No one likes to talk about death. Not at the dinner table, not with ageing parents, and certainly not with friends. But at a symposium held on 17 May by Silver Caregivers Co-operative Limited (SCCL), around 120 participants turned up to do exactly that.

The half-day event, titled ‘Leaving a Living Legacy’, focused on a topic many avoid until it’s too late: how to plan ahead, and how to talk about it. Attendees heard from legal, healthcare and social service professionals, as well as speakers who shared personal stories. Former President of Singapore Halimah Yacob, who opened the session, urged more Singaporeans, especially seniors, to take the first step.

“(Legacy Planning) is about conveying your values, wishes and care to your loved ones,” she said. She added candidly that while she had often thought about it, she had not yet completed her own legacy plans, a sentiment that struck a chord with the audience and reflected how common this hesitation is.

Backed by the Empowering Communities Fund (ECF), a new S$1 million initiative supporting ground-up co-operative projects, the symposium was one of the first to receive support. And two months since the fund launched, it is beginning to show what community-led action can look like. 

Expanding Doing Good & Doing Well: The Empowering Communities Fund (ECF)

Launched in March 2025, the ECF was first announced in 2024 by the Singapore National Co-operative Federation (SNCF) and the Registry of Co-operative Societies (RCS). Its goal: to help co-operatives (co-ops) turn meaningful ideas into action, going beyond just doing good for the community and empowering target beneficiaries in communities, where needs are growing but often overlooked. 

2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the Singapore Co-operative Movement, a milestone that places the spotlight on how co-ops have evolved from thrift and saving clubs and casual grocers to dynamic ground-up actors in today’s social sector. With Singapore also celebrating its 60th birthday, the launch of the fund feels especially timely.

A committee comprising representatives from SNCF, the SNCF Executive Council, the Registry, the Central Co-operative Fund Committee, and the Emerging Leaders Programme (ELP) reviews the applications. Projects selected for support must not only demonstrate social impact, but also consider long-term sustainability, whether through partnerships, outreach, or a model that can be replicated elsewhere.

To date, three projects have been approved to receive funding. Each one speaks to a different but deeply human need: preparing for the end of life, supporting caregivers of children with special needs, and creating inclusive job opportunities.

Legacy, Loss and Talking About It Early

In a city known for its efficiency, end-of-life matters are often left unsaid. Conversations about wills, medical directives or funeral arrangements tend to be avoided; sometimes out of discomfort, often out of fear. Yet the numbers speak plainly. By 2030, one in four Singaporeans will be over 65. 

A recent survey of 2,187 respondents by the Singapore Management University revealed that despite growing openness (81 per cent) towards end-of-life planning, less than 13 per cent have spoken or written down their final wishes and more than half have done neither. 

While the topic still carries a social taboo, public awareness around legacy planning appears to be growing. As of October 2024, over 50,000 Advance Care Plans (ACPs) had been completed in Singapore, with more than 13,000 made since July 2023, following the launch of a national campaign to encourage more Singaporeans to formalise their wishes. 

The gap between what people know they should do and what they actually act on is where SCCL is focusing its efforts.

The symposium on legacy planning brought together a wide range of professionals to demystify the topic. Lawyers explained the difference between wills and LPAs. Healthcare experts shared the basics of ACPs. Social workers discussed how to approach conversations with ageing parents or reluctant family members.

Dr Kalyani Mehta, Chairperson of SCCL and a veteran in the field of gerontology, encouraged participants to take a broader and more personal view. “Today’s symposium focuses on the theme, leaving a living legacy, empowering your loved ones,” she said. “This is not only about financial assets. It’s about traditions and art forms, family values, and the decisions we make around health and care.”

She added that the co-op had taken a “holistic approach” to the theme, reflecting Singapore’s ageing population and multicultural environment. The idea, she explained, was not simply to cover technical knowledge, but to start important conversations, which rarely happen until a crisis hits. “It is heartening to see so many of you today ready to explore this topic,” she told the audience.

Outside the lecture theatre, booths from the Singapore Hospice Council, Parkinson Society Singapore and Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s Advance Care Planning team offered materials and informal consultations. SCCL plans to follow up with articles, video content, and a digital resource hub that will extend the conversation beyond the room.

The aim is to make legacy planning something Singaporeans feel equipped (and unafraid) to do. “Our tagline is ‘caring for caregivers’, and we keep this mission at the heart of all that we do,” Dr Mehta said. “We are a small organisation, but nimble and full of robust energy.”

Empowering More Communities: Caregiving, Inclusion and Everyday Gaps

While SCCL’s symposium focused on the later stages of life, the other two ECF-backed projects zoomed in on the everyday pressures of caregiving and employment.

At Love Empowered Co-operative, the spotlight is on families raising children with learning difficulties or mental health needs. Its Family Empowered Programme offers a year-long series of workshops that equip caregivers with tools to manage stress, understand the healthcare and social service landscape, and navigate financial challenges. Sessions are priced on a sliding scale (from $10 to $30 per person) and pegged to one family’s Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) card category to keep support accessible.

Founder Tony Lim, a clinical psychologist, was moved to start the co-op based on his own lived experience with bipolar disorder and school bullying. His approach is built on the belief that families, not just children, need structured and sustained support. The programme is currently reaching out to co-op partners for referrals and aims to serve 150 participants over 30 sessions.

The third project comes from Ngee Ann Polytechnic Consumer Co-operative Society, which is taking a small but deliberate step toward inclusive hiring. With support from social enterprise BizLink, the co-op has onboarded a part-time employee with disabilities to assist at its campus retail outlet, which is currently staffed by two seniors above the age of 65.

The hire is part of a broader effort to “prepare to receive” employees with different needs. That includes job coaching, staff sensitisation and student outreach. The hope is that this first step can set the tone for a more inclusive work culture, both within the co-op and beyond.

Taken together, the three projects (a symposium, a caregiving course, a part-time hire) may appear modest. But they speak to deeper currents: about how society treats care work, how it supports people on the margins, and who gets to feel prepared for the future.

As Singapore’s population ages, families will be called on to make complex decisions, often under stress and without the tools they need. Projects like SCCL’s show how those tools can be placed not just in clinics or offices, but in the community, shaped by peers and lived experience.

The same can be said of caregiving and inclusive employment. Formal systems may exist, but co-ops have the proximity (and trust) to make support personal. Whether it’s through accessible workshops, or showing that hiring someone with a disability is not an act of charity but a pathway to equity, the work is already underway.

For the uninitiated, ECF isn’t meant to scale every idea overnight. It’s built to spark new thinking, support pilots, and reward co-ops who dare to act early. That kind of quiet ambition mirrors the ethos of the co-operative movement at large: doing well and doing good, hand in hand.

By Sng Ler Jun

Photo Credit: SCCL