1950 – 1959
In the 1950s, the YWCA centres at Fort Canning Road, Outram Road and Raffles Quay were opened.
The Association was concerned with the welfare of single young women and girls, and conducted activities for them. The hostel at Fort Canning Road provided a home away from home for many young women.
Classes like sewing, cooking, Chinese brush painting and Western flower arrangement were conducted for the young women staying in Fort Canning Hostel.
To cater to young adults, a Y-Teens Club was formed and later, a Young Adults Club was set up. Both these clubs provided holiday programmes and camps for children and youths.
1960 – 1969
The 1960s saw extensive industrial development in Singapore and the building of an industrial satellite town in Jurong. With more women working in that area, the YWCA also started to extend her activities there.
When the Women’s Charter was reviewed in 1962, the YWCA supported the amendments.
In 1965, when Singapore separated from Malaysia and gained independence, the YWCA of Singapore also split from the YWCA of Malaysia and became an independent association.
In 1967, a Hostel Building Committee was formed to build a 6-storey hostel at Fort Canning Road. Many fundraising events were held to raise funds for the building, including fashion shows. Construction was completed in 1969. As it was a hostel for young women, men were not allowed beyond the lobby area.
In 1967, the number of children at the YWCA’s various centres were:
Prinsep Street Kindergarten 32 pupils
Children’s Centre, Jurong 90 pupils
Children’s Centre, Outram 80 pupils
Kindergarten, Outram 60 pupils
During this time, the YWCA gave 975 square feet of land at Fort Canning Road to the Land Office, which leased the land for 30 years to the Council of Social Services.
The YWCA celebrated her 93rd anniversary in 1968 with Puan Noor Aishah, the patron of YWCA, as the special guest of honour.
By the end of the 1960s, the YWCA owned properties at Fort Canning, Outram Road and Raffles Quay.
In 1968, the YWCA collaborated with Persatuan Wanita Singapura to put on a play, ‘Malam Peranakan’. The proceeds went to the funding of the 6-storey Fort Canning building project.
View the program brochure for Malam Peranakan.
1970 – 1979
At the Biennale Conference of the YWCAs of Malaya and Singapore held in 1970, the Singapore YWCA officially became a National Association after having been a part of the Malayan YWCA for 45 years. Mrs Helen Y K Hwang was the National President during this momentous period of transition.
With the baby boom in Singapore in the 1970s, the YWCA helped to introduce family planning. When women were called to return to the work force, child development centres were set up so that the women could work. The Association started start day care centres throughout Singapore in the 1970s to help the women to return to work.
With the industrialisation of Jurong in Singapore, the YWCA opened “YWCA House” a hostel for 548 young factory girls in 1969. Classes were held for the hostelites which included English literacy classes, cooking demonstrations, knitting, crochet and the rudiments of housekeeping and sewing. A kindergarten was also set up at Block 10 Yung Kuang Road.
The Dancers Club was formed in 1972 to promote fellowship, social and ballroom dancing for members and their friends.
By the mid-1970s, YWCA had two children’s centres in Jurong and Outram Road as well as a Kindergarten and a hostel in Outram Road and Fort Canning Road.
Many clubs and committees were established to carry out the YWCA’s work – Finance, Personnel & Training, Youth, Religious Fellowship, Hostel, Outram Road Centre, Jurong Committee, Youth Committee, Katong Club, International Women’s Club, Young Adults Club, Dancers Club, Northern Club, Blue Triangle Club and the Y-Teens Club.
At the Jurong Centre, the YWCA provided hostel accommodation as well as Kindergarten, Children’s Centre, adult education classes, Family Planning Counselling Centre and Recreational Centre for residents in Jurong. Seven units in another block were rented to provide services for children and women. A library was also set up in Jurong. However due to the development of the Jurong area, the flats had to be returned to the Jurong Town Corporation and the Jurong Centre office shifted back to the YWCA House at Yung An Road.
The Fort Canning Centre committee not only took charge of the running of the hostel but also organised programmes and activities for women and children as well as operating the Thrift Shop which was permanently located at the Fort Canning Centre. The Hostel provided 50 places for students and 27 rooms for the transients. The rooms were always full with a waiting list for the student places.
The programmes were organised to serve the members’ needs, taking into account the changes in the role of women in society. They emphasised the quality of life, the importance of communication and fostered a sense of social consciousness in a fast changing society.
The “Y” Thrift Shop was started in the Fort Canning Hostel under Mrs Margaret Chew as a means of fund raising in addition to regular fund raising projects such as Flag Day and Food Fairs. The YWCA also produced “Kalaranjana”, an Indian dance and show of brides under the chair of Mrs G Thevathasan as a fund-raising effort for the hostel. The Fort Canning Hostel at this time could accommodate 140 people.
The Programmes Committee became the Outram Road Centre Committee. They were responsible for the running of the Outram Road Centre, the three adult clubs as well as the programmes for the Association. This included Homecraft classes for girls in the Tiong Bahru locality. The Samaritans of Singapore also operated from the Outram Road centre.
In 1975, YWCA celebrated her 100th year in Singapore with a Thanksgiving Service and a dinner followed by a Pageant recounting the history of its founder Miss Sophia Cooke and her 12 girls. The dinner was graced by the late President Benjamin Sheares and Mrs Sheares. All the various clubs also organised special events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of YWCA.
By 1975, the YWCA was planning to extend her children’s centres to the new housing estates which were opening up, such as Marine Parade. As it was also the International Women’s Year, the YWCA participated in an exhibition “World in Woman”, organised by the Singapore Association of Women’s Lawyers. It also sponsored the printing cost of “What Singapore Women should know about the law” in four languages.
In the mid-1970s, the International and Community Affairs Committee chaired by Mrs Anamah Tan, the Vice-President of YWCA, was formed. It aimed to stimulate interest, knowledge and participation from members of different economic, social, cultural and legal groups, particularly in the areas which concerned women.
Under this Committee, seminars on topics of interest were organised for women. Mrs Tan was elected in 1979 to the World YWCA Executive Committee and was one of five women representing Asia in the YWCA’s world body. As Singapore’s representative, she attended a World YWCA seminar on the “status of women”.
A day care centre at Marine Parade was opened in 1977 to provide working mothers with reliable childcare services while at the same time, develop and educate their children through effective early childhood education programmes. This would be the first of many child development centres opened across the country to help working mothers.
The National Office moved from Outram Road centre premises to its rented premises at 211 Colombo Court in 1978 to increase the space for the Association’s expanding services while waiting for the purchase of a unit in Orchard Tower to be completed.
The quadrennial meeting of the YWCA World Council was held in 1979 in Athens and five delegates from Singapore YWCA attended the meeting.
The YWCA opened its first Nursery in 1979 for children below four years’ old in Outram Road Centre, with a second nursery session later due to demand. The Kindergarten also expanded with a second session, but the Children’s Centre was closed after 20 years of service, as the need to provide for preschool children from lower income groups had diminished.