Hulloa!
Soso, its 2 weeks into 2013 already, so fast...
What do you think this year will bring for the social enterprise arena?
If you can recall (I couldn't :P), PM Lee mentioned in his National Day rally speech on the need to have more social enterprises.
Channel News Asia then conducted a survey to find out Singaporeans awareness towards social enterprises.
Although the survey size was only a teeny amount of 2000 people, only 13% knew what social enterprises are! That's such a mimy pimy scrap of the whole Singapore population!!
Click HERE to read article.
The survey showed that 87% do not know what a social enterprise is.
and out of the 13% who knew, only 3% could recall social enterprises that they knew..
And then a year passed, on to September 2012!
The Online Citizen reported "Singapore’s growing social entrepreneurship sector is increasingly getting the limelight from government, academia and the media. Yet, not many youths are keen to go into social entrepreneurship."
Click HERE to read the OTHER article.
Although there are no solid statistics to show the spread of awareness, it is comforting to know that in 2012 there was the emergence of more youths educated about the course, more forums, grants and generally, becoming a more talked-about topic.
But are we all talk no action?
What more can we achieve in this new year?
I believe we can start with three measurable goals:
#1.Strive for greater awareness
I believe through COLLABORATION, social enterprises can collectively gain more awareness together. This can be done by organising events, or fairs. OR they could exchange products! Like Joan Bowen Cafe could get coffee from Bettr Barista and cookies from Bakery Hearts.
#2. Start seeing SEs as equal businesses
If we continue to see SEs as "second class" businesses, they will never be able to grow in strength, in capacity. Even though it may be more difficult for them, it is essential for growth and development. In so, we may be able to have the social enterprise sector taking over the current business sectors.
Dream dream dreammmm~~
#3. Be an activist!
"If you aren't an activist you're an inactivist." - Richard O'Barry
As BZSE students, don't ya think we could do the most basic minimum to spread the word?
Better yet, be conscious consumers of social enterprises, supporting this community of change makers.
So what are ya'll waiting for, start now!
:)
References
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1150901/1/.html
Hey KAT!(: Yes, indeed it's quite sad that the level of awareness on SE in Singapore is relatively quite low in comparison with other countries like US, UK and S.Korea but I guess we are seeing a positive trend in the recent years. After the SE President Challenge and news on the addition of grants and funding, more seems to be aware of the concept of SEs.
ReplyDeleteI do agree on all your points especially the part where consumers have to see SEs the same as other commercial businesses instead of "just another charity" since the success of SEs is largely determined by their customers. I guess we too as consumers have to support them! -Atiqah J.