30 years in retrospect

CDAC has expanded beyond its initial small office with a handful of staff. Times have changed, but our vision stays the same.

1992 • CDAC was incorporated on 22 May as a Company Limited by Guarantee, with the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) and Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations (SFCCA) as the founding members. The Secretariat operated out of a temporary office at SCCCI.

•Minister Wong Kan Seng was appointed as the first Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Mr Wee

Cho Yaw was elected the first Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

•The Chinese Press under Singapore Press Holdings launched a nationwide donation drive which received overwhelming responses from the community and raised $1.8 million for CDAC. Another $3.6 million was raised during the inaugural Fundraising Dinner organised by SCCCI and SFCCA.

The Government also pledged $10 million in grants to match donations raised by CDAC.

•On 1 September, the Central Provident Fund (Contributions to Community Fund [CDAC]) Rules came into effect. The Rules require all Chinese employees who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents to make a monthly contribution to CDAC through CPF Board for the Chinese community's educational, social or economic advancement.

•The CDAC Logo, designed by Mr Lee Tee Song, the then-art editor of Lianhe Zaobao, was launched in September. The logo was inspired by traditional Spring Festival couplets. The top portion of the lines symbolises the efforts and endeavours made by the beneficiaries for educational advancement, self-reliance and self-improvement. The lower portion of the lines symbolises the assistance and support provided by the community, which appears as a strong and unyielding motivating force.

•Within months of setting up, CDAC started providing short-term financial hardship assistance to individuals and families. This was subsequently re-constituted as the CDAC-SFCCA Hardship

Assistance Fund.

1993 • The Tuition Programme for Primary and Secondary students was launched at Community Centres and Chinese Clan Associations. The Programme expanded over the years to MOE schools and CDAC Centres. It remains a flagship programme of CDAC, with more than 10,000 places offered annually.

•The Skills Training Awards Scheme for low-skill, low-income workers was also launched to upskill and enhance the employability of low-wage workers.

•Volunteers recruitment started in the same year. Since then, volunteers have made significant contributions to CDAC programmes. Currently, about 1,300 volunteers support CDAC programmes annually.

•In November, the first two CDAC Student Service Centres (SSC) opened at Redhill and Punggol to serve as drop-in centres for students, offering a variety of enrichment programmes. The number of centres has increased over the years with the strong support from grassroots organisations and community partners.

1994 • In May, the Secretariat moved to a new CDAC HQ at the former Yock Eng High School at 65 Tanjong Katong Road.

•The Supervised Homework Group Programme started at SSC in Redhill and Punggol. The volunteerdriven mentoring and tutoring programme help students who are weak in their studies and lack parental supervision. Through study sessions, games, camps and workshops organised by the volunteers weekly, the students acquire useful life skills and develop motivation and confidence. The programme is now offered at eight CDAC Centres, supporting about 140 students yearly. It is a key programme in CDAC's strategy to provide greater support to the families that need more help.

1995 • CDAC Flag Day was organised with the support of 3,000 members of the People’s Association Youth Movement.

•The first CDAC Volunteers’ Day was held in May to show appreciation and recognise the contributions of CDAC volunteers.

•A month-long auction of CDAC mementoes was conducted with strong support from 7th-month festival organisations island-wide.

CDAC lends a hand to low-income families because financial constraints should not deny a child the chance to education.

1996 • Launch of the CDAC-SFCCA Bursary to provide financial support to Primary, Secondary / ITE and JC / Pre-U students.

•All CDAC SSCs started accepting students from other ethnic groups into the programmes.

1997 • Findings from the study on the effectiveness of CDAC's Skills Training Award Scheme and Tuition Programme were announced. Both studies affirm the effectiveness of CDAC’s two core programmes in uplifting low-income families.

•CDAC website was launched.

1998 • Held the first Skills Training Day to promote the Skills Training Awards Scheme. Full-time Skills Redevelopment Programmes were also launched.

1999 • Jack Neo was appointed as Ambassador for CDAC Skills Training Awards Scheme and made an appearance in the publicity film. This was CDAC’s first time publicising its assistance scheme on television.

2000 • CDAC, along with other Self-Help Groups and Central Singapore CDC, set up a Joint Social Service Centre (JSSC) at Toa Payoh. The centre provides one-stop social services to persons in need from all ethnic groups. As the social service landscape evolved, JSSC was re-constituted as One People.SG to promote racial harmony.

2001 • Singapore was in a recession when the dot-com bubble burst. CDAC introduced an assistance package to help the low-income and unemployed tide over their financial challenges.

•CDAC, along with other Self-Help Groups and Central Singapore CDC, set up a Distributed Careerlink

Network Centre at the Joint Social Service Centre (JSSC) at Toa Payoh. The centre provides one-stop job counselling and placement services for job seekers.

2002 • CDAC celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a charity dinner and raised $1.401 million for the CDAC Endowment Fund through the support of Chinese Clan Associations, Trade Associations, corporations, and CDAC Board Directors and Trustees.

2003 • CDAC and the other three Self-Help Groups jointly launched the Collaborative Tuition Programme (CTP). CTP allows students to participate in tuition run by any Self-Help Group at a subsidised fee. This marks a major milestone in the collaboration between Self-Help Groups.

2004 • kidsREAD started at two SSCs. This was a collaboration with the National Library Board. The programme promotes reading and the cultivation of good reading habits among young Singaporeans, particularly children aged five to eight, from low-income families. Volunteers read books to children and engage them in a variety of activities related to the storybooks on a weekly basis. kidsREAD is now offered to more than 300 children across 12 CDAC Centres and Vibrance @ Yishun.

•In June, Minister Lim Swee Say was appointed as the new Chairman of the CDAC Board of Directors.

•In December, the first Ready for School project was introduced at CDAC HQ to help low-income families and their 1,000 schooling children prepare for the new school year. The project continued to expand over the years and moved from CDAC HQ to Nanyang JC in 2012 to cater for the increasing number of beneficiaries. It now provides timely support for more than 8,000 families before they start the new school year.

The CDAC mobile bus brings programmes to the community to equip parents with parenting skills.

2005 • Launched the Parent Development Programme (PDP) to impart parenting skills and strengthen family bonds. In 2017, the programme was split into two: The Parent Education Programme focuses on helping parents better support their children along the learning journey, while the Family Resource Programme focuses on guiding parents in improving the use of family resources and strengthening family bonding.

•A CDAC mobile bus started travelling to HDB estates, schools, and workplaces to bring CDAC programmes and job matching services directly to the community.

2006 • CDAC reorganised its programme according to a 3 X 2 framework to focus on the three target groups—Students, Workers and Families—and two enablers—the Volunteers and the Community.

•The Family Workfare Support Programme was introduced as part of the reorganisation. The new programme uses a case management approach to support families going through financial hardship.

•With support from the Ministry of Education, CDAC and the other Self-Help Groups launched a four-week bridging programme. This programme helps children with insufficient preschool education strengthen their English and Mathematics foundations and improve their social skills before they enter primary school the following year.

2007 • Started Project C.A.R.E.—a volunteer-initiated programme to provide care and support to the needy elderly and expose volunteers to other areas of volunteer work. Project C.A.R.E. expanded in 2013 with SFCCA as the collaborating partner.

•The Pre-school Assistance & Support Scheme (PASS) was first introduced in January 2007. To help more needy families to lighten the financial burden of sending children to kindergartens, CDAC raised the income criteria cap and granted a higher subsidy amount from January 2008.

2008 • Set up CDAC@ Bukit Panjang in July, the first multi-service centre that served all target groups. It was also the first centre co-owned by CDAC and the Community Development Council. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong officiated the centre's opening in December 2008.

2009 • Since its inception, CDAC has focused on students with “dual needs” (low-income families, poor academic performance). In 2009, CDAC piloted two programmes to develop students with academic potential from low-income families.

The first, Project Excellence, is an experiential learning programme customised for promising Primary 3 to Primary 6 students. This programme instils learning confidence in the students to help them further excel in their studies.

The second is an arts enrichment programme in collaboration with NAFA to help children develop in a well-rounded way and fulfil their non-academic potential.

2010 • All Student Service Centres were repositioned as CDAC Centres to bring CDAC programmes closer to the community for all its targeted groups. CDAC Centres run programmes for students, parents and workers. The centres also serve as a platform for community engagement and partner collaborations.

2011 • SPH Foundation started making annual donations to CDAC by providing 1,000 needy families with subscriptions to The Straits Times. This is to encourage the needy to heighten their awareness of local and world affairs. The donation continues till today.

2012 • CDAC marked its 20th Anniversary with a refreshed logo designed by Ms Lim Sau Hoong and her design team. The new logo signifies dynamism and earnestness and highlights CDAC’s focus on People. Ms Lim also composed the catchy CDAC song and a tagline, “A little from all, together it’s more”.

•The year also saw the change of Chairmanship in both the Board of Directors (BOD) and Board of

Trustees (BOT). Minister Gan Kim Yong succeeded Minister Lim Swee Say as the BOD Chairman.

Mr Chua Thian Poh took over the BOT Chairmanship from Mr Wee Cho Yaw.

"Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. It takes patience and time for programmes to take root

and come to fruition.” - Mr Ong Ye Kung, 2017

2013 • In the past, CDAC’s programmes for students focused on primary and secondary students. In April, it made a strategic move to pilot the Ready for Poly programme. Besides receiving stationery and transport vouchers, the students and their parents also receive tips on better managing the transition from secondary to post-secondary education.

2014 • CDAC set up its first school-based student care centre (SBSCC) at Bendemeer Primary in July. The centre offers after-school care and homework supervision as well as enrichment programmes todevelop the students holistically.

•In May, the first Information Sharing Session for Seniors was launched in collaboration with Lianhe

Wanbao. The session, conducted in Mandarin and different dialects, covered information on the

Pioneer Generation Package. After this, CDAC conducted similar information-sharing sessions to help seniors understand various issues pertinent to them.

•In October, CDAC organised a fundraising dinner and raised $17.8 million. The event was initiated by the Board of Trustees to strengthen CDAC's financial resources so that it could help more needy families. To date, this is the most successful CDAC fundraising event in terms of the amount raised.

•The Government pledged $10 million in grants to match the donations raised by CDAC.

•Set up CDAC@ Ang Mo Kio to bring programmes and activities to the Ang Mo Kio community.

2015 • CDAC revised the contribution rates for the CDAC Fund in January. This was the first revision since the inception of the contribution scheme in 1992. The revision increased the CDAC Fund collected from about $13 million yearly (2014) to more than $21 million. The increase in funds enables CDAC to roll out more programmes to support more families.

•As part of the SG50 celebrations, CDAC initiated a “Heart Knots” event, where 50,500 heart knots were made by the community partners, volunteers, and public to express their encouragement, support and well-wishes to CDAC’s beneficiaries.

•CDAC also presented special Jubilee Packs to 10,000 low-income families. Each Jubilee Pack comprised $100 grocery vouchers.

2016 • CDAC, in partnership with the other Self-Help Groups, launched the Big Heart Student Care Centre. This was a strategic collaboration between the four Self-Help Groups to provide after-school care services and additional support to students from all ethnic groups. Today, Big Heart Student Care is provided in 30 primary schools, serving close to 5,000 students.

•CDAC@ Bedok opened in February. This is the 13th, and the last CDAC Centre planned for in the CDAC community outreach strategy.

2017 • Minister Ong Ye Kung took over the CDAC Board of Directors Chairmanship from Minister Gan Kim Yong in June.

As CDAC marked its 25th Anniversary, key changes were made to its programmes and schemes: - Programmes supporting families and workers were integrated. Using a case management approach, holistic support could be provided for families more effectively. - The Fulfilling Aging Programme was introduced to address the needs of a rapidly ageing population. - The Youth Empowerment and Aspiration Programme (YEAP) was launched to support post-secondary students' educational and developmental needs.

These changes were part of the "Planting Grass, Growing Trees" strategy described by Minister Ong Ye Kung. The strategy encompasses a set of generic programmes that can reach out to families who need help and another set of targeted initiatives to provide the more needy with in-depth and sustained support.

Be brave enough to dream. There is always someone here to see you through your dreams.

2018 • Inspired by the approach of the Supervised Homework Group Programme for upper Primary students, CDAC launched the “YOUth Can Shine” programme to provide mentoring and tutoring for students as they transition from Primary to Secondary school.

•Vibrance @ Yishun, a new SHGs Centre, started operating in Yishun.

2019 • CDAC took a few further steps in its strategic direction of "Planting Grass, Growing Tress":

• Tuition and enrichment classes were merged into tuition classes with enhanced fee subsidies to reach out to more students. With the improved subsidy, most students receive a complete waiver of their tuition fees.

• The household income cap for needy families to qualify for CDAC assistance schemes and programmes was raised from $1,900 to $2,400. This was the highest increment percentage in CDAC's history.

• CDAC caseworkers were given the authority to extend the duration and quantum of financial assistance for needier families facing more challenging hardships.

2020 • In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, CDAC moved its programmes and events online. An additional $10 million worth of assistance was introduced to help beneficiaries whose livelihoods were impacted by the pandemic. This included the disbursement of more than $5 million in education grants to 10,000 low-income families with young and school-going children, bursaries and educational grants to an extra 5,000 students, and supplementing the assistance vouchers given out in the Ready-forSchool project. CDAC spent a total of $33.5 million in 2020 to support beneficiaries. To date, this is the highest amount spent on assistance in the history of CDAC.

•The Government announced a $10 million grant for CDAC to support more families who need help.

2021 • CDAC launched two new initiatives—Project FRESH and Project BASIC. Project FRESH provides needy families with vouchers to buy fresh groceries; Project BASIC helps lower-income families defray the cost of internet subscriptions.

•As many low-income families were negatively affected by the pandemic, CDAC made an exception for 2020 bursary recipients who were still in school to receive the 2021 bursary without having to reapply.

2022 • CDAC marked its 30th Anniversary with a few events. These included the “A Little from All” Virtual Run, which encouraged community participation, and the “A Wish Come True Project” to help 100 low-income families fulfil their wishes.

•A strategy review was conducted with three new initiatives announced to better support children from low-income families:

•CDAC will further enhance enrichment programmes for preschoolers to give children from low-income families a more robust educational foundation • CDAC will provide longer-term support for some children from low-income families. • CDAC will continue enhancing and broadening the learning experiences of students in our programmes.

•After serving CDAC for 26 years, Dr Chua Thian Poh retired from his position as the Chairman of the

Board of Trustees after CDAC’s 30th AGM in June. Mr Ng San Tiong, the Immediate Past President of SCCCI, was elected the new Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

•In September, CDAC completed the first major renovation of its headquarters since it relocated to its current premises in 1994.