Daily Lessons from Life 15 August 2013 - First Social Service Office opens at Kreta Ayer

"First Social Service Office opens at Kreta Ayer - AsiaOne Aug 15, 2013 SINGAPORE - The first Social Service Office (SSO) has been officially opened in Kreta Ayer by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) on Thursday. The MSF aims to open 20 such offices in the next two to three years to bring social services closer to the community and to facilitate social assistance to the people. Kreta Ayer was chosen because of its larger proportion of elderly residents and public assistance residents. Six other offices have also started operations in July. The site was jointly launched by Acting Minister for Social and Family Development Mr Chan Chung Sing, Mayor for Central Singapore District Mr Sam Tan, and Dr Lily Neo, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC. Minister Chan Chun Sing said "The network of Social Service Offices will establish the foundation for our future social service delivery." He added that the offices will allow the Ministry to develop local solutions to local social challenges, leveraging on the local community resources and integrating the efforts of the Voluntary Welfare Organisations. These organisations include the Family Services Centres, Senior Activity Centres and other social service providers. Local planning officers from the SSO also walk the ground and engage partner agencies to improve the needs of residents. The Kreta Ayer office has received positive feedback from the residents in Chinatown, Outram and the surrounding areas. According to the MSF, they are happy with the centre as it is closer to their homes." It is a good initiative PROVIDED that the previous social service delivery model and mechanism are NOT working as well as the expectations set. Hopefully this is NOT a BIG GOVERNMENT route but MORE productive and effective delivery of public services to the needy. Lessons for me are: 1. try news things IF the old ways are NOT working and ineffective or can be better. I am all for it; 2. at the same time, we need to make sure that the NEW things and ways ARE indeed BETTER than the old ones. This means TRUTHFULLY following up, monitoring and reporting on the new things and ways work. It is OK if it does not work as well as long as it is BETTER THAN the old ways. Be truthful in following up. Which I am will be done; 3. the resources invested and any saving from 'duplicated' resources MUST be looked at so that the saving can be used to help the needy. As it should be. As we are dealing with the elderly, I believe the dialect capabilities of the Social Service Officers will need to be beefed up. Bilingual in English and Mandarin is always a MUST. Make sure we have these resources to be effective. As a side comments on the deadly 'suppression' in Egypt ... "Islamists vowed to rally Thursday in support of deposed president Mohamed Morsi despite a violent crackdown that sparked Egypt's worst day of violence for decades, with over 500 people killed - AFP 15 August 2013 The violence prompted vice president and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei to resign, saying he was troubled over the loss of life, "particularly as I believe it could have been avoided". The dramatic assault on the sit-ins began shortly after dawn on Wednesday, with security forces firing tear gas before storming the sites." When religion is involved with politics, it is simply a toxic and explosive concoction. It is wise that in Singapore, we have ZERO tolerance for mixing Religion, Race and Language in politics. I am thankful for it. Mr ElBaradei did the right thing. There is really NO excuse here!