Outreach to Lower-income Singaporeans and Underserved Groups to Encourage Utilisation of SG Culture Pass
Ministry of Culture, Community and YouthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Ms He Ting Ru’s inquiry on ensuring SG Culture Pass utilization reaches lower-income and underserved groups through targeted community outreach. Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Mr David Neo highlighted partnerships with the Agency for Integrated Care and People’s Association to organize outings and provide logistical support for seniors and residents. Onsite programming is arranged for nursing homes, while more eligible events are being brought to heartland areas to enhance accessibility. Furthermore, the WeCare Arts Experience fund has been expanded to help social service agencies and grassroots organizations defray transportation and logistics costs for their beneficiaries. These efforts collectively aim to reduce barriers, allowing more Singaporeans to benefit from local arts and heritage programs using their pass credits.
Transcript
26 Ms He Ting Ru asked the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth how the Ministry is ensuring that SG Culture Pass utilisation reaches lower-income Singaporeans and groups less likely to attend arts and heritage events, including targeted outreach through social and community agencies.
Mr David Neo: To help Singaporeans benefit from the SG Culture Pass, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) has partnered social and community agencies that work directly with groups that could face barriers to access.
Through our partnership with the Agency for Integrated Care, MCCY has organised outings with Active Ageing Centres (AACs) for seniors to attend Culture Pass eligible arts and heritage events. We work with AACs to curate suitable events, arrange transport and logistics, and assist seniors with ticket purchases using their Culture Pass credits. For seniors with mobility challenges in nursing homes, we arrange for eligible programmes to be conducted onsite.
MCCY works closely with People's Association to reach communities through their Resident Networks and Community Centres, organising outings to help Singaporeans utilise their Culture Pass credits. We will bring more Culture Pass eligible events to the heartlands so that Singaporeans can access them easily.
The WeCare Arts Experience (WCAE) fund has also been expanded to include Culture Pass eligible programmes. This means that Social Service Agencies and grassroots organisations can apply for the WCAE to defray transport and other logistics costs, so that their beneficiaries (including low-income families and seniors) can more conveniently access and participate in the programmes offered by the Culture Pass.
MCCY will continue to partner social and community agencies so that even more Singaporeans can enjoy our local arts and heritage through the SG Culture Pass.