Mission:Unite

The inaugural Mission:Unite hackathon was held in 2020 to challenge youths to ideate solutions that promote racial and religious harmony. Mission:Unite was a follow-up to the International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS) and Young Leaders Programme (YLP) held in June 2019, to build on conversations around social cohesion and turn ideas into reality.

During the launch of the hackathon on 27 November 2020, Minister of State Alvin Tan helmed a panel discussion on facilitating racial and religious harmony in online and offline spaces in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over two consecutive weekends, participants from schools and religious and community organisations came together to form teams, participate in workshops, and receive guidance from mentors to develop and pitch their ideas to a panel of judges.

Mission:Unite finalists presenting their pitches on 5 December 2020. (Photos: IRCC)

During the finale on 5 December 2020, Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob delivered the closing speech, observed the idea pitching, and interacted with the teams after the event.

The ten finalist teams received funding support of between SGD10,000 and SGD50,000 to carry out their social cohesion projects.

Singapore's President Halimah Yacob presenting the awards to the winners of Mission:Unite on 5 December 2020. (Photo: IRCC)