the arts and heritage closer to the wider
community. There are already many such initiatives, such as People Association's PAssionArts for
the community, NAC's Silver Arts Festival for our pioneers and seniors, and NHB's Heritage
Grant Scheme for ground-up community efforts. MCCY has been increasing accessibility to
the wider community, because we believe that the arts and sports have the potential to
uplift our society -- including the underserved and the vulnerable. So I wholeheartedly agree
with Mr Baey Yam Keng and also Mr Seah Kian Peng that the arts and sports have a transformative
power that can touch lives, give hope, and help heal. I will first speak about what we
are going to do through the arts.
I am happy to share with Mr Baey Yam Keng that the National Arts Council has been working
with the social service sector to support quality arts programmes in sports schools
and also in VWOs. A good example is the Hua Mei Elder-centred Programme of Integrated
Comprehensive Care, which offers a range of arts programmes as part of its integrated
services. And one of their regular participants, Mdm Maligah shows great talent and keenness
in pottery. When she is engaged in it, she is so focused that she forgets about her chronic
pains. In a way, the creative arts serve a dual purpose, as therapy and as well as an avenue
for Mdm Maligah to express herself and also her artistic talent. talents.
We hope to forge many more partnerships like the one at Hua Mei, and so NAC is setting
aside an additional $1.5 million under ArtReach, for VWOs which are interested to work with
artists to develop programmes for wellness, intervention or rehabilitation. NAC will match
interested artists with VWOs, and will be working with the Community Development Councils
(CDCs) to ensure that artist-led projects are coordinated and have maximum impact in
the community.
Mister Chairman, I will now share an example from the sports. As Members will recall, we
established the SportCares Foundation under Vision 2030. Before I go on, I would like
to this opportunity to thank Mr Seah Kian Peng for his personal effort in supporting
SportCares, as pointed in making his speech. In fact, I am very pleased to note
the strong support from the community and also
from the corporates. We started raising funds last year with a $1 million government matching
grant, and we now have a total of $2.2 million that will reach out to and serve 4000 children
and youths across 44 sports programmes and projects.
SportCares' flagship programme, the Saturday Night Lights (SNL) football programme, has
produced encouraging results. It is helping more than 300 youths develop good values and
a sense of purpose in life. This model of sport and life coaching has been replicated
in other sports, such as the CareRunners programme. And we will roll it out to additional sports activities
such as dragonboating,
canoeing and kayaking in the coming months.
Mister Chairman, ArtReach and SportCares initiatives can make a positive difference because of
strong support from the community itself -- they include Singaporeans, artists and sportspeople
who give of their time and effort, passion and skills, to reach out to the underserved
and the vulnerable. I think they deserve our appreciation.
I have shared with Members MCCY's inclusive approach of using the arts
and the sports to engage the under-privileged in our society. We do so because we envision
Singapore as a caring and inclusive society, a home where all of us can live more meaningfully
and purposefully through the arts and through sports.