A decade on, Enabling Village users, tenants optimistic about inclusivity hub’s longevity

SINGAPORE – Almost every day, stroke survivor April Kwek makes the 45-minute journey from her home in Boon Lay to Enabling Village in Redhill to join wellness activities such as adaptative table tennis and seated tai chi.

“It is like my second home – I meet so many friends here,” Madam Kwek, 58, said of the inclusive community space in Lengkok Bahru, which repurposed the old Bukit Merah Vocational Institute. “This place has everything, including cafes.”

Just over 10 years after national disability agency SG Enable established the space in 2015 to demonstrate how persons with disability (PWDs) can live, learn and work alongside the wider community, clients and tenants at Enabling Village said they are bullish about its long-term prospects.

Mr Edward Chew, senior director for SG Enable’s employment and lifelong learning group, said that the village’s monthly footfall has increased from 12,000 to 22,000, compared with the same period a year ago.

With the space currently at 100 per cent occupancy, visitorship is expected to keep increasing as more tenants commence operations, he added.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the village’s average monthly footfall was about 26,000. Following the

closure of its FairPrice supermarket

in October 2023, average monthly footfall dipped to approximately 12,000 in 2024.

Ms Jacelyn Lim, executive director of the Autism Resource Centre (ARC), said the pandemic years were particularly challenging. ARC operates The Art Faculty, which sells art and merchandise created by people with autism and related challenges, as well as the Employability and Employment Centre (E2C) at Enabling Village.

ARC shuttered its Professor Brawn cafe at the village after about five years, relocating it in end-2024 to its autism-focused Pathlight School campus in Tampines. The cafe also operates at Pathlight School’s Ang Mo Kio campus.

Asked about the viability of her businesses at the village, she said: “A social enterprise is accountable to two bottom lines – financial performance and social impact. Keeping both in focus is essential to understanding true viability.”

Ms Lim said she observed greater public awareness of Enabling Village and PWDs over the years. Today, there are also more corporates supporting The Art Faculty with purchases, and about 60 employer partners for E2C, she said.

Another long-time tenant, the Stroke Support Station (S3), said its success at the village has led to a second centre at Jurong Point.

Founded in 2015, the community-based agency for stroke recovery and wellness has expanded from one to three units at Enabling Village to meet growing client demand, and also added an innovation lab there.

S3 executive director Ng Rei Na said the village is well served by public transport, with a sheltered walkway from the nearby Redhill MRT station and bus stop, and a complimentary shuttle bus service.

There is also a collaborative ecosystem among the tenants, she added, fostered by bi-annual tenant get-together sessions.

New space, fresh offerings

The village’s rejuvenation can partly be attributed to its

new four-storey extension called Vista

, which was officially opened by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in December 2025.

The extension seeks to strengthen post-18 pathways for PWDs and to better support their caregivers.

For instance, Enabling Academy, a disability learning hub, and Independent Living Studio, a simulated Housing Board flat, will enable individuals to acquire diverse skills in realistic environments, such as in financial and digital literacy, self-care, decision-making and independent living.

Meanwhile, the Future Care Planning Resource Centre helps PWDs and their caregivers plan early for long-term care.

Perhaps as importantly, Vista expands Enabling Village’s land area to more than 33,000 sq m – about five football fields – which brings together more agencies, services and businesses that support PWDs in a shared space.

Ms Catherine Goh, 59, was among those who only recently discovered Enabling Village after she contacted CaringSG, a caregiver-led charity offering skills training, respite and emotional support that has a new space in Vista.

“I was pleasantly surprised to discover facilities such as a heated swimming pool and a pet-friendly cafe – it amazed me that everything is conveniently located in one place,” said Ms Goh, a full-time caregiver to her 30-year-old son with special needs.

Other new additions include the i’mable Collective Space, a platform for designers, businesses and community partners to help PWDs gain experience in gig and longer-term work.

Operated by creative agency weareSuper, the space brings together partners like social design studio Hullabaloo and Foreword Coffee Roastery and Academy, which run programmes in design and cafe skills, respectively.

Mr Chew said the new extension is an opportunity to do more for PWDs after they leave school, to create pathways for independent living.

“This is more than an expansion of Enabling Village,” he said.

“This is an expansion of our purpose.”

Accessibility for the local community has also been enhanced with Vista, allowing the public to cut through the village to get from Redhill Road to Jalan Bukit Merah, or vice versa.

A new wayfinding pathway was added to guide users from the main entrance to the extension and exit. Co-created by persons with visual impairment and wheelchair users, it has a high-contrast, textured pathway for those with low vision, and a smooth tactile surface that lets wheelchair users navigate comfortably without bumps.

Beyond infrastructure, inclusive programming has been ramped up to build a vibrant space where people of all abilities can join in.

Since November 2024, nearly 120 programmes have been conducted in fields such as arts, culture, innovation, employment and sports. Organisations keen to run inclusive initiatives can apply for venue sponsorship and marketing support.

The annual Enabling Lives Festival, which features an open house where tenants and partners showcase their programmes and products, has also grown by 50 per cent – more than 4,500 people attended the two-day festival in December 2025, compared with the previous average attendance of about 3,000.

New tenants like MS Academy, which bills itself as Singapore’s first purpose-built inclusive music school, said they are hopeful that Enabling Village will continue to gain mindshare among Singaporeans, and draw in more clients and customers.

The academy is currently piloting a vocational training programme to equip PWDs with foundational and industry-relevant skills in the creative arts, and to repair musical instruments. The programme has attracted about 20 students so far.

“People who come here have unanimously said that Enabling Village gives them tranquillity and peace, which differs from the malls,” said MS Academy founder and managing director Joy Khau. “A good tenant mix will help to reach out to more people.”

Looking back, SG Enable’s Mr Chew said one of the biggest challenges in the village’s early days was that there was no blueprint to follow. Since the concept of an inclusive community space like Enabling Village was new, the team had to figure out what would work through trial and learning.

Having crossed its 10-year milestone, Mr Chew said: “We hope to continue being a place of possibility where new ideas are tested, partnerships are formed and lives are changed.”