PM Lee launches Social Service Office in Ang Mo Kio

This is the 14th such office in Singapore, and since operations started in July, there have been about 1,300 residents who have approached it for assistance.
By Sara Grosse, Channel NewsAsia, 10 Oct 2014

The Social Service Office (SSO) in Ang Mo Kio was officially launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday (Oct 10). It will act as a centralised point of contact for about 40 community partners, aiming to bring more coordinated social services closer to needy residents.

Located at 6A Ang Mo Kio Street 53, the SSO is within the Ang Mo Kio 3G Centre, which is about a 10-minute walk from the MRT station. It had started operations in July. Since then, there have been about 1,300 residents who have sought assistance from the SSO. About 70 per cent of them received either financial help or job placement assistance, and more than a quarter of the residents who received assistance were aged 55 and above.



The SSO administers ComCare assistance. For those who require employment assistance, career consultants from the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) are stationed at the SSO every Friday. The profile of the clients are typically families or individuals struggling to make ends meet.

PLUGGING THE GAPS

Besides providing financial assistance, the SSO also have a local planning team, which walks the ground and engages their community partners to identify specific gaps in the delivery of social services in their area. In particular, the Ang Mo Kio office organises bi-monthly conferences with medical institutions to discuss and coordinate care for patients with multiple needs.

"Besides medical issues, they may also be socially isolated," said SSO@AMK General Manager Ang Chee Meng. "This is where we work with Ang Mo Kio's network of senior activity centres, to ensure that these residents are looked after within the community."

Before this office was set up, not all residents and VWOs were aware of the avenues for help, said the area's Member of Parliament Ang Hin Kee. There are plans to tackle this by having a series of workshops between welfare organisations, grassroots leaders, schools and companies. 

"The SSO will be able to share the profile of needs and also coordinate who can do what role, and therefore residents will be better served through a coordinated centre," said Mr Ang. 

The SSO at Ang Mo Kio joins 13 other operational SSOs across Singapore. By mid-2015, there will be 23 SSOs operational in Singapore.