Senior Minister of State Ms Sim Ann,
Ms Chee Su Eing, President, Design Business Chamber Singapore,
Mr Naoto Fukasawa, Founder, Naoto Fukasawa Design
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
1 Good evening. I’m very honoured to be here tonight for the Design Business Chamber Singapore’s Gala Dinner. First, heartiest congratulations to all winners of the SG Mark 2024.
Design and Social Good
2 DBCS has been instrumental in nurturing and encouraging designers with desire to make a difference for the common good by creating platforms such as Design for Good, Singapore Design Awards and a special category for Singapore Good Design to showcase their talents and contribute meaningfully to the betterment of our communities.
3 Design also has an important role to play in addressing social issues, that’s my personal belief. I’m no expert, but I believe good design involves a deep understanding of the individual’s human being needs. Well-designed solutions can help drive meaningful change and advance inclusion by reimagining experiences, products, and processes. We have seen some good examples of how these have been brought to life.
a. The Silver Pride Lion Troupe, for example, is a multi-ethnic, senior-friendly programme that teaches seniors the basics of lion dance, something we are familiar with. It was borne out of a collaboration between designers, the Lien Foundation and Fei Yue Community Services. The team was looking at resolving low participation rates especially for male seniors in our community, the ‘uncles’ who go to kopitiam drink kopi and go home, and those with mobility issues. Modifications such as redesigned pulley system and padded grips were incorporated to allow both ambulant as well as wheelchair-bound seniors to take part alike. The first pilot has seen male participation rates almost doubled and increased engagement from the different ethnic groups in the community.
b. Another example is Senior Active Force Singapore, not the one bearing arms but champions a framework for Singapore’s ageing population to stay active and continue making meaningful contributions. A group that I happen to also be extremely familiar with. Industrial designer Sim Hao Jie and his multi-disciplinary team of designers, data scientists and social sector professionals engaged more than 300 seniors to identify key motivations and created personas that enable agencies in the social sector to develop programmes to better engage and support seniors. I thank Hao Jie and team for introducing me to Carry-on Carrie and Helpful Henry, and I look forward to working with them to bring their work to life, in reality as well.
4 These examples reinforce the importance of different groups within society coming together – businesses, community groups, volunteers, families and individuals – to co-create solutions that improve lifestyles, environments and societies, living with purpose, empowered by ingenuity.
Launch of Singapore Design Awards 2024
5 I am therefore pleased to announce that, DBCS will be partnering the National Council of Social Service for the Singapore Design Awards 2024. Through this collaboration, DBCS and NCSS aim to bring together the best minds in design to contribute their skills to address pressing social challenges.
6 The design challenge issued for the Singapore Design Awards 2024 is an important one: “How might we encourage and empower youths in need such that they can achieve their goals, build meaningful connections, and thrive as individuals?”
a. Our youth is a group that is very close to my heart. Youths form a vital part of our social fabric and are the future of the nation. We often hear how some quarters of our society think our youth are quite the strawberry generation – good looking on the outside, soft on the inside, quite easily bruised. I beg to differ. I think youth today are worldly wise. They know the world we live in today is unwell. When they look at the world, often through the lens of social media, they see a world that is brittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible. Day to day, they battle a world that peddles unrealistic body images, and bombards them ceaselessly with fragments of information that they struggle to make coherent sense of. It is therefore little wonder, that the National Population Health Survey in 2022 revealed that compared to other age groups, young adults aged 18 to 29 years have the highest proportion of individuals that suffer from poor mental health.
b. And there are the youths that could have perhaps done better, if ours was not a society that pays homage to pedigree academic qualifications. Before I joined politics in 2020, I had spent almost ten years working with, and mentoring ITE students. Doing so has been one of the most rewarding endeavours of my life. In many of them, I see raw talent and ingenuity, waiting to be uncovered. In many of them, I see bright sparks of genius, dulled sometimes by comments that they are not good enough, comments that they might have heard a tad too often, and perhaps even begin to believe in themselves. How then might we change hearts and minds, as a society?
7 I hope what I had just said resonated with some of you. And I call upon all the talented designers present here tonight to step forth and participate in this special and meaningful social cause. Your creativity and expertise have the potential to shape our futures and make a tangible difference in the lives of those who need it most.
Closing
8 Building a strong community takes effort from everybody. It is through our collective ideas, drawn from lived experiences and distilled through collaboration that we can resolve issues and challenges together, and create a society where everybody can chart their own paths.
9 I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to DBCS for their strong commitment to promoting the transformative power of design for social good. I urge all of you to join us in this important endeavour, as we work together to create a more inclusive and caring society through the power of design.
10 Thank you, and I wish you a wonderful evening ahead.