New program calls for social entrepreneurs to tackle elder care and mental health

Photo credit: Center for Social Enterprise (raiSE). The initiative, called LeapForGood, aims to attract innovative business ideas that tackle emerging social needs like elder care and mental health.

Despite mental health issues enjoying increasing public awareness, they are still surrounded by social stigma.

Besides raiSE, the program is organized by Singapore’s National Council of Social Service and the DesignSingapore Council.

It’s open to aspiring entrepreneurs and existing social enterprises alike. Partnerships with organizations in Singapore will also be part of it. LeapForGood will provide support to entrepreneurs, from workshops that will help participants shape their ideas all the way to grants of up to US$73,000 for each enterprise proposal that makes it through the program.

The first workshop to explore social needs and start developing ideas will take place on June 11, and will be followed by a series of workshops to prepare candidates for their applications to the program. The applications must be submitted by July 17, 2016.

After that, a short listing period will follow where up to 20 applications will be selected for the prototype phase. Each successful application will receive an “idea fund” of US$730. The prototype phase will run through fall this year, involving testing and validation, coaching, and development of ideas. Participants will pitch their business proposals to a panel of judges on demo day on November 12.

The selected social enterprises will each receive a grant, and will spend the six months between December 2016 and May 2017 in an incubation program that will help them bring their idea to life.

See: These 3 teams represent Singapore’s new push for tech-based senior care

Real problems

The organizers decided to tackle issues related to senior care and mental health after conducting an independent ethnographic study of elderly people and mental health patients. The study found that despite these issues enjoying increasing public awareness, mental illnesses are still surrounded by social stigma that makes them harder to detect and treat early.

Senior citizens, on the other hand, face emotional and physical isolation, which leads to multiple risks for their health, mental or otherwise.

“Through LeapForGood, we hope the insights can inspire participants to develop ideas, test and prototype them. raiSE will work closely with selected participants to pilot their social enterprise ventures so that they can continue scaling up their solutions in a sustainable way,” says Alfie Othman, executive director of raiSE, in a statement.

Converted from Singapore dollars. US$1 = S$1.37