About Us

Changing Mind is:

The catalyst for community change.
Highly experienced at facilitating community action, catalysing collaboration and innovation, connecting people and helping unlock community potential.
An organisation run by people who are passionate about what they do and genuinely care about communities and people, especially the vulnerable.

Treatment Gap of 4 to 11 years

03 Clinical Services

02 Non-Profit, Youth & Community
Serving Sectors

01 Grassroots Community

The Changing Minds Model of Community

What is the "Treatment Gap"?

The Treatment Gap is a representation of the median time it takes a young person first experiencing mental health symptoms to first seek professional support. In Singapore this gap currently ranges from 4 to 11 years.

Reducing the treatment gap is critical but overshadowed by recent reports claiming three quarters of young people currently experiencing mental health symptoms will never seek help. This highlights the important role community level pro-mental health & wellbeing initiatives can play in averting the need for clinical support altogether, and in providing early, responsive care & information for young people experiencing more complex issues, enabling them to seek help earlier, thus reducing the treatment gap.

What

We Work at the Community Level

Changing Minds is a Singapore based, non-profit, Youth and Community Development organisation. Our approach is focused on level 1 & 2 in our Model of Community and informed and directed by principles of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).

This translates into a focus on:

Strengths and solutions rather than problems
Supporting and encouraging social innovation from within the community, especially by youth
Building community capacity; helping to unlock the community’s existing potential to create lasting social good and sustainable change in the youth mental health and wellbeing sector in Singapore.

How

Informed and Directed by the Community

Our objectives are community focused and directed and delivered in the form of programs of:

Consultation – supporting the development and growth of sustainable initiatives for young people, by young people in the youth mental health and wellbeing space.

Youth and Community Engagement – listening to the voices of young people involved in the ground-up sector and young people with lived experience of mental health and wellbeing issues, and responding accordingly.

Capacity Building – delivering programs that up-skill and equip young change makers to create and deliver effective, sustainable initiatives that create real and lasting impact in the community.

Youth Development and Support – working with global and local partners to provide sustainable niche solutions, addressing current gaps in the youth mental health and wellbeing ecosystem.

In these ways we aim to achieve the best possible outcomes for all young people, especially those affected by or at risk of developing mental health & wellbeing conditions and before these condition seriously impact their health, relationships, employment and overall quality of life.

Operationally this is reflected in the “5 Cs” of Changing Minds

We Believe

The answer to most community issues can be found within the community; that enormous potential for action and change exists in the community but often needs help to be realised.
A “ground up” community development approach complements other approaches.
Multidisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration is essential to achieving change.
An engaged community is a resilient and strong community – when a community is listened to and empowered, lasting, long term change can be generated.
Most of the “things” or “assets” required to bring about change are already present in the community – their potential just needs to be unlocked.