TRANS Centre (Bukit Timah)

Our centre provides counseling and casework service to individuals and families facing social difficulties. This includes assisting families with financial problems, relationship problems, parenting issues and violence issues.

Through this service, residents in need of social services are linked up as necessary. Relevant information would be provided and referral directly made to assist the residents where required.

This comprises a series of experiential-based life skills workshops which aim to develop resilience in the participants and to help them to rise above life's challenges. The following children's workshops have been developed and conducted : The Treasure in Me (self esteem), Shine with EQ, Rising with Resilience, Schooling without Bullying, Stress Management, D' Journey (loss and grief for children from single parent families), Taming the Angry Giant (anger management), etc.. The Centre is planning to further develop workshops for adults such Building a Resilient Marriage and other self-growth and personal wellness programmes in order to cater to a wider range of participants. etc.

Children from disadvantaged homes who lack guidance and support are matched to dedicated volunteers who serve as mentors to provide guidance and academic support to help them cope with stresses at home or in school. Volunteers also help to organize enrichment programmes for the children during the holidays. For isolated adults and senior persons who lack social support, volunteer befrienders visit them at home to provide a listening ear, offer support and help them run errands.

Our social workers/counsellors are accredited by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to conduct home study assessment for couples who wish to adopt foreign children. We also conduct post-placement supervision for couples who have adopted foreign children. Counselling services and workshops on adoption-related matters are also conducted to ease families in the adoption process as well as to cope with the challenges of adoptive parenting.

Social workers/counselors are based at schools once a week to provide counselling for pupils. Working closely with teachers and principals, the social workers assist the students and their families to manage school-related, family or relationship difficulties.

This is a 5-session marriage preparation counselling programme involving individual sessions with couples which entail the use of a personality inventory (Prepare-Enrich or Taylor Johnson Temperament Analysis). Other topics covered may include: couple communication, conflict management, role clarification, family of origin exploration, sexual intimacy and family planning, and couple growth and enhancement.