OCBC’s Families100 initiative aims to help those with children living in rental flats
The programme, which offers long-term commitment and proactive support, is a first for the private sector, the lender says
RASHID, who works as a pest control officer, faced uncertainties and concerns about school choice and financial constraints when considering enrolling his grandchild in preschool.
It wasn’t till after OCBC volunteers stepped in August 2023 that the 57-year-old was ready to receive support in these areas.
Chandan Banga, vice-president of group operations and technology and a staff volunteer, along with a partner, helped to kick-start the preschool enrolment process for Rashid’s grandchild.
All in, “it took about a-year-and-a-half for Rashid’s grandson to be enrolled in preschool”, he said, adding that he maintained monthly to quarterly visits with the family.
“One of the initial challenges was figuring out how to connect with the family in a way that felt both respectful and genuine. It was important not to overstep boundaries or make anyone uncomfortable,” Chandan said.
He added: “Balancing volunteer work with personal commitments was also challenging, sometimes the family wasn’t available and other times I had competing priorities.”
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Chandan noted that, as parents themselves, he and the other staff volunteer would share their own experiences in engaging preschool with Rashid’s family.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development’s social service office was also involved in the programme, and supported the family by informing them about government-subsidised options.
The family eventually agreed to enrol Rashid’s grandchild in January this year.
The staff volunteers who were assigned to Rashid’s family developed such a rapport that they were even invited to his daughter’s wedding.
“Being invited and having my own family attend (the wedding) was incredibly heartwarming. It felt like a true celebration of the bond we had built,” Chandan said.
How it all started
Rashid was one of nearly 180 families that have benefited from the Families100 programme by OCBC. The social uplift initiative aims to provide targeted help to 100 lower-income families with children living in Singapore’s rental flats.
OCBC’s Families100 programme, which was launched in 2023, has supported the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) ComLink+ programme. More than S$100,000 has been injected into the bank’s initiative.
In the initiative’s first year, OCBC worked with MSF to support families living in rental blocks in the Queenstown, Jurong East and Clementi towns.
In 2025, the programme was expanded to support families from five towns. It recently added Kreta Ayer and Bukit Merah to its scope.
The idea for OCBC’s Families100 programme was planted in 2022, when Desmond Lee, who was minister-in-charge of social services integration at the time, shared with the bank a case of a student who frequently skipped school. A volunteer befriender recognised the student’s interest in drumming and offered to drumming lessons. These classes motivated the student to attend school.
The minister then asked OCBC if the bank could consider helping to connect with and support beneficiaries in similar ways – and OCBC’s Families100 programme was launched eight months later.
Chandan is one of 128 volunteers from OCBC to have participated in this project, and has been part of the programme for close to two years.
Families under the programme are supported by OCBC staff volunteers, as well as family coaches from MSF. The volunteers are trained by the ministry and then assigned to families to understand their circumstances and offer long-term support.
They participate in monthly home visits to help them address their assigned family’s underlying issues, which may include managing financial constraints and sourcing meaningful educational opportunities for their children.
Some staff volunteers have even carved out time to conduct fortnightly visits for more regular contact.
There is a need for more long-term volunteers to help families with children living in rental flats, noted the bank. Families are thus enrolled in the programme for a year, which “provides sufficient time for (them) to build momentum and take concrete steps to continue on their own after that”, it added.
Tailored help
The Families100 programme also offers a range of other initiatives to support its beneficiaries, including early literacy classes and sports lessons for children, and tailored financial grants for necessities, which the staff volunteers help the beneficiaries to apply for.
For instance, OCBC’s Gift-a-Family initiative, which is under the Families100 programme, allows the bank’s staff volunteers to provide even more tailored support to the families that they are assigned to. This could mean assisting the family to get new furniture and kitchen appliances to replace old ones.
One beneficiary, who wanted to be known as Rathanaa, received assistance in December 2023 to replace their stove and cookware as part of the Gift-A-Family initiative. She started receiving support from OCBC staff volunteers in September 2023.
The 46-year-old noted that her children, aged seven and 12, benefited from another initiative under the programme – KidsLearn, which aims to provide enrichment classes for children. OCBC supported the family with literacy classes for her younger child, as well as swimming lessons for her older one.
The extracurricular activities that her children attended afforded her the time to focus on work and take steps towards building her family’s financial stability, she said.
The bank has included additional initiatives under the Families100 programme, such as sponsoring supermarket vouchers and providing children with opportunities to participate in grocery shopping trips. The activity helps them buy the items they need while learning about the importance of nutrition and budgeting, OCBC said.
It added: “It is crucial that we care for the underserved in our communities and offer targeted help so that no one is left behind.”
The bank said that its Families100 programme, which offers long-term commitment and proactive support, is a first for the private sector, helping an underserved segment of society to improve their self-reliance.
It added that while OCBC operates as a for-profit entity, the bank believes that it is important to create a positive impact on society and to support the broader community.
The Families100 programme is under the lender’s broader #OCBCCares initiatives. Besides MSF, the bank has also partnered organisations such as Care Corner Singapore, Minds and AWWA by funding their programmes or supporting them with volunteers for their activities.
OCBC encourages staff to participate in volunteer programmes and funds divisions to conduct employee-initiated volunteering activities with charity partners. In 2024, nearly 18,000 employees across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greater China contributed to more than 500 projects.
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