Sparks

"Sparks" is a community innovation movement - by the community, for the community.  It reflects PA’s refreshed mission to spark and nurture community participation. As Singapore’s communities become increasingly diverse, this initiative aims to enhance the role of Community Clubs (CCs), moving beyond traditional service provision to becoming catalysts for community-led innovation and solutions that address local challenges and aspirations, fostering a deeper sense of ownership and unity contributing towards nation building.

To achieve these objectives, PA has introduced three interconnected components under the “Sparks” umbrella:

1. Community Innovation Spaces (CIS):  Ten pilot CCs have been selected to redesign part of their spaces to enable residents, volunteers, community and corporate partners to come together to brainstorm ideas, share insights and test out innovative solutions to address community concerns and bring collective aspirations to fruition.

The 10 pilot Sparks @ CC are:

• Central Singapore District: Geylang West CC, Pek Kio CC

• North East District: Buangkok CC, Pasir Ris East CC

• North West District: Nee Soon South CC, Zhenghua CC

• South East District: Mountbatten CC, Kampong Chai Chee CC

• South West District: Boon Lay CC, Tengah CC

  

2. Community Innovation Taskforces (CIT): Each of the Sparks @ CC has formed a taskforce, comprising Grassroots Leaders and partners who are the driving force behind the community innovation journey to foster a culture of innovation, drive community participation, and spearhead ideation sessions and activities within the CIS.

   

   Take a look at the launch of the first CIS by Geylang West CIT

   3. Sparks x BFG Community Hackathon: An inaugural collaboration between the PA and Open Government Products (OGP), combining PA's deep community connections with OGP's technological expertise and past experience running the Build for Good (BFG) hackathon.  The Community Hackathon rallied the community to identify pressing local issues and develop innovative tech solutions that address community challenges and aspirations. Since June 2025, participants received support from CITs, experienced tech mentors, and hands-on workshops to refine their ideas into prototypes.

Problem Discovery:

Product Visioning & Team Sharing:

User Testing:

Community Hackathon Finale:

After a month of dedicated development, the Community Hackathon reached its inspiring finale on 12 July 2025 at Heartbeat@Bedok, that drew an audience of about 1,000 people.  21 passionate teams of 100 passionate like-minded youths presented their innovative, tech-driven solutions to a distinguished panel of judges with 5 winning teams progressing to BFG Accelerator Programme.  Each project demonstrated how technology can be harnessed to address local community challenges and create meaningful impact.  Find out more about the Community Hackathon journey and the projects here.

Discover the 5 winning teams, 1 Community’s Favourite team and their impactful solutions!

Team SeniorSays CIT: Nee Soon South Streamlines senior outreach by auto-filling forms through conversation transcripts, turning emotional insights into actionable data for better and faster care.	Team Red Flags CIT: Geylang West Helps young adults make smarter and independent financial decisions by serving as “Grammarly for finance” that spots risky terms, decodes jargon, and verifies contract details.
Team SeniorSync CIT: Zhenghua Empowers Active Ageing Centres (AACs) to deliver personalised care through a senior care platform that tracks requests, customises care, and streamlines support.	Team LetterKey CIT: Zhenghua Helps seniors understand official letters by turning them into bite-sized summaries and audio formats, delivered in their preferred language
Team CallBridge Empowers hearing-impaired users to communicate independently using real-time speech-to-text and text-to-speech technology.	Team Hawkify (Community’s Favourite) Enables hawkers to gain visibility and strengthen their livelihoods by connecting them with diners and supporters.

4.      Sparks Citizens Developer network: A network for passionate community innovators and stakeholders to come together to inspire the next wave of impactful collaborations.  Selected teams from the Community Hackathon will be part of the Sparks Citizens Developer network, where they will collaborate with respective Community Innovation Taskforces to pilot their solutions within local communities.  They will receive support through mentorship from PA’s ICT and PA partners, funding as well as access to PA’s community network for user-testing.

Join the Sparks community innovation movement!

Ready to spark change? Join us in this community innovation movement and be a catalyst for positive change and impact. Whether you have innovative ideas, a passion for community building, or simply want to lend a helping hand, we invite you to connect with us!

Email PA_Partnership@pa.gov.sg and let's ignite change, innovate together, and create lasting impact for the community!