SINGAPORE, 5 November 2018 – President Halimah Yacob spent a fruitful afternoon at HCSA Community Services today, interacting with residents from HCSA Highpoint halfway house and graduates from HCSA Academy Culinary Training Centre.
A charitable organisation with the Institution of a Public Character (IPC) status and a member of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), HCSA Community Services (HCSA) started in 1996 as a halfway house for recovering drug addicts and ex-offenders. Today, HCSA’s work has expanded to include teenage girls who have suffered the complex trauma of physical, sexual or emotional abuse and single parents with limited support.
HCSA empowers these vulnerable groups through its signature programmes – HCSA Highpoint, HCSA Dayspring Residential Treatment Centre, HCSA Dayspring SPIN (Single Parents INformed, Involved, INcluded), and HCSA Academy Culinary Training Centre.
Launched in May 2018, HCSA Academy aims to empower and enable HCSA’s beneficiaries and other vulnerable individuals with the professional skills required to secure stable employment in the F&B sector, giving them a new lease of life and a level playing field to support themselves and their families.
The Academy offers a robust six-week course based on the Food Services skills framework by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG). with job placements facilitated upon successful completion. The culinary training programme ensures that trainees are guided and taught to perform in a real working kitchen. It follows a skill-training adult-pedagogy with hands-on learning of the craft in the Academy kitchen. Equipped with state-of-the-art equipment as part of HCSA’s “Smart Village” digitalisation initiative, the Academy includes online courses and Augmented Reality (AR) in the e-learning process.
President Halimah was taken on a tour of HCSA Academy’s state-of-the-art kitchen and mingled with graduates from the Academy, who were there as part of HCSA Academy’s Alumni Enrichment Program (AEP), which provides refresher training to bring the graduates’ culinary skills up to the next level.
Following a tea reception, President Halimah visited a dormitory at HCSA Highpoint, where she met residents from the halfway house, and made a sock snowman together with them. The sock snowman forms part of HCSA’s Christmas Hamper, and is lovingly handcrafted by HCSA’s beneficiaries and volunteers, with all proceeds going towards enhancing the lives of HCSA’s beneficiaries.
Over the last two decades, HCSA Highpoint has provided a safe and substance-free place for homeless male ex-offenders, newly-released prisoners and those in recovery from addiction, to restart their lives.
Through a transitional living programme, HCSA Highpoint empowers residents to attain more permanent housing, gainful employment and financial independence, so as to live a productive and addiction-free life, and successfully reintegrate into society.
“We are most honoured that despite her busy schedule, Madam President took the time to visit our beneficiaries at HCSA Community Services today”, said Ms Dominique Choy, Executive Board Member and CEO of HCSA Community Services. “We were extremely fortunate to have President visit HCSA Dayspring in September last year, barely two weeks after being sworn in as Singapore’s eighth President. Her visit means the world to the beneficiaries at HCSA Academy and HCSA Highpoint, and serves as an encouragement to the management and staff of HCSA Community Services. We are most encouraged and blessed by President’s unwavering support for the social services sector.”
For media enquiries, please contact:
Vivian Lim
Assistant Director, Partnerships & Communications
HCSA Community Services
Tel: 6326 0456 / 9748 8454
Email: Vivian_LIM@hcsa.org.sg
HCSA Community Services, a charitable organisation with the Institution of a Public Character (IPC) status and a member of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), was started in 1996 as a halfway house for recovering drug addicts and ex-offenders.
Today, our work has expanded to include teenage girls who have undergone the complex trauma of abuse and single parents with limited support.
As a family of dedicated staff, volunteer teams, and corporate and community partners, we continue to serve some of the most vulnerable in society, to give them a future and a hope.
Our mission to empower these vulnerable populations is achieved through our signature programmes:
HCSA HIGHPOINT
Helping ex-offenders rebuild lives
HCSA DAYSPRING Residential Treatment Centre
Giving hope to abused teenage girls
HCSA DAYSPRING SPIN
Empowering single parents
HCSA ACADEMY Culinary Training Centre
Preparing workplace ready F&B professionals
HCSA Highpoint halfway house started in 1996 as a shelter for drug addicts, and now provides a safe and drug-free temporary residence to help and support homeless male ex-offenders and those in recovery from addictions.
Today, the transitional residence focuses on offering homeless and newly-released prisoners from all races and religions a safe place to restart their lives – through a transitional living programme which empowers them to attain more permanent housing, gainful employment and financial independence, so as to live a productive life free from addiction, and successfully reintegrate into society.
Dayspring Residential Treatment Centre provides a caring, safe and therapeutic environment to help teenage girls who have suffered the complex trauma of abuse. Through the application of certified clinical therapy sessions, the centre strives to help these girls to become healthy individuals who can successfully reintegrate into their schools, families and society.
In 2017, Dayspring Residential Treatment Centre upgraded its quality of care by transiting to a Therapeutic Group Home service model for older girls with higher needs and risks.
HCSA Dayspring SPIN (Single Parents INformed, INvolved, INcluded) is an initiative in collaboration with the National Council of Social Service (NCSS). It aims to support caregiving and improve the quality of life for single parents or lone caregivers who lack, or have limited, emotional, physical or practical support.
SPIN provides easy access to resources through an ally network of volunteers and an interactive website empowering single parents to make informed decisions and strengthen their social support network.
HCSA Academy Culinary Training Centre offers a six-week course based on the Food Services skills framework by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), culminating in the highly coveted WSQ Higher Certificate in Food Services (Culinary Arts).
It follows a skill-training adult pedagogy with hands-on learning of the craft in the Academy kitchen, with job placements facilitated upon successful completion.
The Academy aims to equip HCSA’s beneficiaries and other vulnerable individuals with the professional skills required to secure stable employment in the F&B industry, giving them a new lease of life and a level playing field to support themselves and their families.