Hack Kopitiam takes active ageing centres to seniors at coffee shops

Like many other elderly men, 77-year-old Foo Hwee Wan frequents coffee shops near his home to pass the time. The retired timber worker, who lives with 16 pet birds in a rental flat at Block 53 Marine Terrace, would sit in one of two coffee shops three times daily to chat with friends.

While he has a social life, he was not plugged into an active ageing centre (AAC), which offers activities and support for seniors living nearby in the community. It fosters social interaction, introduces activities to enhance their health and wellness, and makes referrals for care services if needed.

In May, Mr Foo was approached by Ms Liu Yibai, a 22-year-old student from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Singapore, and her schoolmates as part of a social care advocacy project.

They offered to draw a caricature of him as an ice-breaker while asking him questions about himself. After building rapport with him over a few weeks, the students mapped out his daily routine in the neighbourhood so that they can introduce him to fellow seniors whose activities regularly overlap with his.

The social care advocacy project, called Hack Kopitiam, was initiated by philanthropic house Lien Foundation and undertaken by multidisciplinary design agency Forest & Whale.

It finds alternative ways to reach out to seniors who are not attending AACs, particularly senior men, who make up only between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of participants, said Lien Foundation chief executive officer Lee Poh Wah.

The proportion of women and men differs across AACs, but men are typically vastly outnumbered by women, partly because the activities offered may appeal more to women.

While AACs increase their outreach to many seniors, there are limitations in their physical locations and variety of activities. Coffee shops, which are ubiquitous and regular hangout spots for many senior men, can be touchpoints for the AACs’ engagement, Mr Lee said.

“Senior men are a hard-to-reach group for preventative healthcare,” Mr Lee said. “We need more appealing approaches and safe spaces for them to find social support and camaraderie, to meet them where they are, not where we want them to be.”

He added: “Through this project, we hope to reach out to these men, understand their needs and aspirations, and connect them to the AACs nearby, so that they may be plugged into the social care system and contribute at the same time.”

This can help reduce their social isolation. Studies have shown that given their traditional role as wage earners, men have smaller social networks and report less social interaction than women. Transitioning from employment to retirement could further curtail their social network.

The project also hopes to inspire more social service agencies to bring care to where the seniors are, said Ms Wendy Chua, 40, who is a designer and co-founder of Forest & Whale.

She is developing a Hack Kopitiam Playbook by the first quarter of 2025. This will be shared with the AACs and social service agencies (SSAs) which are keen to reach out to seniors through creative interventions in the coffee shop. The organisations are also invited to contribute inputs to the printed guide.

“With this playbook, the AACs have a valuable free resource that is a manual for the various community-led creative activities they can do to reach out to the elders in their neighbourhood nodes,” she said.

Ms Chua has included the Hack Kopitiam initiative in the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Design for Social Futures course which she teaches at Lasalle College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore.

“Students are motivated by a sense of purpose. Hack Kopitiam provides an educational framework for volunteers to contribute meaningfully while learning creative ways to engage with communities,” she said, adding that it also helps to nurture empathy for seniors and challenge stereotypes about ageing.

Ms Liu, who befriended Mr Foo, is among the 20 students involved in the project. They started engaging seniors weekly in Marine Terrace in May 2024, and Ang Mo Kio in September 2023.

To date, they have reached out to 135 senior men and women in Marine Terrace and 141 in Ang Mo Kio at coffee shops. The locations were selected as the coffee shops are open to be part of the programme, and the stall operators, who have been working there for a long time, know the regular patrons well and can act as a bridge for the outreach.

Ms Liu said: “Mr Foo was friendly and happy to talk to us. He introduced us to his friends and even bought us drinks and food.”

Mr Foo has discovered his hidden talent in stone stacking since he met the students, and has become a “trainer” to others in the community as part of the Hack Kopitiam initiative. While the rest can stack only seven or eight stones, he can stack up to 11 stones, and engages in the activity for more than three hours with laser focus.

After befriending the students, he was invited to join Montfort Care’s Goodlife Studio, an active ageing centre at Block 15 Marine Terrace.

“I didn’t know about the active ageing centre or what they were doing,” he said. “Now they call me regularly and invite me to join in their activities.”

Ms Urise Neo, 55, assistant programme manager of Goodlife Studio (Marine Parade), said with Hack Kopitiam, her centre has reached out to 135 elders, 46 per cent of whom are new clients.

Before the project, her centre served about 1,680 seniors, 32 per cent of whom are males who are attracted to their “gym tonic” strength-training programme and muay thai activities.

The project may be expanded to Marine Drive, she said.

”This project helps us serve as a centre without walls and bring programmes to the community,” she said. “The ultimate aim is to invite them to our centre and to understand why they did not join us earlier.”

Some of the existing members at her centre have also joined the students to engage other seniors.

One of them is Madam Yeo Siew Hua, who ran a handicraft snowman-making workshop with the students in the coffee shop at Block 59 Marine Terrace, earlier in November.

The 69-year-old seamstress said she would invite curious onlookers to join her for handicraft classes.

 

Lasalle student Cheong Wen Xuan, 21, said: “The stereotypes that people generally have of the elderly being slow and boring are wrong. I realised they have a lot of hidden talents and skills, and are... resourceful.”

Other residents have joined in to contribute too, such as 45-year-old Madam Noorsiah Ibrahim, who owns a spice stall in Marine Terrace wet market. She gives crochet lessons for Hack Kopitiam at the same coffee shop at Block 59 Marine Terrace.

Ms Nur Aliyah from Lasalle, who befriended her as part of Hack Kopitiam, said the project forges inter-generational bonds.

“I learnt crocheting skills, and enjoyed listening to Madam Noorsiah’s interesting life stories,” said the 20-year-old.

Meanwhile, an informal calligraphy club has been formed at the Kim San Leng coffee shop at Block 226B in Ang Mo Kio through Hack Kopitiam.

Mr William Lam, 91, imparts his self-taught calligraphy skills to other seniors. The students had approached him and found out about his interest in calligraphy.

Said Mr Lam, a retired taxi driver: “I still prefer the kopitiam environment because it is open and accessible to all, and we can just come and go as we wish.”

The women are not forgotten. Ms Chiu Poh Ching, 59, also got to know the students at the same coffee shop in Ang Mo Kio.

“The students are so friendly and respectful... with so much curiosity about our life stories and the history of the Ang Mo Kio neighbourhood,” said the retail display assistant. “Every week, when we meet, there are always different conversations.”

Mr Andy Hoon, 44, chairman of Kim San Leng Group, said: “Many of our customers are ageing and we just want to do our part as a kopitiam. These activities take place during our lull period, and it’s for a good cause.”