Lien Foundation invests S$3.9 million in Innovation Collective by 3 social service agencies

[SINGAPORE] Allkin Singapore, Care Corner Singapore and Fei Yue Community Services on Tuesday (Jul 28) launched the Innovation Collective, backed by a S$3.9 million investment from Lien Foundation over three years.

The Innovation Collective is a sector-led collaboration to help social service agencies (SSAs) build innovation capabilities. It comprises three dedicated innovation teams, each housed within one SSA. 

About S$3.1 million will be allocated to manpower, while the remaining will be used to support the innovation process – prototyping tools, user research, leadership workshops and external consultancies.

Luo Ren, programme director of Lien Foundation, said: “The bulk of the funding goes towards hiring experienced talent into the innovation teams – software engineering, design and product management, capabilities most SSAs currently do not have in-house.”

Allkin and Fei Yue will receive support for two hires each, while Care Corner will hire three people. 

“To encourage long-term sustainability, each SSA self-funds one headcount from the outset. This rises to two in year three, as Lien Foundation’s contribution steps down,” she added. 

The teams will work with social work professionals to co-develop solutions while building a culture in their SSA that encourages experimentation and collaboration, the parties noted.

Fareez Fahmy, CEO of Allkin, said design thinking will help the SSA better understand its clients’ needs before developing solutions. 

“Technology development enables us to build accessible, scalable tools that address these needs, while product management ensures these solutions are continuously refined to deliver meaningful outcomes and remain aligned with organisational goals,” he added.

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Meanwhile, Arthur Ling, CEO of Fei Yue, said artificial intelligence and digital innovation help to “augment professional practice, improve operational efficiency and enable more personalised interventions”.

A new model of collaboration

Guest of honour Senior Minister of State for Social and Family Development Goh Pei Ming said: “By innovating together rather than separately, the collective can identify common service gaps, co-develop practical solutions and scale them across the agencies’ combined networks of care.”

Under this new partnership, the SSAs – which collectively serve 154,000 clients across Singapore – can reduce duplicated efforts and costs while focusing on common priorities and serving more people.

Christian Chao, CEO of Care Corner, said: “Our goal is not to build three stronger organisations, but to help build a stronger sector for the communities we serve.

“In the near term, that means delivering joint solutions to shared problems – making the client’s journey more seamless, using data to plan more preventively, and freeing up our practitioners’ time for what matters most: the relationship with the people they serve.”

The parties highlighted a growing need to move beyond traditional service boundaries and towards more regionally coordinated models of care delivery, which involves higher levels of collaboration and innovation.

Luo said: “Most funding goes to services, and headcounts are tied to strict budget requirements… but it often leaves little room to look at unmet needs outside of existing services, or to build capabilities internally to adapt.”

Clients often navigate multiple challenges at once – from chronic health problems to mental health concerns to financial instability.

Chao said: “These are not separate problems to be handed off to separate agencies – they are one interconnected reality. Yet too often, the family has to navigate a relay race between providers, repeating their story at each handover.”

Fareez added: “Such models of care enable agencies to optimise use of resources, expertise and capabilities, which not only strengthens operational sustainability, but also allows practitioners to focus more on the human aspects of care, such as relationship building and person-centred support.”

The long-term goal of the collective is to build lasting capability, particularly for when the funding cycle ends. 

Joint projects

So far, two joint flagship projects have been identified.

The first is an integrated case intake and triage solution that allows practitioners to have a holistic, real-time view of each client’s profile and historical data across agencies, enabling them to respond more quickly and effectively.

Ling said: “(This) solution seeks to simplify this journey by creating a more coordinated approach to assessment, referral and service matching.”

The second involves regional data analytics, with the Innovation Collective building standardised data structures across agencies to provide a regionwide understanding of clients and their needs.

“Regional data analytics can help uncover unmet needs, service gaps and emerging trends that may not be visible from the perspectives of a single agency, enabling more proactive planning and more coordinated responses for clients and community,” he added.

Meanwhile, the three SSAs will still develop their own innovation capabilities.

“In every case, the test is the same: the project must address a shared challenge, benefit more than one agency, and be able to scale,” Chao noted.

The four parties signed a memorandum of understanding at YWCA Singapore on the second day of Care Corner’s Learning Festival and Ideathon 2026.