Empowering Low-Income Families as Agents of Change

Adriana Rasip, Palvindran Jayram, Sonia Jalal

2023 English Equality & Equity Health & Wellbeing

What happens when low-income families are enabled and empowered to create change for themselves?

Different from the conventional model of social assistance that is premised largely on needs, Empowered Families Initiative is a developmental initiative based in Singapore that hopes to harness the strengths and abilities of low-income families and invest in their aspirations through grants, savings matching and group support to improve their life circumstances towards better socio-economic position and well-being. By investing in the families’ aspirations, we hope that families are enabled to achieve milestones that encourage them in furthering their aspirations, creating a cycle of possibilities rather than poverty.

Just from our current iteration, families have successfully cleared their arrears, accumulated savings, upskill themselves and pursue their own businesses – all of which goes towards increasing their quality of lives!

Join us as we share more about our journey working alongside low-income families, our reflections in embodying a shift on the part of practitioners to work with families as agents of change rather than just passive recipients of assistance. Get ready to listen to perspectives from the agents of change themselves too!”

Adriana Rasip

Co-founder / Empowered Families Initiative

Adriana is the co-founder of Empowered Families Initiative, a developmental initiative in Singapore that hopes to harness the strengths and abilities of low-income families by investing in their aspirations.

She is also an asset-based community development practitioner, under the National Council of Social Service Sun Ray Scheme for the past 7 years. She has worked alongside low-income families and spearheaded initiatives that work towards enabling families to overcome poverty, including a micro-jobs initiative for low-income families. She also spearheaded the building of community care hubs in Singapore in promoting an ecosystem of care in under resourced communities. In 2019, she was nominated to be part of NCSS 40-under-40, a network of leaders across public, private and people sectors to address complex challenges in Singapore.

Palvindran Jayram

Co-founder / Empowered Families Initiative

Palvindran started off his social service profession as a counsellor working with youths-at-risk and their families, specialising in restorative justice. He then, joined a Family Service Centre as Community Social Worker developing communities to support low-income families move out of poverty. He contributed to the creation of Community Work Practice Guide for Singapore’s social service sector.

Trained in Asset-based Community Development, he has presented in a number of conferences and coached people both locally and abroad on the significance of communities in contributing to the growth and well-being of others. He is also an exco-member of Society Against Family Violence and an active advocate for equal rights and civic responsibility.

Sonia Jalal

Empowered Families Initiative

Sonia graduated from the Singapore University of Social Sciences with a Master of Social Work in 2018. Since then, she has been a social worker at a community-based social service agency providing casework and counselling services to low-income families. Sonia is passionate in empowering families and communities by partnering with them to co-create change, where an important aspect is to support families in achieving their goals. This prompted Sonia to embark on a journey with the Empowered Families Initiative as part of the team which invests in the aspirations of low income families.

Empowering Low-Income Families as Agents of Change
Adriana Rasip, Palvindran Jayram, Sonia Jalal

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