Speech by Minister Desmond Lee at the Launch of Singapore's First Social Enterprise Community Urban Launch
Jun 1, 2024
Rejuvenation of West Coast Park
A very good morning, and a warm welcome to West Coast Park.
Many of you may live in the vicinity, and I know all of you frequently visit this park. For those of you who frequent and love West Coast Park, you would be happy to know that there are many exciting developments that coming up for this part of Singapore. For instance, we will be enhancing this park into what we call a Destination Park, with unique recreational elements.
Destination Parks are regional parks that have thematic identities and unique features that attract visitors from all over the island. Since 2012, we have progressively developed three of such parks – Admiralty Park, East Coast Park, and Lakeside Garden of Jurong Lake Gardens. If you would like to know what West Coast Park might look like, or the expectations that we have for West Coast Park, just think about the other three parks that I have listed, and you know what we are headed towards.
As a Destination Park, West Coast Park will serve as the western gateway for the Greater Southern Waterfront. Different zones of West Coast Park will cater to the interests of various groups of residents, including families, nature lovers, fitness enthusiasts, and more.
Apart from West Coast Park, we also plan to enhance and upgrade Labrador Nature Park as well as HortPark into Destination Parks. And we intend to connect all 13 parks in the southwest Singapore through a series of paths and trails. So you can literally walk, jog, run, from one park to the other, all the way from Labrador Nature Park to Jurong Lake Gardens. This will expand the variety of nature-based recreational experiences along the West Coast for residents and visitors alike.
From now until July, we are seeking the community’s suggestions on what they would like to see when we rejuvenate these 13 parks. Some people may have broad ideas about what these 13 parks should look like, and some people who live near any of these parks would have very specific requests and suggestions. We welcome all of them. In fact, we have received some interesting suggestions so far.
These include ideas about how to incorporate elements of the parks’ history and culture into their thematic design. The second idea that came to us was how to ensure that the parks remain inclusive for users of all ages and users of all abilities – I thought that was very thoughtful. The third idea that came about was how can we raise public awareness for community programmes held at the parks. Some residents said that there are these programmes, but some of us don’t know about them, how can you better publicise them so that we know, so that we can bring our families along. Others told us that they hoped to see park facilities that blended seamlessly into the natural environment, and yet provide convenience for park users. We will study these suggestions and more carefully and incorporate some of them into the plan where possible. In fact, there is a pop-up booth that my colleagues have set up, and they have been going around the southwestern part of Singapore and the island, to get ideas on the rejuvenation of these parks, and I invite you later to please share your ideas and your requests.
In the meantime, we have continued to green West Coast Park, and progressively improve the park amenities, to ensure that they remain inclusive for everyone. For instance, last year, we had enhanced the flooring at the inclusive play area, to ensure that children continue to be able to play safely. In addition, since 2023, we have planted over 400 trees under the OneMillionTrees movement together with residents and our stakeholders.
Launch of First SECUF
Today, as part of our park rejuvenation plans, I am very glad to be able to launch Singapore’s very first SECUF – Social Enterprise Community Urban Farm. And this will be City Sprouts @ West Coast. This is a collaboration between City Sprouts and the National Parks Board (NParks). City Sprouts is a social enterprise that focuses on urban sustainability and community development – as you can see all around us, with nature and people, farming the soil, and the people connected together,
We conceptualised SECUFs or Social Enterprise Community Urban Farms in order to combine urban farming with social objectives. The aim is to bring communities together – be it social bonding, social mixing, social bridging, by partnering social enterprises to set up urban farms and to run programmes to continue driving interest in edible gardening among Singaporeans.
In 2021, we launched a grant scheme for SECUFs. Social enterprises can apply for the Programming Support Grant, to help fund the programmes that they run, for example, edible gardening workshops. After being awarded SECUF tenders, social enterprises can apply for the Infrastructure Support Grant, to help fund the set-up of their farms. I am very glad that six social enterprises have tapped on the Programming Support Grant to conduct edible gardening workshops for seniors, people with special needs, as well as lower-income individuals and their families.
City Sprouts @ West Coast features greenhouse lots, where gardening activities and nature-related programmes can take place. There are gardening plots for the community to rent, and communal spaces like a community hall and a café to bring people together.
These spaces will allow members of the community to be involved in gardening, including residents, social enterprises, Grassroots organisations, and seniors from our active ageing centres under the programme called Age Well SG. With us today at the SECUF are seniors from St Luke’s Eldercare and Lion’s Befrienders.
City Sprouts has worked with partners to curate a range of programmes, including community events with Orang Laut SG. Orang Laut SG is a collective that aims to share Orang Laut and Orang Pulau traditions and cultures through the use of indigenous plants in traditional practices and food. They have taken up a greenhouse here to grow some of these plants. Very encouraged that they have come here to West Coast.
Second, the Thye Hua Kwan Autism Centre will be organising The Chilli Project here at City Sprouts @ West Coast, where vocational training will be offered to persons with autism, to raise their skills and employability in the horticulture sector.
In addition, there will be a cafe named Ordinary Mood, which will partner social organisations to showcase art pieces by low-income single women, special needs children, and ex-offenders. With City Sprouts’ support, it will also host weekly sessions for beneficiary groups to make sustainable art and hand-crafted products to be displayed in the cafe for everyone to enjoy.
Beyond these, volunteers from the Nature Kakis Network will also hold regular nature-related activities for the community in collaboration with City Sprouts @ West Coast.
We look forward to partnering more social enterprises in our efforts to make the gardening movement more inclusive and vibrant. I am pleased to share that NParks has launched the tender for the next community urban farm at Pasir Ris Park. I am looking forward NParks working with our social enterprises to activate and galvanise more of these SECUFs around the island.
Evolution of Community Gardening in Singapore
SECUFs are part of our effort to promote community gardening here in our island city-state Singapore. Gardening brings people closer to nature, and benefits our mental and physical wellbeing. In fact, recently there was a study by the Mind Science Centre of the National University Health System and NParks that has shown that gardening has improved mental resilience of Singaporeans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our gardening landscape has evolved significantly over the decades. Back in 2005, my colleagues at NParks launched the Community in Bloom (CIB) programme together with a group of gardening enthusiasts, and how that movement has really taken off around the island. Through CIB, avid gardeners manage community gardens together, growing plants and building strong social and community bonds.
As our community’s interest in gardening grew, we introduced the Allotment Gardening scheme in 2016, allowing individuals to rent their own gardening spaces in our parks. We have since introduced more than 2,400 allotment gardens in 28 parks and gardens, and we will be adding even more.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many of us had to stay home, NParks distributed free seed packets to interested members of the public under the Gardening with Edibles initiative, which saw a total of 860,000 seed packets distributed between 2020 and 2021.
Today, I am very happy to share that we will be opening applications for around 200 more allotment gardening plots at some existing allotment gardens, such as at Aljunied Park, Choa Chu Kang Park, and Yishun Park, and applications will open on 3rd June.
By encouraging the community to become stewards of our natural environment through gardening, we all play an important part in transforming Singapore into a City in Nature.
Conclusion
I would like to thank City Sprouts, for partnering us to make the first Social Enterprise Community Urban Farm or SECUF a reality. From paper, concept, to a labour of love, to now, a reality. I hope that this will inspire more ground-up community stewardship efforts, and bring more social enterprises into this space. And we certainly look forward to seeing more SECUFs across Singapore in time to come. That will really add a new dimension to our parks across the island.
On that note, congratulations once again to City Sprouts. Thank you all, and have a wonderful day ahead.