Founded in August 2018, Social Gifting is a social enterprise supported by NorthWest Community Development Council (CDC) and spearheaded by undergraduates from the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
Social Gifting’s main aim is to enable crafters to find purpose through crafting and also provide passive income to them. We aim to empower differently-abled crafters to become individuals with technical skills to adapt to the fast-paced nature of society, as well as soft skills for building relationships. Social Gifting works hand-in-hand with volunteers to assist the differently-abled crafters in discovering and developing their strengths as well as improving their mental well-being.
We choose to address our beneficiaries as “crafters”, as we believe that this linguistic choice is in alignment with our greater vision which is to integrate the crafters back into society and convey to them the message that they are as skilful as the rest of society, despite any setbacks or disadvantages that they may have.
Social Gifting is constantly looking for new ways to expand its outreach and benefit the larger community. Most recently, in 2019, Rainbow Centre and Bishan Home approached us to venture into people with special needs, where they highlighted their concern of a lack of activity for this target group. These people face difficulties since young, where there are a group of individuals who graduate from special education schools every year but do not have work-ready skills, nor are eligible to join sheltered workshops due to behaviour and conduct related issues. They can only go to daycare centres or stay at home. However, daycare centres have long waiting times of close to five years, and these individuals would face the risk of social isolation if they were to stay at home. Hence, Social Gifting integrated this into its purpose of bringing sheltered workshops to their homes and we started home-based crafting with people with special needs.
Inspired by her three children, Valen decided to pursue a career in the Social Service Sector. In 2015, she left the private sector and took up a Fundraising Manager role in the Social Service Sector, where she organised events including the live telecast TV Charity Show, Flag Days and Charity Swim.
In 2017, to develop a stronger theoretical foundation in the sector, she decided to pursue a degree in Social Work at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and graduated in 2021.
With the support of SUSS, Valen started Social Gifting as a platform to provide meaningful support to people who are unable to leave home due to caregiving duties or personal constraints. These issues are close to her heart.
The pandemic has brought about a slew of negative effects on mental health, especially for target groups like seniors in isolation, and caused the boundaries between work and life to be blurred. Under the leadership of Valen, Social Gifting hopes to provide a platform for people of diverse backgrounds, with crafters including seniors at risk of social isolation, caregivers, warriors with illnesses and persons with special needs, and provide alternative employment while also enabling them to connect better with society.
Duygu joined the team in 2021 to broaden Social Gifting to the new horizon.
Introduction to Social Gifting