisory, dedicated to help...

One year ago, we documented community initiatives and discussed structural challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. One year later, we are inviting the same guests back to talk about their work, how they are feeling, and what they think we have learnt or have yet to learn from the pandemic. Today, we have former nominated member of parliament Anthea Ong . Our conversation centres...

In 2020, Daryl Yang was named by The Straits Times as one of 30 young Singaporeans under the age of 30 . He’s been involved in human rights and political education, specifically LGBT rights and disability rights in the country. Today, we discuss his work with the Universal Periodic Review or the UPR, the joint UPR submission on Singapore's LGBTQ+ community , as well as his thoughts on faith-based...

One year ago, we documented community initiatives and discussed structural challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. One year later, we are inviting the same guests back to talk about their work, how they are feeling, and what they think we have learnt or have yet to learn from the pandemic. Today, we have Vincent Ng , general manager of the co-operative A Good Space. We talk about...

After three episodes of the "Thinking about futures" mini-series - with Dr. Adrian Kuah , Cheryl Chung , and Aaron Maniam - we chat again with research associate Eddie Choo about what stood out to him. We end on a listener question about how organisations "do" futures or how organisations should be structured to optimise futures thinking. This is part of the "Thinking about futures" mini-series, o...