Starting from the end of half term break, our group will be meeting the care center members for the first time on our UWC East campus. Since starting the service at the beginning of term 1, our group has been working hard to create an effective action plan that will guide us in the coming year (see attached google doc or click here)
We began by listing the fundamental reasons behind why this specific service is needed for the local community. This helped to motivate our group and create a collective goal to work towards. Before beginning the service, I had initially thought of this service as an opportunity to help engage those, who might not have the chance to do so independently, to a fun sport. However, after this initial activity, I realized that it wasn’t just about the physical aspect, but the connection between people. Not only are we trying to make them feel more welcome to our campus, but we are also trying to contribute to our local community and improve the general life quality of the center’s members. To be able to achieve this, we conducted a SMART analysis in-class to make sure we understood the direction of action. The most important goal we came up with through the activity was: to build trusting relationships and to increase awareness on the issues in Singapore. Both of these are closely related to our interactions with people, specifically in Singapore. I felt that a lot of what we are trying to achieve does not only apply to those in our society that need extra support but connecting with the members in a personal & genuine way, just like you would with anyone you meet.
These activities and findings are closely related to LO5: Collaboration. Not only did we have to work as an effective team to generate ideas, but we have also learned more about how to collaborate with the care center members. During this process, I found that the hardest part of planning our line of activities and lessons was our lack of initial information given about the people in the care center. Even after visiting the center and seeing some of the members, it was hard to predict what kind of people they would be and what they were each comfortable doing. As a result, all of us helped in doing some research by looking online at their homepage and other blogs/community resources. This helped us gain a better understanding of who they were and what help they required. Knowing a little about the history of the center itself also gave us some insight as to what the center does to help its members, and how we (as UWC students), can contribute to this process. I feel that collaboration was a crucial part of the introduction to our service, and most of our group members were very vocal with their ideas, and we were able to come up with more quality ideas as a result. After taking time to brainstorm collectively and create a better understanding of how to communicate and strengthen relationships with the members, we are ready to welcome them to our school this coming Tuesday.