Tasek Sailors has its roots in Beacon of Life Academy (BOLA) – a community football programme started in 2013 in Taman Jurong by members of the Beacon of Life (BOL) ex-inmate support group and other stalwart volunteers.

With the aim of building a platform for youth upliftment, and of honouring and resourcing the street footballers of the neighbourhood, BOLA created its first two squads and became a pioneering partner with SportCares in its Saturday Night Lights programme.

In the years following, BOLA would gradually take in players and families from wider segments of Jurong, and in 2020, expand its outreach to cover the rest of the Western region of Singapore, organising its children and youth teams (of players aged 7 to 21) under the banner of Tasek FC.

After an initial collaboration with professional football club Lion City Sailors in 2022 to grow Tasek’s coaching and footballing capabilities, Tasek Academy and Social Services (then ‘Tasek Jurong’) officialized a long-term partnership with Lion City Sailors in 2023, creating Tasek Sailors. Tasek Sailors launched to provide pathways into professional football for disadvantaged youth, including a special scheme for talented girls, and to further extend Tasek’s football programmes to the East of Singapore.

Tasek Sailors now stands as the largest sports programme run by a social service agency in Singapore – with over 500 active participants, and with teams competing in the FAS Singapore Youth League, JSSL National Youth League, and FAS Island Wide League. Tasek Sailors is also Singapore’s largest community football academy for girls.

With staff mentors and caseworkers attached to each training group, Tasek Sailors players are provided wraparound social support through personalised and group mentoring, academic coaching, and, where necessary, social work intervention.

Post-secondary youth players are increasingly taking up opportunities to give back to Tasek via a) our assistant coaches scheme, b) being facilitators at our residential holiday camps, and c) working in our youth drop-in centres; youth are also forming groups as Tasek volunteers to serve the greater community.