About Us
Our Purpose
Our Vision
Our Mission
We are committed to enhancing the quality of life of persons with disabilities and their families through:
- Providing person-centric programmes and services to enable them to achieve their fullest potential;
- Leading innovation and developing capabilities that better support their needs and aspirations;
- Advocating and engaging partners and the public to co-create an inclusive community.
Our Values
Respect the intrinsic and unique worth of every individual
Serve with compassion and dedication to discover, build and celebrate the ability of each person
Act with integrity and achieve through the synergy of teamwork between staff, families, and the communities that support our mission
Pursue innovation to strive for excellence in services for persons with disabilities, to maximise their potential and create opportunities to connect them to community
Our Story
2022 marks 35 years since the Rainbow Centre journey started, when Dr Kenneth Lyen formed a task force to look into the need for special education for children with multiple disabilities.
Our work continues to be driven by the belief that embodied our founders’ original mission – to provide persons with disabilities equal opportunities to maximise his or her potential and enable participation in society.
From the set up of Margaret Drive Special School in 1987, Rainbow Centre has grown in strength empowering persons with disabilities and their families across 3 campuses, through a suite of services including early intervention, SPED, pre-vocational and enrichment, student care and family coaching. A new campus at Admiral Hill, built with a ‘social town’ focus for 300 students with autism, will start services in 2023.
Since our beginning, we have been committed to establishing services for unmet needs. These include setting up Singapore’s first school to meet the educational needs of children with multiple disabilities in 1987 and launching the first programme for students with autism in 1989. In 1992, Rainbow Centre was established as a society. It then set up a training centre for preschool professionals in 2000 and partnered with Autism Resource Centre to set up Pathlight School in 2004.
In 2017, we revisited our vision and mission and took on renewed commitment to enable our clients to thrive in communities. In the last 5 years, this vision has guided our work and culminated in our development of the Good Life Framework that encapsulates our mission, prioritising person-centred care planning and stepping up our community activation efforts.
Strategic Plan
RC Strategic Plan (FY21-FY24)
The Rainbow Centre Strategic Plan FY21 – FY24, formulated from engagement with key stakeholders, staff dialogues and deep-diving into data, comprises its 5 strategic thrusts that aim to address the changing trends impacting persons with disabilities.
It tackles the increasingly unpredictable environment we work in and will drive us to explore new ways of collaborating and working in a technologically enabled environment.
The 5 Strategic Goals
01 – Increasing Accessible Learning and Participation
Accessibility enables persons with disabilities to be as independent as they can be. We want to take a hard look at our processes, programmes and capabilities to increase enablers and remove barriers so that as many of our service users are enabled with the skills, support and resources to learn and participate.
02 – Strengthening Families and Caregivers
Caregiving is a marathon. We want to work on building high-trust relationships and collaborations with our caregivers so they feel safe and are empowered to take charge of their journey. We will also work on developing more resources to meet their varied needs.
03 – Building Inclusive Communities and Practices
We provide consultancy and customized training to help organizations better serve and include persons with disabilities. They may be your clients, colleagues, or as members of the community.
04 – Ensuring Seamless Service Experience
We have room to improve in integrating innovative pilots with our core services to enable our service users to experience a coordinated continuum of care. We will improve the experience and lead in collaborative work in the sector, so that agencies may care more effectively for our clients across services and systems.
05 – Building an Empowered, Inclusive and Thriving Workforce at RC
We will shape our people practices to create a work environment that is empowering and inclusive, and that enables our staff to thrive. With a common vision, a supportive environment, and with able professionals and leaders, RC’s vision and mission can become a reality.
Innovation
The Development & Innovation unit was set up in 2016 to drive capability development and a more innovation-friendly organisational environment in Rainbow Centre.
With dedicated resources, the unit seeks to problem solve and align digitalisation expertise with social services. Such units are uncommon in social service agencies, but we believe that staff need to focus on developing new projects, which are often out of their core work scope.
Our People
Board of Governance
(2022 – 2024)
Prof Kenneth Poon
President
Mr Chew Kei-Jin
Vice-President
Ms Evangeline Chua
Honorary Secretary
Ms Jasmine Chen
Assistant Treasurer
Mr Yew Teng Leong
Past President
Dr Sylvia Choo
Committee Member
Prof (Dr) James Hui
Committee Member
Dr Kang Ying Qi
Committee Member
(Co-opted Member)
Dr Majeed Khader
Committee Member
Mr Kevin Leong
Committee Member
Ms Gail Lien
Committee Member
(Co-opted Member)
Ms Lo Manling
Committee Member
Mr Milton Ong
Committee Member
Mr Damien Tan
Committee Member
Management Leads
Ms Tan Sze Wee
Executive Director
Ms Janice Leong
Deputy Director, Early Intervention Services
Youth
Ms Fauziah Ahmad
Principal, Admiral Hill School
Youth
Ms Lynette Gomez
Principal, Margaret Drive School
Youth
Ms Michelle Ong
Principal, Yishun Park School
Mr Manoj Pathnaparum
Director, Accessibility Services
Ms Jean Loo
Deputy Director, Advocacy and Community Engagement
Mr Quincy Tan
Director, Development and Innovation
Mr Sampson Low
Director, Finance and Operations
School Management Committee
(1 Dec 2022 to 30 Nov 2024)
Chairman
Mr Milton Ong
Supervisor
Prof Kenneth Poon
Secretary
Ms Lynette Gomez
Committee Members
Ms Fauziah Ahmad
Prof (Dr) James Hui
Dr Majeed Khader
Mr Louis Lim
Mr Leonard Ling
Ms Michelle Ong
Mr Damien Tan
Ms Tan Sze Wee
Ministry of Education Representative
Mrs Lisa Goh
Media & Coverage
Press Releases
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Rainbow Centre kicks off 35th anniversary celebrations with Learning Day to chart future focus in serving persons with disabilities
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PRISM: An Art Exhibition to Commemorate Singapore’s Bicentennial and Fundraise for Rainbow Centre’s Third Campus
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$600,000 Raised for New Rainbow Centre Campus for Students with Autism at Charity Golf Event
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An Inclusive Space for Serious Coffee and Meaningful Interactions
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Launch of Service to Equip Parents Facing Persistent Challenging Behaviours in Children and Youths with Autism
In the News
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More help for those on autism spectrum after age 18 (The Straits Times, 1 Apr 2023)
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Autism service providers call for more community awareness, support (CNA, 31 Mar 2023)
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New initiatives for passengers with dementia or other invisible disabilities launched at Changi Airport (The Straits Times, 2 Feb 2022)
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How to Help People with Autism? It Starts by Just Being a Friend. (CNA, 25 Dec 2020)
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Pre-school teachers learn to help kids with special needs (The Straits Times, 2 Dec 2020)
