Collaborations
Allkin - Dr Vasoo Community Innovation Award
Breakfast Buddies led by Lydia Susiyanti Sukarbi and Halinah Yatim
Pilih Pilih - A community led fresh food distribution project
Resident Changemakers
A thriving community built on love, kindness, trust, and a sense of empowerment where every voice is heard is the ultimate goal of many societies. An Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) framework, which looks to empower individuals and values diversity in thought, culture, and individual traits as community assets, can play a vital role in creating such environments.
Allkin, a leading social service agency, applies the ABCD approach in its community-building efforts. In 2024, it introduced the Allkin - Dr Vasoo Community Innovation Award which celebrates ground-up initiatives that are conceived and led by residents, often in collaboration with professionals. This Award hopes to encourage residents to see themselves as active contributors and changemakers, rather than passive recipients of support.
Within fund raising, securing support for manpower needs in preventive social services such as community building work remains a challenge, primarily since the strength of relationships and social networks are difficult to measure using traditional metrics. Yet, the long term social and economic benefits of a community bonded by higher values beyond sub-identities such as race and religion cannot be ignored. Recognizing this,
OGF has pledged resources to sustain the Award, including funding for manpower to perform asset mapping, project identification, capacity-building, and coaching.
Panelists and Allkin staff
Smol Boss - Children Spreading Joy
Founders Elizabeth and Benjamin with their volunteer friends
Volunteers engaging seniors at St Luke's ElderCare in game of whack-a-mole!
You are never too young to make a difference! Smol Boss was founded by siblings Elizabeth and Benjamin, who at just 11 and 7 years old respectively, have already launched a series of meaningful initiatives that bring joy to diverse communities. Balancing full school schedules, they continue to show what is possible when compassion meets commitment. Fittingly, Smol Boss’s tagline is Small Ideas, Big Smiles!
Together with their dedicated group of volunteers, Elizabeth and Benjamin demonstrate that impact is not defined by age. Guided by empathy and a sincere desire to help others, Smol Boss has delivered uplifting experiences through both small, personal efforts and collaborations with larger organizations such as Sheng Shiong and GIC.
OGF is proud to support Smol Boss by providing volunteer assistance, empowering the young to drive positive change within the community.
Smol Boss partnering with Sheng Siong
Allkin - Building Caring and Resilient Communities
Community Kitchen - A resident-led CNY Celebration
SuperMamas organised a halloween block party to bond with families with children
Kopi w Kawan Kawan (AMK Blk 469) - Some regular kopi kakis
Kopi w Kawan Kawan (AMK Blk 469) - Coffee and snacks station. Come for the coffee, stay for the conversations!
Community building is a complex process with no one-size-fits-all approach. It requires a deep understanding of the lived realities of residents and stakeholders, as well as the nurturing of organic, supportive networks that enable mutual growth and shared purpose. At its core, community building is about connecting individuals around a common purpose and a shared commitment to care for one another. The stronger these relationships, the more resilient the community becomes.
Singapore is not short of community-building efforts, thanks to the active involvement of government agencies and grassroots organisations. While top-down, large-scale initiatives play an important role in mobilising the broader community, bottom-up, resident-led support at the individual level is crucial for long-term sustainability. In particular, identifying, equipping, and supporting resident changemakers helps ensure that community efforts remain grounded, responsive, and enduring.
Allkin’s Community Development team champions the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach to facilitate meaningful connections among residents. Examples include a resident-run community kitchen, regular coffee sessions such as Kopi with Kawan Kawan, and support for SuperMamas—a group of young mothers who came together to support one another while working to improve their neighbourhood.
OGF complements these efforts by providing sustained volunteer support, facilitating conflict resolution, and offering decision-making and consultation support to strengthen community-led initiatives.
Children Tackling Littering in Community
Awareness posters
Community litter picking event
Our changemakers in discussion
We often forget that children, with their open hearts, can be powerful protagonists of change within their communities. Motivated by this belief, members of the OGF team, in their capacities as parents, reached out to other parents in their neighborhood to welcome their children to a collaborative space to discuss the social issues they observe around them.
A group of children, aged 7 to 11, came together and identified litter as an important problem in their estate. Meeting weekly, the children took ownership of the entire process from surveying and documenting litter, to developing an action plan, creating awareness posters, and meeting residents door-to-door. They then carried out a community litter-picking event, and assessed the results in the weeks that followed.
Child Development - Growth in the children’s sense of empowerment, communication skills, and social & environmental awareness.
Community Impact - A noticeable decline in litter during the litter picking event and in the following weeks, suggesting the initiative had an educational effect on residents.
Community Asset Discovery - Our team discovered like-minded individuals who had started the SmolBoss initiative. We look to future collaboration with them.
Community Engagement - Far East Organisation, the condo management, attended the litter-picking event, acknowledged the children's efforts, and took note of additional resident concerns over re-cycling initiatives.