| History & Background
Background
Shan You is a non-profit organisation set up to provide counselling and social services to children, youths, families and the elderly, regardless of race, religion and ability to pay for our services. The Centre was registered as a charity on 28 Dec 1995 and conferred the Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs) status. It has a full membership with the National Council of Social Service. As a non-profit organisation that offers services at no charge where possible, Shan You depends heavily on donors and sponsors, and organises fund-raising projects to raise the much-needed funds. Shan You's operating expenses amount more than 1 million per annum. Only the counselling services provided by our agency are partially funded by the Community Chest, NCSS.
History
In 1991, Buddhist Graduate Fellowship (now known as Buddhist Fellowship) initiated the formation of Tai Pei Counselling Centre with funds from the Tai Pei Foundation. Tai Pei Counselling Centre thus became the first Buddhist counselling centre in Singapore.
As its services expanded, the Centre moved to Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery in 1993 and was renamed as Ren Ci Counselling Centre. However, the monastery wanted to relocate the Centre to Ren Ci Hospital, a hospital for chronically ill patients, in 1995. It was then that a decision was made to set up an independent counselling centre in order for it to serve the centre community and to prevent frequent relocations. Finally, Shan You Counselling Centre was established and registered as a society on 17 June 1995. Its name, Shan You Counselling Centre, was suggested by Venerable Mun Cheng and endorsed by the Management Committee. Initially, Shan You Counselling Centre was situated in Lorong 36 Geylang. However, as the old site was zoned for residential building projects, the Urban Redevelopment Authority gave notice of the Centre’s need to move. In May 1998, upon the successful application to the Housing and Development Board, the Centre relocated to the void deck of Block 9 Upper Boon Keng Road. We were again affected by HDB's redevelopment programme and by April 2006, we moved to our current premises at Block 5 Upper Boon Keng Road. This location was chosen because of its easy accessibility by public transport and its close proximity to the community that the Centre was target to serve. |
