Good morning. I am pleased to join you today at the opening of the DaySpring Residential Treatment Centre.
The Centre’s small group home model is the first of its kind in Singapore. I would like to express my appreciation to DaySpring for being pioneers in this area and providing a safe haven for abused girls to recover in and move on in life.
My MCYS colleagues have informed me that they were impressed with all the training that has been conducted by Dayspring over the course of the year. DaySpring has also attained certification in the use of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment Tool which will help them to identify the needs and strengths of the girls in care to support optimal intervention.
Effective intervention must be built upon knowing a young person well, being responsive to her needs and providing an environment that is stable, protective, predictable and consistent. The small group home will have fewer residents per staff.
At the recent Children’s Conference, I announced that my Ministry will be focussing on the development of more small group homes. We intend to develop 6 small group Homes, similar to DaySpring’s, but focusing on providing care to younger children up to the age of 12. These children are likely to have experienced familial rejection and a lack of love for most of their young lives. Each of the 6 Homes will cater to about 12 children each with varying degrees of special needs coupled with serious behavioural and emotional difficulties.
We look forward to more of such committed professionals to come forward and develop these services.
The journey ahead will not be easy but through your intervention, your persistence, your dedication and your time, you will make the biggest difference in the lives of the girls in your care.
Thank you very much.
======================================
The Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Comprehensive Assessment is a multi-purpose tool developed to support care planning and level of care decision-making, to facilitate quality improvement initiatives, and to allow for the monitoring of outcomes of services.