Friends of Community Care Awards

The Friends of Community Care (FOCC) Awards was launched by the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) in 2020 as a pinnacle award to recognise partners outside the Community Care sector, that have achieved excellence in supporting and growing the Community Care sector.

Beyond the FOCC Awards, we welcome you to join our FOCC network – a dedicated platform created to foster learning and collaboration among like-minded businesses and non-profit groups to support seniors to age well in the community. Whether you are a corporation looking to implement elder-friendly initiatives or non-profit organisation seeking partnerships, our network provides a space for knowledge exchange and mutual support.

About the Friends of Community Care (FOCC) Awards

The objectives are to:

Honour and Appreciate

Show appreciation and recognise the contributions of partners outside of the Community Care sector for their unwavering support for the sector.

Showcase Community Spirit

Profile inspiring and innovative partnerships between partners and the Community Care sector.

Catalyse Support to the Sector

Encourage more partners outside the Community Care sector to contribute to the sector.

FOCC 2024 Award Categories

Corporate (Small & Medium Enterprise)
Corporate (Large Enterprise)
Government and Public Institution
Non-Profit Organisation
Honorary Award*

* The Honorary Award is conferred to winners who have received the FOCC Award three times, in recognition of their continuous impactful contribution towards the Community Care sector.

Nomination Call

Nominations for the FOCC Awards 2024 are closed. Winners will be announced at the Community Care Work Plan Seminar 2025.

Nominations are assessed based on the following:

Impact of contribution
- Contributions help the Community Care sector in a significant way
- The number of organisations that have benefitted
- Whether the impact is felt over a sustained period of time
- Contributions made for the last three years with emphasis in the last one year
Sustained commitment
- Nominee commits to sustaining the contribution
- Whether nominee played a catalyst role in garnering support for the sector
Out-of-the-box contribution
- Whether contributions made were innovative, creative, and/or had a refreshing impact on organisations and/or seniors

* Community Care sector refers to nursing homes, community hospitals, eldercare centres (such as Active Ageing Centres, Senior Care Centres, etc.) and home care providers serving the seniors in the community.

Watch This

Two of our partners recount how their organisations have been supporting the Community Care sector and memorable episodes from their contributions.

FOCC Awards 2023 Recipients

Honorary Award

Corporate Category (Small and Medium Enterprise)

Corporate Category (Large Enterprise)

Government and Public Institution Category

Non-Profit Organisation Category

Special Commendation

FOCC 2021 Awards Recipients

Corporate Category (Small and Medium Enterprise)

Boon Keng Road Fish Head Bee Hoon

Boon Keng Road Fish Head Bee Hoon located at Bedok is run by owner Mr Low Boon Chuan. Besides his full-time role as a hawker, Mr Low volunteers with Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities (THKMC) as a delivery driver for their ad hoc events. He also frequently sponsors necessities for the seniors, such as beds, cabinets, and other household items.

To ensure needy seniors get to enjoy nutritious fresh meals regularly, Mr Low has been sponsoring fish porridge for seniors in nursing homes since 2017. When Mr Low started volunteering with THKMC in 2020, he extended his fish porridge treats to seniors attending THKMC’s 12 Seniors Activity Centres (SACs), providing 1,000 packets of fish porridge a month to these centres. Inspired by his charitable deeds, Mr Low’s friends joined him in sponsoring and delivering freshly prepared fish porridge as monthly treats for vulnerable seniors. Mr Low even leveraged social media like Instagram and Facebook to match ready sponsors with the various nursing homes and SACs. Since January 2021, Mr Low has provided over 8,000 packets of fish porridge to benefit thousands of seniors islandwide.

DancingMind Pte Ltd

DancingMind (DM) is a digital health platform that utilises virtual reality (VR) to create effective therapy for patients with Stroke, Dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, and Children with Special Needs. Since 2019, DM has been working with Thye Hua Kwan Nursing Home (THKNH) to incorporate digital virtual reality therapy for their residents, aimed at improving patients’ therapy and recovery journey. DM’s staff also volunteer their expertise and time with THKNH, working with their staff to conduct VR therapy activities for the residents. Working closely with the nursing home’s therapy team, DM helped conduct surveys to gather data needed to evaluate the effectiveness and success of the VR therapy programme, and which in turn helped enhance their current programme.

Compared to readings taken pre-therapy, it was found that the mood and energy levels of residents improved after the VR therapy sessions. Overall, mood levels improved by 36% while energy levels improved by 35%. A spin-off digital VR initiative that focused on dementia residents at THKNH also found that 93% of residents who participated had a positive experience. To ensure long-term sustainability of the programme and that the VR therapy was integrated into the nursing home, DM took time to train THKNH’s staff, and conducted refresher sessions whenever it was needed. DM also volunteered occupational therapy services to assist THKNH’s rehabilitation team.

The growth and service transformation has not just positively impacted THKNH patients, but DM’s other hospital and direct patients between the ages of 4 and 106, across Singapore, the UK, and USA.

Gurame Indonesian Restaurant Pte Ltd

Gurame Indonesian Restaurant (GIR) is a F&B restaurant that serves halal Indonesian cuisine. During Circuit Breaker in 2020, GIR collaborated with Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities to provide relief and support for affected families affected by COVID-19. Within nine hours upon activation, GIR quickly mobilised its resources to supply halal meals twice daily islandwide. Keeping up its commitment to ensure those who needed meal assistance would not go hungry, GIR voluntarily put in five additional operating hours, starting as early as 4am instead of the usual 9am, to ensure timely preparation and delivery of meals. GIR further went beyond its commitment to also provide meals for seniors and families serving Quarantine Orders. From April to June 2020, GIR provided a total of 60,000 additional meals for seniors in the community who had difficulties accessing meals due to the circuit breaker.

Corporate Category (Large Enterprise)

FairPrice Group

Since 2009, NTUC FairPrice has contributed over $3 million to NTUC Health, Society for the Physically Disabled and Ren Ci Hospital to support their infrastructure and different programmes. To boost seniors’ digital skills and literacy and help them stay connected to the community, NTUC FairPrice donated $250,000 to NTUC Health’s Eldercare Trust. This helped upgrade NTUC Health’s IT infrastructure, benefitting over 5,000 seniors.

Staff from NTUC FairPrice also volunteer in the nursing homes as befrienders and activity facilitators to bring joy to the community and support digital literacy programmes for the seniors. Their frequent visits have resulted in them forming a bond with the elderly. During the pandemic, NTUC FairPrice conducted virtual outings, and started sending video clips with caring messages to encourage the residents in the nursing homes, so that the elderly continue to feel connected and cared for. In addition to sending goodies to Community Care organisations’ staff and beneficiaries, NTUC FairPrice also contributed care packs to healthcare workers to thank them for their hard work in battling COVID-19.

Singapore Exchange Limited

Since 2004, Singapore Exchange (SGX) has been rallying the financial community and listed companies to support the needs of underprivileged children and families, persons with disabilities as well as the elderly through its SGX Cares initiative. To date, SGX Cares has raised over $42 million for more than 50 charities, helping beneficiaries lead a more positive, meaningful and comfortable life.

SGX Cares offers funding and volunteer support to various charity and Community Care organisations including AWWA. When the pandemic posed a challenge to fundraising events, SGX pivoted its annual SGX Cares Bull Charge Charity Run to a virtual format, which enabled runners to join in from different cities for the first time. With the commitment of corporate sponsors and partners, the two-week virtual fundraiser successfully raised $3.63 million. Partnering Community Chest, all proceeds were channelled to the adopted beneficiaries for 2020: AWWA Ltd., Autism Association (Singapore), Fei Yue Community Services, HCSA Community Services and Shared Services for Charities. This supported AWWA and other Community Care providers in the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment, thermal scanners and essential medical supplies such as hand sanitisers and surgical masks. As a result, front-liners were able to sustain a high level of quality care and support to beneficiaries.

In March 2020, SGX rolled out a $5 million care package to provide immediate support and relief following the COVID-19 outbreak. It comprised a $1.5 million contribution to national healthcare-support programmes including The Courage Fund facilitated by the National Council of Social Service and its fundraising arm, Community Chest. SGX staff also committed an additional 1,000 volunteer hours, participating in various AWWA programmes such as a lantern-making workshop and providing lunchboxes and care packs for the elderly.

This is the second year that SGX has been awarded the FOCC Award.

Temasek Foundation

Temasek Foundation (TF) returns to win its second FOCC Award this year, for its unwavering support for the Community Care sector, reaching out to seniors through AIC.

Even before the onset of COVID-19, TF has been supporting the Community Care sector through programmes such as Care Close to Home, which offers health, social and personal care support to vulnerable seniors living in rental blocks with low or no caregiving support. TF also supported Project Silver Screen, a nationwide functional screening programme for Singaporeans aged 60 and above.

When COVID-19 struck, TF supported various care initiatives including an extension of the service timings of the AIC hotline from April to June 2020. Since July 2020, TF has donated 20,000 anti-microbial masks to seniors through Silver Generation Office, over 2,000 blood pressure monitors, over 2 million facial masks, nearly 700 oxygen concentrators to the community care sector and over 9,500 plant ionizers for Community Care staff, amongst a long list of donated items.

TF’s contributions in monetary and in-kind donations have reached all 170 parent Community Care Organisations consisting of nursing homes, centres and home care providers. Their support helped these organisations save costs in managing extra COVID-19 precautionary measures.

TF’s steadfast support has truly uplifted the entire Community Care sector, benefitting our providers and our seniors.

Government and Public Institution Category

Republic Polytechnic

Through concerted efforts across three academic schools in Republic Polytechnic (RP), many ground-up projects advocating mental health and senior health support have been implemented alongside Community Care organisations. In particular, RP’s School of Sports, Health and Leisure had prototyped a gamified, evidence-based, volunteer-led and home-based dementia-prevention dual-task exercise programme to combat dementia, social isolation and frailty amongst seniors in Singapore. The ‘RejuvenAGE Programme’ was scaled up over the past two years, involving many cohorts of final year project students. The project team involving AIC, AWWA and People’s Association plans to upscale RejuvenAGE in Dementia-Friendly Communities across Singapore, and facilitate certification courses at RP in order to certify more members of public in dementia-awareness and frailty-prevention in our communities.

Besides RejuvenAGE, RP also worked with AWWA on public outreach as part of curriculum to raise public awareness of dementia and mental health. Furthermore, the School of Management and Communication helped with creating a Dementia-Friendly Community in the north through the prototyping of sensory corners for seniors with dementia.

Additionally, the School of Hospitality at RP helped NTUC Health with quality improvement and research to enhance overall elderly and caregiver journey. Projects include reviewing the elderly experience in the day centres as well as programme recommendations for seniors. RP also spearheaded a study aimed at helping seniors and caregivers ease their stress when first enrolling to day care. Caregiver stress is recognised as primary trigger of many mental health issues amongst caregivers. The caregivers RP had interviewed have highlighted that in addition to the usual caregiver stress they face, the enrolment process of day care had been one of their biggest stressors and this is largely due to resistance from seniors. Today, RP continues supporting NTUC Health in developing and refining the process of enrolment to ease the stress from this transition period for both seniors and caregivers.

Despite the challenging COVID-19 situation, RP students and academic staff also went beyond their scope of work to visit caregivers and connect with socially-isolated seniors within their homes, to befriend them and better understand the difficulties they face.

Singapore Police Force

To help vulnerable persons within the community, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) has been working with community partners like AIC to equip officers with the necessary skill sets to identify persons who may be at risk or show signs of mental health issues, and refer these individuals to the appropriate source of help.

Since the collaboration in 2018, SPF has worked with AIC on community mental health which include training officers via e-learning course modules and workshops for mental health awareness. These modules touch on signs and symptoms of common mental health conditions such as depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and dementia, and techniques to better communicate with persons with mental health conditions. These initiatives have improved officers’ ability to manage persons with mental health issues.

During the Circuit Breaker (CB) period, SPF partook in the “Support for Persons living with dementia Over COVID-19” (SPOC-19) programme, introduced by AIC to help families whose loved ones living with dementia unintentionally break safe distancing rules. Over 1,000 persons living with dementia have been registered under SPOC-19 since its launch in May 2020. Through various identifiers such as emergency contact stickers and safe return cards, officers have been able to better identify and assist persons living with dementia in reuniting with their caregivers.

Tote Board

Tote Board (TB) has been supporting the Community Care sector since 2009, providing over $290 million of funding commitments between financial years 2009 and 2024. TB’s funding support has enabled the sector to ramp up capacity to serve more beneficiaries, improve capabilities to deliver quality care, and innovate services to provide integrated and person-centred care to beneficiaries. In addition, TB’s $150,000 cash donation to AIC supported season one of the MediaCorp TV programme “Learn Together with Me”. Aimed at raising awareness especially among seniors on public hygiene during COVID-19, the show garnered a viewership of 700,000.

TB continuously seeks to understand the needs of the Community Care sector and initiate new funds to address identified gaps, such as organisation development, fundraising, and piloting of new models or methods. For instance, the TB Community Health Fund (TBCHF) provides a useful enabler for the sector to pilot new models of care or innovative methods to coordinate care.

To uplift the community and improve the lives of other groups, TB also supported the community care sector providers with other types of funding support, such as in the areas of Leaving Well in the Community, Building a Community Dementia Care System, Case Coordination and Care Management, Tote Board Non-Profit Sector Transformation Initiative, Tote Board Social Service Fund, and Tote Board Enhanced Fund-Raising Programme.

This is the second year that ToteBoard has been awarded the FOCC Award.

Non-Profit Organisation Category

Lien Foundation

Philanthropic organisation Lien Foundation (LF) was quick to respond to the needs on the ground when COVID-19 struck. In April 2020, LF started the Charitable Organisations Vital In Downturn (COVID) Fund which was divided into two tranches for its partners. Tranche 1, totalling $1.2 million, is unconditional and can be used to meet any need as deemed fit by the charities as they deal with the health and economic fallout of the crisis. They could, for instance, use these funds to cover the unfunded portion of key programmes, fortify flagging incomes, meet urgent manpower needs or improve safety and welfare of clients and colleagues. Eighteen charities, including The Salvation Army Peacehaven Nursing Home and AWWA, received support to help them through the challenging times. Tranche 2, by application, was meant for longer-term needs such as seeding new programmes and test-bedding solutions to meet changing needs. The Foundation disbursed a further $2.08 million to fund 19 proposals.

One supported organisation was The Salvation Army Peacehaven Nursing Home. The nursing home organised meals and snacks for 340 seniors when family visits were not allowed. A playroom was created at each level that served about 90 residents, allowing seniors to enjoy physical and cognitive activities. The nursing home also carried out retrofitting of the dining and multipurpose halls to create a liveable space for their employees.

Another organisation receiving support from the COVID Fund was AWWA, benefitting its elderly and early childhood clients as well as their staff. As part of Tranche 2 support, LF funded the hardware and software solutions to aid AWWA in rolling out virtual social intervention for its clients.

LF’s support fund has enabled both The Salvation Army Peacehaven Nursing Home and AWWA to devise ways to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 restrictions on their residents and staff, allowing them to improve the physical, mental and emotional well-being of vulnerable seniors in the community.

PAP Community Foundation

Since 2017, AIC has been partnering PCF Sparkletots to foster regular intergenerational activities between the preschools and Community Care clients. In February 2021, AIC and PCF Sparkletots renewed their commitment for another three years. As COVID-19 restrictions were gradually lifted, the PCF Sparkletots and Community Care organisations re-started non-physical and virtual intergenerational activities such as exchanging videos, care packs and festive greetings.

As of June 2021, 131 PCF Sparkletots have been matched with 34 Community Care organisations. To ensure frequent activities for the seniors and enable more pre-schoolers to participate, two to four preschools were matched to one Community Care organisation. Over a period of 12 months, each pre-school will have at least two to four intergenerational activities lasting up to an hour with the assigned Community Care organisation. Already, some pre-schools have increased their frequency from quarterly to monthly activities with their assigned organisation.

Activities by PCF Sparkletots have brought much joy to the seniors, keeping them socially engaged during the pandemic when the various restrictions have resulted in greatly reduced activity level. Many Community Care organisations including Bright Hill Evergreen Home and Grace Lodge gave positive feedback that the programme has created a meaningful channel for pre-schoolers to engage our seniors, build bonds and reinvigorate the elders with a sense of purpose.

Reach Out

Founded in 2019 by Ms Grace Chuah Siew Har, Reach Out 心手相连is a grounds-up initiative, an informal volunteer platform that brings together like-minded people who wish to reach out to the underprivileged. Reach Out comprises around 50 committed volunteers and some ad-hoc volunteers. Volunteers walk the grounds monthly to search for light bulbs that are burnt out or faulty, replacing them with new bulbs. They also follow up with relevant government agencies regarding pressing structural, functional and maintenance issues affecting these residents.

Under their One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure programme, Reach Out works closely with real estate agents to collect functional, pre-loved furniture and appliances, giving them a new lease of life in the modest homes of rental flat residents. In addition, Reach Out carries out 1-for-1 pillow exchange for residents in rental flats each month. Overused, soiled pillows are exchanged with brand new pillows.

Reach Out also distributes fresh ingredients and groceries to needy residents in the community under their Blessing Bowl programme. Under their Sharing Loaf programme, volunteers collect unsold bakery products at the end of each day, distributing them to over 18 nursing homes, Senior Activity Centres as well as residents in rental flats right after the collections. Before festivities, they collaborate with a team of hairstylists to provide seniors residing in rental flats with free haircuts. In July 2020, Reach Out started a Soup On Wheels Programme and has since donated over 750 sets of soups and bento sets to public rental flat tenants.

Special Mentions Category

Health Promotion Board

In January 2021, Health Promotion Board (HPB) progressively deployed six Mobile Vaccination Teams (MVTs) comprising 50 doctors, nurses and administrative staff to support the national COVID-19 vaccination efforts to reach out to vulnerable seniors who might find it challenging to visit a vaccination site in person due to mobility issues.

Working closely with the relevant government agencies, HPB organised and planned the exercise with nursing homes and eldercare centres to bring vaccination on-site at these places. These included setting clinical standards and developing operating procedures to ensure safe vaccination for residents and staff of these locations, which were adopted as the standard protocols for commercial medical service providers when the vaccination programme was scaled up. Within three months, the teams completed over 300 deployments covering more than 100 locations across Singapore.

HPB expanded the MVT efforts and set up Home Vaccination Teams (HVTs) to provide COVID-19 vaccination for the homebound individuals. HPB has been instrumental in rolling out COVID-19 vaccination across Community Care organisations speedily.

FOCC Awards 2020 Recipients

FOCC Award Recipients (A-R)

ACI Singapore – The Financial Markets Association

ACI Singapore – The Financial Markets Association (ACI Singapore) is the leading industry representative for Financial Markets Professionals in Singapore.

ACI Singapore has been raising funds for the less fortunate in the society through their annual ACI Singapore charity fundraising event. This charity drive is now well recognised as a fixture in their annual calendar in the Financial Markets, and is widely and actively supported by their members, the dealing fraternity and financial institutions. St. Andrew’s Mission Hospital (SAMH) and the Singapore Anglican Community Services (SACS) have been beneficiaries of ACI Singapore’s annual charity golf and dinner since 2005 and 2019 respectively.

The services of SAMH and SACS, which benefited from the strong support of the annual ACI Singapore Charity Golf and Dinner, include St. Andrew’s Community Hospital (SACH), St. Andrew’s Autism Centre (SAAC) and St. Andrew’s Nursing Home (SANH) (Taman Jurong) (operated by SACS).

In addition, members of ACI Singapore also started their befriending activities at SANH (Taman Jurong) in 2019. Allocated proceeds from the ACI Singapore Charity Golf and Dinner went towards strengthening and developing care services of St. Andrew’s Community Hospital (SACH) and SANH (Taman Jurong), as well as the setting up of a medical clinic at the SAAC.

In all, ACI Singapore Charity Golf and Dinner contributed around $3.5 million towards the work of SAMH and SACS.

The generous donations from ACI Singapore have helped SACH to step up their care programmes and enhanced their care capabilities to meet the complex healthcare needs of the seniors. Through the contributions of ACI Singapore, SACH managed to set up a Patients Support Fund, which provides assistance to patients with financial constraints. Contributions from ACI Singapore also went towards supporting the Medical Outreach to the Community Programme – a volunteer-led free primary care and health education initiative, which reached out to low income communities in the heartlands and blue-collared workers living in dormitories.

ACI Singapore’s latest contribution was to SANH (Taman Jurong). This nursing home provides long-term residential care to persons, particularly the elderly requiring long-term nursing care, persons living with dementia and persons with stable psychiatric illness. This is the first such nursing home in Singapore with a hybrid service. In addition to providing financial support towards the work of SANH (Taman Jurong), its members also organised befriending activities for the residents.

City Developments Limited

City Developments Limited (CDL) has been a faithful supporter of Assisi Hospice since as early as 1999, and the co-organiser of Assisi Hospice’s signature fundraising event “Assisi Fun Day” which raised more than S$1 million last year. Out of the total amount, more than 25% of the proceeds were raised by CDL. The mega fair, with over 100 stalls, is a community event put together by volunteers from all walks of life, including corporate organisations, church groups, schools and family-run businesses, attracting around 10,000 visitors.

As co-organiser, CDL is actively involved in the event planning process and rallies the support of its subsidiaries including Millennium Hotels and Resorts (MHR), which contributes its signature food items for sale as well as attractive hotel stays as prizes for the charity lucky draw. CBM Pte. Ltd., another co-organiser of the event, provides manpower and expertise for areas such as logistics, cleaning and security. Additionally, CDL employees also volunteer their time at the carnival, running stalls to raise funds for the patients of Assisi Hospice. Apart from Assisi Fun Day, CDL is also an avid supporter of its various fundraising initiatives, such as the annual gala dinner and other ad-hoc initiatives.

Beyond supporting Assisi Hospice’s key fund-raising initiatives, CDL has been engaging Assisi Hospice’s residents over the years by organising activities during special occasions such as Mid-Autumn Festival and Christmas.

Lien Foundation

The Lien Foundation is a Singapore-based philanthropic house guided by a ‘radical’ approach to tackle problems at its roots. It views innovation as a permanent state of exploration, and embeds design into its work in early childhood development, eldercare and end-of-life issues.

Lien Foundation has been a strong advocate in supporting the dementia community. It championed the physical and care design of an eldercare facility, Jade Circle, to promote the autonomy, choices, privacy and dignity of persons with dementia with The Salvation Army Peacehaven Nursing Home, and strengthened the psychosocial capabilities and programming at Apex Harmony Lodge. The Foundation started the “Forget Us Not” initiative in partnership with Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and the Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA) to foster dementia-friendly communities.

More recently, it released Hack Care, a publication that showcased Do-It-Youself (DIY) hacks to create dementia-friendly homes. With ADA, the Foundation launched the Post Diagnostic Support programme to proactively equip and strengthen the support and services for those who are newly diagnosed with dementia from Khoo Teck Puat and Tan Tock Seng hospitals.

The Foundation works with a range of partners to run the Gym Tonic strength training programme for seniors, and is supporting an upcoming AWWA initiative to redesign centre-based dementia care.

In the area of early childhood development, the Foundation has partnered organisations to spearhead initiatives that can better support children from low income backgrounds and those with special needs. These include Circle of Care with Care Corner, the Early Childhood Holistic Outcomes (ECHO) framework with KKH and Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities, and Making Every Preschool Inclusive (MEPI) with Rainbow Centre. Lien Foundation also partnered AWWA to realise Singapore’s first inclusive preschool, Kindle Garden, and is supporting the organisation’s inclusion aspirations to uplift capabilities of educators in the primary school sector.

Rockwell Automation Asia Pacific Business Centre Pte Ltd

Rockwell Automation has partnered with TOUCH Community Services in the past 12 years supporting the needs of their seniors. Over the years, Rockwell Automation volunteers have built strong working relationships with the TOUCH Senior Activity Centre (TSAC) team in Geylang Bahru (GB). TSAC see Rockwell Automation as a trusted collaborator who is willing to explore and develop innovative and heart-warming ways of engaging seniors in the community. The key is to establish a long-term relationship with the elderly and develop friendship with individuals.

One of the novel experiences developed through a partnership between TOUCH Adventures, TSAC and Rockwell Automation was to introduce ‘dragon boating’ to seniors. The activity was carried out in 2014, 2017 and 2019. As of now, about 150 seniors had their once-in-a-lifetime experience in getting out and trying adventure sports. Dragon boating has become a perennial favourite of the seniors, as 130 or more volunteers from Rockwell Automation participated and collaborated with the seniors in this fun and exciting activity.

Apart from the dragon boating activity, festive themed parties with stage performances by Rockwell Automation and TOUCH staff were arranged (e.g. Mid-Autumn, and Deepavali Celebrations), which brought smiles and laughter to 200 seniors.

It is the culture of Rockwell Automation to care for and contribute to the society at-large. Employees generously and dedicatedly volunteer their time and efforts to service the community and also arranged major fundraising campaigns within the Company. The Company launched a matching programme to raise as much as proceeds as possible. SAC seniors were also invited to the fundraising event of Rockwell Automation as part of their giving efforts.

Following the Company’s global responsibility and social sustainability direction, Rockwell Automation lives up to its commitment towards social causes – through volunteerism and financial contributions. It has demonstrated long-term commitment, growth and sustained support towards elderly causes, benefitting the SAC GB community for more than a decade.

The company gradually extended its Corporate Social Responsibility efforts beyond the elderly to children from underprivileged families and people with special needs.

In addition to community events, Rockwell Automation also contributed to several Home Improvement Projects for frail seniors and provided them with a safer and more conducive living environment. All these meaningful projects composed beautiful memories for all participants.

Looking ahead, Rockwell Automation and TOUCH Community Services will continue to go hand-in-hand to support and care for our community.

FOCC Award Recipients (S-Z)

Shinnyo-en Singapore

Volunteers from Shinnyo-en Singapore have been partnering Ren Ci Hospital since 2000. They first volunteered at Ren Ci’s first nursing home at Moulmein. As Ren Ci closed the Moulmein branch and started Ren Ci @ Bukit Batok and Ren Ci @ Ang Mo Kio, the Shinnyo-en Singapore volunteers subsequently made arrangements to visit both nursing homes on a monthly basis, to organise activities and befriend the residents. Activities include karaoke, arts and crafts, games and festive celebrations.

Over the years, the volunteers have formed meaningful friendships with the residents. Even though a number of their volunteers are Japanese and do not speak local dialects, their dedication and sincerity to serve, can be felt through their gestures and expressions. The local volunteers speak various dialects and interact well with the senior residents.

Besides their own organised activities, Shinnyo-en Singapore volunteers are also ever ready to respond to calls for assistance in other areas. For example, they also lend support to outings that are organised by Ren Ci Hospital or other Ren Ci volunteer groups. In recent years, the volunteers have also become involved in organising outings to the neighbourhood for the residents of Ren Ci @ Ang Mo Kio. To date, they have visited Ang Mo Kio Hub, the market and Bishan Park. These outings mean a lot to Ren Ci’s nursing home residents.

In addition to the monthly visits, the volunteers also support Ren Ci’s medical social workers for ad-hoc house cleaning activities. They ensure that the Ren Ci Community Hospital patients planning for discharge, have a safe and clean home to return to, in a bid to prevent further illness that may lead to re-admissions to hospitals.