Launch of Building All Groundups for Success Together
Speech by Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law at the Launch of Building All Groundups for Success (BAGUS) Together
19 January 2024
Professor Leo Tan
Chairman of OSCAR Fund Grant Committee, Temasek Foundation
Mr Tony Soh
Chief Executive Officer, National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre
Mr Tan Choon Shian
Chief Executive, Tote Board
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Introduction
- A very good evening to all of you. I am very delighted to launch the Building All Groundups for Success Together. From a long phrase, we can turn it into BAGUS. It is an excellent acronym that aptly describes not just the work that groundups do, but also the impact they made on the ground.
Groundups Contribute by Meeting the Needs in the Community
- In my very first speech when I first came to MCCY about three years ago, I spoke about how Singapore is like a rich tapestry.
- Each of us in our own way represents one little thread. On our own,
very thin, fragile, and of one colour. But together, we are strong in
strength, interwoven, rich in colours, and blessed with tremendous
diversity. This is our Singapore Tapestry.
- All of us contribute to and we want to be part of something bigger than
ourselves. As part of this Tapestry, our collective efforts will make us
stronger than the sum of our parts. And that is the very ethos of why
we had come together to make BAGUS Together happen – ground up,
from the ground, for people around us.
- When people come together to do something good for the community, it is not
just the local impact that we make, but the longer-term, sustainable and ripple
effect that can be felt.
- This is why although many groundups might be small, just starting out,
and informal in nature, I believe they can still create a tremendous
outsize impact.
- Take for example, Her Rise Above. I just met them outside a while ago.
I had the pleasure of speaking to its co-founder, Ms Sapna
Kewalramani earlier. Her groundup helps women who are juggling their
home-based businesses while facing their own issues – looking after
children, seniors, or are full-time caregiver – but have some time on
their hands to run their businesses. Her Rise Above helps them turn
that little skill into something bigger than themselves, making an impact
on society. Her Rise Above also play the role of volunteer mentors in
coaching and journeying with the mentees as they grow their fledgling
home-based businesses. If you have a chance, I encourage you to go
out there and look at their products. The products look professional and
well marketed.
- Over time, the mentees do not just gain a skill. They also gain
something more important – value and dignity. This is the whole
essence of why we step forward to impart, through mentorship, value
lessons via skills. More importantly, Her Rise Above nurtures the
confidence of the mentees and their families in the strive to uplift
themselves, stand on their own two feet, recognise that they can do it,
and achieve resilience in the long-term. All this, individually and
eventually collectively, makes for a stronger community that we call
home, we call Singapore.
- This is a good example of how a groundup initiative can create a real
and positive social impact, beyond the individuals that we helped.
- Another advantage of groundups, as we heard from Tony earlier, is that they
are all very nimble – they move, evolve and react to ground needs very
quickly.
- More than 100 groundups were formed in 2020 alone, tackling a
myriad of community needs, particularly during the COVID-19
pandemic. This statistic alone heartens me. It tells me that during times
of need, as we were in 2020, more people stepped forward as they
realised that when we have more, we give more. Those that needed
help can benefit from those in society who are more blessed.
- Ms Zulayqha Zulkifli and her siblings started Project Hills at the onset
of the pandemic to distribute daily necessities to families in rental
communities. If you cast your mind back to 2020, something that was
as simple as daily necessities was not so simple. It was not easy to go
out and buy them. It was also not easy to look after a family, especially
in a rental community. She observed that families had diverse needs
which sometimes large-scale support might not be able to cater to.
- This is something that is a reality on the ground, which you need to be
on the ground in order to appreciate it. We have sometimes very big-scale projects, such as food distributions, but there are cracks in the
ground that we sometimes missed out. Groundups are nimble, more
effective, have a better sense of the network, are plugged in, and able
to serve those which the bigger projects might have missed out.
- Project Hills strived to provide not just necessities, but customised
necessities for each families’ specific needs. A family with elderly
would have very different needs from a family with young children.
Challenges faced by families, especially in rental blocks where school-going children were not able to be in school and not able to do home-based learning, required customised services and necessities.
- Initiatives like Project Hills can help address the unmet needs of particular
groups, needs that broad-based policies and programmes – whether by
government or by non-government organisations – cannot easily, or
sometimes just fail to cater to.
- But beyond meeting specific community needs, the act of simply coming
together, serving others, forging connections between those stepping forward
and the people they serve.
- They send a very powerful message that we are all part of the same
community, all part of the same world, all in the same place, all striving
for the common aspirations, wanting to achieve a common destiny and
more importantly, that we are doing this together.
- Break The Cycle is a groundup co-founded by Andrew Ong and two of his
friends to help those who were incarcerated.
- As an ex-offender himself, Andrew wanted to help ex-offenders
reintegrate successfully back into society. Those of us who had worked with the Yellow Ribbon project or ex-offenders will know how important
that is. It is in fact more important than what you might do, the lessons
you might learnt while incarcerated, to ensure that you reintegrate
successfully. Andrew sought to provide ex-offenders with a community
network when they are released, that could support them in their
transition.
- Using cycling as a starting point, Andrew and his co-founders built a
cycling community which ex-offenders could be a part of. Today, Break
The Cycle has a membership base of 20 members, with a mixture of
non-ex-offenders and ex-offenders amongst them, successfully
integrating them even as they pursue the activity they love –cycling.
They all enjoy their cycling rides around Singapore, enjoying the
different corners of Singapore on their bikes. This is something that I
can really resonate with.
- According to the inaugural Groundup Initiative Study 2023 by NVPC, there are
an estimated 450 groundups in Singapore today. This reflects the passion, the
belief and the vision of many Singaporeans seeking to create a better home
for us and collectively a better future for us all.
- We want to encourage groundups in the good work that they are doing.
Supporting Groundups in their Journey
- To better support groundups, NVPC has put together resources in a
handbook entitled “Leading from the Groundup”.
- This handbook draws on the findings of the Groundup Initiative Study
2023 and consultations with more than 200 groundups. It includes
valuable experience sharing and tips from other groundup leaders.
- For the groundups who are thinking of starting out or just starting out,
the handbook also offers a comprehensive guide on identifying areas
of focus – what are the areas of focus that you can think of – how to
rally support from volunteers, and perhaps most importantly, for a
nascent or a young new groundup, how to get resources.
- For groundups looking to scale up, the handbook also provides useful
frameworks to guide the growth of the organisation, such as in the areas of organisational performance, the importance of gaining momentum and traction, and how to manage your growing number of volunteers.
- These resources will hopefully enable groundups to establish strong
foundations and ensure that they get the base right, so that their
influence and impact on society can be exponential.
Tripartite Collaboration to Build a Strong Groundup Ecosystem – An
Illustration of Forward SG
- But we all agree, and that is why we are here, that we can do even more to
help our groundups thrive even more, serve even more, and make a bigger
impact.
- This is why NVPC and its partners, Temasek Foundation and Tote Board,
have come together to launch BAGUS Together. This initiative will support
and strengthen our groundups even more by connecting them with like-
minded partners, to share resources and in tandem, grow their capabilities
together.
- All three founding members of BAGUS Together – NVPC, Temasek
Foundation, and Tote Board – are no strangers to the groundup landscape. In
fact, they are no strangers to the community and social work landscape. They
had been contributing tremendously in their own ways. They realised that by
coming together, they can power up. They can collectively be better than the
sum of three.
- Temasek Foundation, through its OSCAR fund, provided groundups
with the resources to address specific community needs.
- Tote Board saw the need for a comprehensive understanding of the
groundup landscape, to understand what this means, who they are,
who are they serving, where is the volunteer pool coming from, and hence funded NVPC to do the Groundup Initiative Study 2023 that I
spoke about.
- NVPC, on its own part, had connected groundups to potential funders
and facilitating partnerships via its Groundup Central platform.
- All three saw the opportunity to come together in the same space to work
together to build a strong groundup ecosystem. This is a testament to the
Tapestry analogy that I had brought up earlier. All three coming together,
lending weight to one another, seeing things with a slightly different lens on
different issues by coming together for the greater good.
- BAGUS Together will support groundups in a few ways. Let me just share
them briefly.
- NVPC, Temasek Foundation, and Tote Board will aggregate their
existing programmes and resources to provide one-stop support to the
groundups.
- They will tap on their respective networks, and they have large
extensive networks, to recruit potential partners to contribute to the
groundup ecosystem.
- They will also develop resources and programmes for groundups which
are at different stages of development, recognising a new groundup will need different guidance, resources, and skillsets from one which has
already been established in the community.
- For instance, there will be workshops to guide interested
changemakers who are yet unsure of how to start their own
groundups.
- Mature groundups, on the other end of the spectrum, can also
benefit from workshops and advisory services to help them
scale up and strengthen their capabilities to serve a broader
landscape.
- Indeed, all of us in this room, outside, and all of Singapore, can do something
for the groundup. There is nothing too small as a contribution. We can all
contribute to a vibrant groundups ecosystem. How do we do this?
- Simply by putting your hands up, offering your time, talents or treasure,
- Providing your ideas to shape the strategies for BAGUS Together,
- Collaborating with the groundups to organise joint programmes, or
- Contributing funding, networking, or simply volunteering.
- I encourage everyone to lend your support, no matter how big or small, to our
groundups under BAGUS Together. Your support will enable the groundups to better serve our communities. And give even greater momentum to the SG
Cares movement to build a far more caring and inclusive Singapore.
Conclusion
- So as I close, I want to make two points.
- One, to once again express my appreciation to NVPC, Temasek Foundation,
Tote Board, as well as the many other partners who had made this initiative,
BAGUS Together possible.
- The second point I would make is to the groundups. There is a reason why its
ground and up. I think you have to scale up, that is the up, but at the same
time, you must remain grounded, because that is where you get your strength.
To be grounded, to understand the people you serve, to understand the
communities you live in and are a part of, and scale up your reach more
exponentially. I think that is the magic formula of the groundups.
- Once again, congratulations, thank you very much to all the ground uppers
who had stepped forward. You have lent us your energy, time, talents and
treasure. More importantly, we want to move this movement forward. So that
it becomes not just a volunteer of time, but it becomes a mindshare shift, that
we understand this as an ethos for us in Singapore. That when we say we
want to build a Singapore tomorrow that is truly inclusive, accessible, and
caring, that we do not just trot this off as a mantra, or as a nice phrase, but we
actually do this as a deed, as a guiding principle for us in Singapore.
- On that note, I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year. BAGUS Together
is really wonderful initiative which I encourage all of you to share this to as many people as you can, in your community, in your own network, and in your
circle of friends, to build BAGUS Together even more. Thank you very much.