Small solutions, big impact: Enabling Lives Initiative grant recipients share their greatest takeaways

What if we told you that you don’t need to create the next big innovation to change lives? Even the simplest of solutions could make a huge impact.

When MINDS received the Enabling Lives Initiative (ELI) grant in 2023, it was steadfast in its mission to empower persons with intellectual disabilities (PwIDs) by giving them a voice.

With support from the ELI grant, MINDS’ PwID Special Interest Groups programme has created a safe space for its participants to engage in peer-to-peer support and advocate for themselves on issues like inclusive living and employment. The programme also works closely with community partners to co-create solutions for PwIDs to develop important life skills.

Trainers will first task participants to reflect on the questions found in these guidebooks, then follow up with a session where participants get to share their answers among peers in the interest group.

By giving each and every participant the time and space to voice up on their understanding and experience of the topic at hand, the programme enables them to advocate for their own needs and rights, bringing PwIDs one step closer to dignified independent living as they come into adulthood.

Since 2014, the ELI grant has been supporting projects to improve the lives of persons with disabilities. Funded by Tote Board and managed by SG Enable, it empowers social service agencies (SSAs), social enterprises and other organisations to create and scale their social impact solutions.

These ELI-supported initiatives have positively impacted the lives of more than 20,000 persons with disabilities (PwDs) and their caregivers.

“Numbers alone cannot capture the full story. For our PwD friends, we have seen enhanced psychological well-being, improved life skills, better decision-making abilities, and increased participation in social and community life,” says Tan Su Yin, Senior Director of the Grants Division at Tote Board.

We spoke to recipients of the ELI grant to find out how the grant has supported their projects, and what grantee hopefuls can anticipate in this journey to delivering social good.

Here’s what they had to say:

Funding is important - but it’s not everything

In the first two tranches of the ELI, Tote Board committed over $30 million, supporting more than 70 projects and their causes to better the lives of PwDs and their caregivers.

One such ELI-funded initiative is Blended Concept’s TiggieKids. During the pandemic, parents struggled to shoulder the responsibilities of educating their children from home - this was more so challenging for parents of children with special needs as accessible resources were far and few in between.

It was this gap that the team sought to address.   

When Blended Concept first applied for the ELI grant, the educational product was just in its prototyping phases. The grant had enabled them to develop a better user interface and experience, taking it through the initial assessment of product viability till launch.

Today, TiggieKids provides an interactive and high-quality educational solution for children with special needs with tools that promote inclusive learning, such as Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). This is one of the ways in which communication can be supported with a combination of both symbols and text as some children may struggle with verbalising their thoughts. 

TiggieKids delivers interactive educational resources tailored to each child’s unique abilities and learning challenges.

Martin Fung, Blended Concept’s Chief Ed-Tech Engineer, shares that the ELI grant opened a myriad of opportunities for the team. Most importantly, it helped secure:

• Funding for a sustainable social business

• A stamp of recognition, spurring consumers to try the product with confidence

• Access to a robust network of like-minded individuals who wish to achieve social good

It was clear that for members within the ELI network, what they stood to gain went beyond monetary funding.

“It’s a community. It’s not like, you’re a funder and it’s [my] job to meet KPIs. Here it’s about understanding our challenges, our difficulties, [so as to] offer help to us. I thought that was very reassuring,” said Michael Chan, Manager at MINDS.

Fung also recognised that for social enterprises like Blended Concept, “funding won’t be there forever”.

“But funding is to make us stronger, bring us to the next step so that we would be able to serve a larger audience and bring more social good.”

Collaboration beats competition

A networking event brought past ELI grant grantees and grantee hopefuls together, building a collective network to champion social good.

At a recent networking event for ELI 3 — where past grantees were invited to share about their work — the room brimmed with excitement as potential grantees looked to tap into their experience, expertise and insight to better their own processes and ideas.

This is just one of the many opportunities for those in the ELI network to meet like-minded peers, as recipients share that it has been very encouraging to connect with others that share the same sense of purpose.

“As you get to know more partners, you work with more partners. All of us have a common objective and we can all learn from each other,” shares Mohammad Faizal Bin Hussain, Programme Executive at SPD, adding that that’s how end users get to benefit from ELI grantees. He is part of a team that runs activities for persons with mild to moderate disabilities to foster social inclusion.

Scaling for greater impact

Ever had a friend that shaped your life for the better? For so many of us, the pure power of friendship could light up our days and give us strength to journey through life’s challenges.

That’s why, for the Championing a Good Life programme in which volunteers are matched to youths with disabilities to nurture meaningful friendships, it was important to establish efficient processes to engage with an active base of befrienders.

The Championing a Good Life programme pairs volunteers with PwDs to cultivate friendships – strengthening their social skills and improving overall quality of life.

“As we ran the programme, we [encountered] a lot of issues like recruiting and maintaining volunteers… It’s a pretty high-touch commitment, so getting that volunteer interest can be quite difficult,” said Keryna Chandra, Executive for advocacy and community engagement at Rainbow Centre, which runs the programme.

Since receiving the grant from ELI, the project has scaled with a dedicated microsite, an easy-to-navigate database of active befrienders, and a learning experience platform to house training resources for volunteers.

“It has helped us streamline our registration and matching services, and we are hoping it can help to grow the programme,” she continued.

ELI 3 Grant 1 – What to look out for

Applications are now open for Grant Call 1 of the third ELI tranche.

The $23 million grant will now include an Incubation Phase for shortlisted applicants to enhance their proposals with funded workshops and mentorship from Incubation Partners.

Potential grantees can look to the following areas to address the challenge statements accordingly.

Challenge #1 – How might we support PwDs in their journey to achieve independent living, and physical and mental wellbeing in the community? Opportunities areas that grantees could help address include ageing in place, social health integration and support for mental health challenges.

Challenge #2 – How might we prepare and support caregivers of persons with disabilities to thrive across key milestones in their lives? Grantees can look at catalysing community and place-based support, future care planning, and support for family as a unit.

Interested participants must submit their applications by 30 October 2024. Click here to find out more and submit your application: www.eli-grant.sg/apply-for-grant

“We envisage a society where everyone, regardless of their abilities, can thrive,” said Mr Moses Lee, Chairman of SG Enable.

“We look forward to seeing the creativity and dedication reflected in the proposals that emerge from this process. It is exciting to think about the possibilities, and we can’t wait to work with you to turn these ideas into reality.