President &
CEO’s
Message
It’s been two years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. We’ve weathered multiple trials and tribulations as a community – from mandatory mask-wearing, a circuit breaker, navigating the constant flux of safe management measures, and varying phases of heightened alerts. Every time the world showed glimmers of recovery, the outbreak of different variants dampened our early optimism.
Yet, despite the struggles, our collective human spirit continued to shine, reminding us of our interdependence, resilience, and the importance of camaraderie. As such, the theme for our annual report this year is “Looking Up, Lifting Up,” a reflection of HCSA’s raison d’être.
2021 also marked HCSA’s 25th anniversary – 25 years of giving a Future and a Hope to the most vulnerable in our society. Despite celebrations being a largely muted affair owing to the on-going pandemic, the support from our donors, partners, and volunteers enabled us to continue delivering quality services to our beneficiaries. For one, the pandemic amplified the importance of lifelong learning, so we organised various educational and upskilling activities throughout the year to help them stay relevant.
HCSA Academy launched its alumni skills enhancement programme to encourage its graduates to continue upgrading their culinary know-how with our trainers. HCSA DRTC and HCSA SPIN also organised workshops on various topics to empower our single parent families and teenage girls with knowledge that could help them with more informed decision making. That aside, A.I.M. society members from HCSA Highpoint were also recognised in the inaugural Yellow Ribbon Awards in celebration of their journeys of second chances.
To ensure HCSA could continue delivering these quality services to our beneficiaries, we took concerted steps to enhance our organisation’s capability. Since embarking on our quest towards digital transformation in 2019, we continue to make significant progress in our ways of working, such as standardising collaborative platforms and centrally managing all networks and devices for improved security.
Besides hardware, it was also crucial that our “heart-ware” be well-maintained, updated, and healthy. We embarked on a pilot coaching programme for our people managers to help them improve their management and leadership skills. Recognising the importance of constructive feedback, we have adopted the 360-degree feedback approach as well and responses to this new approach have thus far been encouraging.
Being mindful of the mental and emotional well-being of all our staff during these trying times, we wanted to ensure everyone was supported and still felt connected with one another. We continued to run hybrid organisation-wide events that enabled these interactions and foster stronger bonds between teams. Our heartfelt gratitude to our HCSA team – for stepping up, forging ahead, and always doing their best together.
For most – if not all - charities, sustainability was a major concern further amplified by the pandemic. We are immensely grateful for the unwavering support of our donors, partners, and volunteers. Because you gave, we could continue empowering and supporting those who need it most.
As we write this, the world is beginning to open-up again. Community Safe Management Measures (SMMs) in Singapore have eased, and travel is becoming possible once more. This represents an exciting time for HCSA Community Services too as we seek to continue growing in the new year. As we look forward to a year of new beginnings and challenges, we thank God for His continuous provision and guidance, and we thank you for continuing to journey with us.
To a better, brighter tomorrow,
