Companies should be more involved in social work by forming long-term and sustainable partnerships with the non-profit sector. This can also help ease the manpower crunch for social workers, said Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin on Friday (Mar 4).
He said: “We need more social workers because as more people get older, there’ll be increasing needs. That’s why it’s even more important for us not just to think about hiring more social workers, but how do we as a community begin to come on board and be involved, because that’s where I think the value-add kicks in, because we can augment the numbers and we can complement the roles that the VWOs (voluntary welfare organisations) and our social workers are carrying out on a day-to-day basis.
“Corporates have many skills that are highly valued by the social service sector. Some of our VWOs comment that they look forward to corporates lending their expertise – be it in administration, HR, finance, technology – to the VWO, so that the service delivery can be improved.”
Mr Tan was speaking at an SG50 appreciation event organised by Emergenetics International-Asia Pacific. He also took part in a dialogue with about 180 leaders from the public and private sector.
They discussed the social and family development landscape and the role of organisations in creating a caring community in Singapore.
Emergenetics International-Asia Pacific helps people and organisations realise their potential through self-improvement programmes created by them, including Emergenetics Profiles, which are surveys that reveal how people think and behave.
The company pledged 2,500 of such Emergenetics Profiles, worth S$250,000, to people and the organisation development of the non-profit sector over the next 25 months. In 2015, it also organised a community initiative to celebrate SG50 and a decade of Emergenetics in the Asia Pacific region.
news source: channelnewsasia.com
