Strengthening the Social Entrepreneurship Sector

Assoc Prof Fatimah Lateef asked the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports whether his Ministry will formalise a directory of social enterprises and consider providing more sources of structured funding and assistance to enhance the structure and capability of the social entrepreneurship sector.

Mr Chan Chun Sing: Social enterprises are businesses with a social mission. MCYS offers funding support to "Work-Integration" Social Enterprises through the ComCare Enterprise Fund (CEF). These are enterprises that provide training and employment opportunities for individuals from needy or disadvantaged groups, such as persons with disability, ex-offenders, youths-at-risk, persons recovering from psychiatric illnesses and so on.

We have recently expanded the scope of the Fund. In addition to funding new social enterprises, existing social enterprises with a good track record can also apply to expand their business and employ more beneficiaries. In January 2012, we had also launched CEF Schools and CEF Young Start-ups, which are initiatives to fund and encourage youth social entrepreneurship.

Beyond grant financing, MCYS also supports local social enterprises through public education, capability building and talent development. To raise awareness of social enterprises, MCYS will continue to work with partners such as the Social Enterprise Association to educate consumers and help social enterprises better profile their products and services. We will also develop a social enterprise website, which will include a directory of social enterprises across various industries, listing of resources available to social enterprises, as well as general information on social enterprise. This will be launched in the second half of 2012.

MCYS will be exploring an internship programme for social enterprises with the local Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs). This will help to raise awareness of opportunities in social entrepreneurship among youths, and provide first hand work exposure in a social enterprise. We will also look at ways to increase accessibility to training, and to bring expertise from the private sector to assist social enterprises with their business capability.

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