Reaching Out to the Community Digitally

Face-to-face interactions and social gatherings, once de rigeur for community engagement, were severely limited this FY to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Nevertheless, these restrictions opened a world of opportunities in the way HDB engages the community- through digital means.

HDB moved the MyNiceHome Roadshows online this FY, offering home owners to-be support as they eased into their new living environment. The digital roadshows provided pertinent information on their new neighbourhoods, as well as useful content on home renovation. Home owners to-be could explore their flats through 360-degree virtual tours as well as browse information and videos on renovation tips and guidelines on the MyNiceHome website. About 9 in 10 households who were due to collect their keys, attended one of 8 digital roadshows that were launched in the FY.

HDB’s visitor’s gallery, LIVINGSPACE, also went digital this FY to enable a wider audience to view the gallery anywhere, anytime. The online gallery features 360-degree interactivity to showcase HDB’s efforts in providing well-designed homes through the decades.

HDB’s digital engagement efforts extended to its school outreach as well. Students continued to learn the importance of neighbourliness and eco-living as we moved our Outreach to Young and Youth! (OHYAY!) Roadshows online, and made available interactive e-learning modules to support online learning. The Eco Learning Journey was also converted into a self-guided digital eco-trail, so students and residents alike could learn about Punggol’s green features in the safety and comfort of their homes or classrooms.

With more people staying home and engaging in home-based activities, a culture of neighbourliness, mutual care and support became more important than ever. To encourage neighbourly behaviour in the new normal, HDB partnered the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) on a series of publicity efforts to lift spirits and rally HDB residents to be considerate and caring neighbours.

Partnering Residents to Create Lively Neighbourhood Spaces

Beyond the home, myriad communal spaces are built in HDB towns for all to enjoy. For many years, HDB has been actively collaborating with residents to boost the vibrancy of these spaces. In this FY, HDB partnered the People’s Association (PA) to pilot the White Spaces Initiative at Tampines GreenVerge and SkyResidence @ Dawson, where residents contributed ideas to shape their neighbourhoods. The first series of engagement for Tampines GreenVerge was held from December 2020 to January 2021, with close to 300 home owners-to-be sharing their ideas via an e-survey on how selected spaces in the development could be transformed into vibrant community nodes.

HDB also supports community-led projects through the Lively Places Programme (LPP), a joint initiative with Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to support ground-up efforts that enliven Singapore’s public spaces. Under this LPP, residents can organise community activities or create installations in their neighbourhood with funding from the Lively Places Fund (LPF). Since its induction in 2016, HDB has seen a strong take-up of the fund to support an increasing number of ground-up initiatives. To-date, more than $800,000 in funding has been disbursed/ committed to support 178 community projects. The completed projects involved over 6,000 volunteers, benefitting close to 85,000 residents.

In FY2020, HDB continued to see strong community participation for LPP, with close to $241,000 in funding disbursed/ committed for 47 projects. In addition, the Lively Places Challenge 2020 attracted some 650 participants who went on to initiate 60 community projects that have contributed to creating friendly and lively neighbourhoods across Singapore.

As the development of Tengah – the youngest of HDB towns – gains pace, HDB invited future residents of the town to take part in a series of sensing surveys, to help us better understand their aspirations. The first round of surveys, which concluded in July 2020, will help guide the development of community programmes to facilitate bonding and interaction among the residents, when they eventually move into their new flats.

HDB also continued to fine-tune and grow existing programmes for residents to contribute to community building. For example, SPHERE (Students, Singapore Pools, and HDB Enriching and Reaching out to the Elderly), an outreach programme to facilitate bonding and interaction between youths and elderly rental flat tenants, was revamped to allow schools to have greater say in designing and implementing ground-up projects.

HDB’s Friends of Our Heartlands (FOH) network, launched in 2017, has drawn close to 12,000 passionate volunteers who give their time and talent to build cohesive communities in the heartlands. These volunteers actively promote gracious and responsible living, implement projects to bring neighbours together, and help facilitate community conversations and build consensus relating to neighbourhood improvement works. The network continued to grow in FY2020 with 1,726 new sign-ups. HDB equipped volunteers with training on communication, project management and facilitation before they embarked on their selected outreach initiatives to promote neighbourliness and eco-living, as well as enliven community spaces.

Other conversations and dialogues are also ongoing. As part of the Singapore Together initiative, HDB conducted 2 Emerging Stronger Conversations in November 2020, where participants reflected on the impact of COVID-19 and discussed how HDB could better support housing needs of lower-income families and create a more holistic living environment.