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Five teams emerge from inaugural Sparks x Build for Good Community Hackathon Finale
12 July 2025
Read about the inaugural Sparks x Build for Good Community Hackathon where five teams advanced with tech solutions for community challenges.
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Five teams emerge from inaugural Sparks x Build for Good Community Hackathon finale to champion solutions for community
The People's Association and Open Government Products collaborated for the first time for a Community Hackathon bringing together passionate participants to develop tech solutions for community challenges. Members of the public viewed the working prototypes by these participating teams at the Finale on 12 July at Heartbeat@Bedok Atrium.
Singapore, 12 July 2025 – The inaugural Sparks x Build for Good (BFG) Community Hackathon, co-organised by the People's Association (PA) and Open Government Products (OGP) concluded on 12 July 2025 at Heartbeat@Bedok Atrium. This marks the first partnership between PA and OGP for a Community Hackathon. Minister for Digital Development and Information and Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, Mrs Josephine Teo; Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, Ms Low Yen Ling; and Minister of State for Digital Development and Information, Minister of State for Education and Minister-in-charge of GovTech, Ms Jasmin Lau, attended the event.
A partnership that facilitates innovative tech solutions for the community
After one month of research, development, mentorship and user testing, 21 teams presented their working prototypes to address community challenges to a distinguished panel of government leaders and industry experts at the finale. From these, five teams were selected to advance to a 8-week Build for Good (BFG) Accelerator programme, where they will refine their solutions and launch them in the community. The five teams are CallBridge, LetterKey, Red Flags, SeniorSaysand SeniorSync.
The partnership successfully combines OGP’s Build for Good product development programme that includes mentorship and workshops, with PA’s efforts as part of its broader Sparks initiative and its deep community connections. The collaboration aims to harness the collective knowledge and experiences of the community to co-create innovative tech solutions. By offering dedicated support and resources, the Community Hackathon seeks to facilitate the development of community-led innovation, transform the community aspirations into tangible solutions, and foster greater ownership of ground-up initiatives that can benefit our communities.
A month of intensive research, development, and user testing culminated in the selection of five teams.
The Community Hackathon, which kicked off on 11 June 2025, brought together over 90 youths. Forming teams of 3 to 5, they developed tech solutions for diverse community challenges, including eldercare and caregiver support, community gardening, youth development and social services support. Over the course of the month, the teams delved deep into understanding these challenges, ensuring their problem statements accurately reflected community needs.
The participants engaged with PA's Community Innovation Taskforces (CITs), comprising active Grassroots Leaders and partners, who provided firsthand insights into pressing local issues and invited residents to test and provide input to the solutions. The teams also received mentorship from OGP officers and tech professionals from Better.sg, participated in product workshops led by OGP officers, and gained support from alumni of past BFG runs. With this support, the teams ideated, built prototypes, tested with users in the community, gathered feedback, and refined their solutions for the finale, where members of the public viewed the working prototypes. This approach of co-creating and refining solutions together exemplifies the spirit of community innovation that makes our community stronger.
At the finale, five teams were selected by a panel of judges, comprising government leaders and industry experts. They will advance to OGP’s 8-week Build for Good (BFG) Accelerator programme, starting 24 July 2025. Each selected team will receive $20,000 in funding and mentorship support to further develop and launch their solutions. All other teams are encouraged to collaborate with PA’s CITs who will provide funding support to implement their solutions and continue making an impact in the community.
Diverse talents driving community solutions
Community Hackathon participants come from diverse backgrounds, including students, tech professionals and social service officers. The majority (68%) were youths aged 18 to 24, demonstrating their enthusiasm in stepping up to use technology to solve community challenges. Several teams dedicated their efforts to creating solutions that better support vulnerable communities, such as the elderly and their caregivers, lower-income families, individuals with disabilities, and the homeless. One passionate team who cares for the seniors even developed a solution to help the seniors understand official documents in English, demonstrating their commitment to elderly care. What truly made this Community Hackathon special was how participants, even those without prior tech-building experience, harnessed their unique skills and expertise. For instance, a social worker partnered with other participants in developing solutions for mental health and peer support, demonstrating the power of interdisciplinary collaboration.
For more information, please visit: https://www.community-hackathon.gov.sg to learn more about the 21 projects from the Community Hackathon. For quotes on the winning teams and the CITs who supported some of them, please refer to the attached Annex.