Look No Further: Creating Impact in Your Own Backyard Through Partnerships
by Hazel See
American historian and activist Howard Zinn said: “Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the scale of global challenges and the humanitarian crises being splashed across our screens and newspapers. And many of us think that having a social impact means going somewhere far away, sacrificing a lot of our time and resources, and maybe even having to do everything on our own, which can hinder us from taking the first step forward.
But the answer to creating social impact can be closer than you think.
Doing good while doing well
Five years ago, while I was working at Singapore’s Civil Service College (CSC) I wanted to encourage more of my colleagues to volunteer and give back to the community. I strongly believed that helping in their community would be good for them — while doing good for the community, it would also help them gain insights to do well in their jobs. Their day jobs involved developing the capabilities of other public officers, and volunteering would help them meet more end customers, and develop a better understanding of on-the-ground issues. But the biggest challenge they cited was the lack of time and experience to get involved.
Think big, start small and tap into existing networks
To bring about sustainable change, prototyping and experimentation is key. Knowing that the barriers were time and a lack of experience, I was looking for ad-hoc, event-based volunteering opportunities to create awareness initially among a group of potential influencers. I had the option of designing a meaningful volunteering experience on my own, or tapping into existing networks.
I chose to work with Dignity Kitchen, a social enterprise that equips disabled and disadvantaged persons with skills for working in hawker centres (food courts), job placements in the industry or support to set up their own food stalls. It was already providing learning journeys for CSC’s clients to understand its innovative business model. Their passion about what they do is infectious. They were also keen to have more customers at the kitchen — to grow awareness of their work, for trainees to practice serving, and they wanted to use the food they prepared to serve disadvantaged seniors as well.
In the first run of the event, we brought seniors at risk of social isolation living in Redhill for a lunch treat at Dignity Kitchen. My colleagues sang karaoke and interacted with the seniors. They also took the opportunity to understand how Dignity Kitchen designed their training since CSC is in the training business too. The experience was memorable. Colleagues told me they not only felt that they served the community through that afternoon event, but also learned something from Dignity Kitchen’s sharing. And a few of them also wanted to spend more time with the seniors.
A second installation was quickly planned, with an added outing to the Gardens by the Bay. A new partnership was formed serving seniors living in Yishun on a regular basis (no longer ad-hoc) with Lions Befrienders. With the increased time spent with the seniors, CSC’s employees gained new insights about the seniors’ lives, and wanted to involve more colleagues in sustained community service. We started to shift mindsets in our workplace, as people saw how community involvement need not be too time-consuming, and interacting with beneficiaries can be deeply fulfilling.
Scaling up — leadership, buy-in, sustainable partnerships
As our efforts grew, our ambition grew. The time was right to scale up our impact, beyond serving a small group of seniors in the community. How might we involve more colleagues in different causes that resonate with them? What were other opportunities for us to do good and do well? Could the opportunities come from our immediate neighbourhood? Could it also come from our core business operations as well? Who could we partner?
Three elements are key to scale up social impact:
- Leadership
It is critical for the leadership team to support scaling up the organisation’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. Because members of the leadership team had been involved in volunteering — interacting with residents, serving food, packing goody bags — they were very supportive. The CEO encouraged 100% staff participation, personally met the partners and encouraged going beyond community service to look for opportunities to work with social enterprises and reduce our environmental footprint.
2. Buy-in
To ensure broad-based buy-in, employees were involved in selecting a charity. Communication on volunteering opportunities and the organisation’s support for 100% staff participation were integrated into corporate events and messages.
3. Sustainable Partnerships
Establishing the right partnerships for mutual benefit was key to successful scaling up. In the area of community service, CSC’s employees voted to work with Beyond Social Services as the adopted charity for 2017–2018. Their focus and approach on community building to support underprivileged children and youths resonated with most employees.
Although Beyond Social Services did not have a community building programme in the vicinity of CSC’s office, they were willing to allocate resources and partner CSC in starting a new programme in Ghim Moh, near our office. They saw a mutual benefit in increasing their outreach and impact. CSC valued Beyond Social Services’ community building expertise to develop employee engagement and community building skills.
This win-win partnership has since yielded some success. There are regular community engagement activities e.g. festive celebrations, free-marts, soccer clinic and games, exercise groups, community conversations etc. A self-organised group of mothers have emerged, named ‘Genuine Hearts’, with the objective of helping their neighbours. Many more possibilities have emerged through the partnership designed with multiplier effects.
From small beginnings: growing our impact
Besides the partnership with Beyond Social Services for community service, CSC also developed two other partnerships as part of its CSR initiative. CSC provides refreshments during its training programmes, which generated food waste despite efforts to reduce waste. However, the amount generated was not sufficient to justify implementing an on-site solution. Through a partnership, food waste recycling became possible. CSC segregates its food waste and participates in the National Environment Agency’s pilot for co-digestion of food waste and water sludge to produce biogas for energy generation.
Many of the public officers who enroll in CSC’s programmes had also provided feedback that a café serving good coffee would enhance their learning experience. CSC partnered with Foreword Coffee, a specialty coffee social enterprise which employs crew with disabilities and special needs, to set up a café on-site. This allows all learners to interact with Foreword Coffee’s staff, and generates a multiplier effect in shifting mindsets to champion more CSR partnerships to do good and do well.
As I reflect on this experience, my key takeaways are that we don’t need to look far to create social impact. You might be surprised by the opportunities that exist to make a difference in your own organisation and in your neighbourhood. Think big, start with small acts, and act now by partnering across sectors to draw on complementary strengths and create sustainable change.
This article was written by Asia P3 Hub’s Partnerships Advisor, Hazel See.
Hazel has more than ten years of experience in strategic planning, leadership, organization development, learning and development, and service management through various roles in the public sector. She is a strong advocate of human-centred design and futures thinking and regularly applies them in research and consultancy projects. She is also one of the authors of Governance, a primer on Singapore’s governance principles. Today, she is a Partnerships Advisor at Asia P3 Hub.
Reach out to her via LinkedIn.
