A Day in the life of a Community Worker 

09:30 – 11:30

Learning Conversation: Exploring a Resident’s Passions that can be Developed to Contribute to Community Wellbeing

Community Worker had a conversation with Auntie Sarah where shared her life experience and her knowledge about the neighbourhood.

Community Worker discovered that Auntie Sarah is concerned about her elderly neighbours who seem isolated and do not go out of their homes often.

Auntie Sarah is also well-connected with shop owners at the nearby market where she takes her walks and knows her neighbours who stay on the same floor as her.

She had a lot of experience with competitive sports even though she had been wheelchair-bound for years and knows a lot about wheelchair racing.

Despite her concern for her isolated neighbours and her network in the neighbourhood, she was hesitant to contribute her knowledge and skills in disability sports or introduce Community Worker to other neighbours who might also be concerned about the isolated seniors in their neighbourhood to act on their concern. She worried that she would be seen as being “nosy” by her neighbours. Community Worker acknowledged her concerns and would pace with her level of readiness and look for opportunities to connect her with others who share similar concerns for the neighbourhood.

11:30 – 13:00

Convening a Visioning Conversation with a Group of Residents: What do we want to do together to contribute to the wellbeing of the neighbourhood?

Before the start of the resident conversation, Community Worker first discussed with colleagues that the residents should be invited to sit in a circle instead of rows to encourage eye contact and build a sense of connectedness. Roles of the main facilitator and co-facilitators were also clarified.

The resident conversation began as residents came together at the activity area of the agency office. Community Worker invited residents to share one by one their interests and any concerns for their neighbourhood to create an opportunity for residents with similar interests and concerns to connect with one another and co-create a collective vision of what they would like to do together to contribute to the wellbeing of their neighbourhood.

Residents spoke up in their different preferred languages and helped to translated for one another. They proposed a range of activities and interest groups they would like to start in their neighbourhood. The most popular idea was about starting a walking group among residents.

 Community Worker invited residents to list down the decisions they needed to make collectively to start the walking group (e.g. location of walks, how to include wheelchair bound residents) and invited residents who are interested to form the walking group resident planning team to raise their hands.

Community Worker invited the walking group resident planning team to sit together during lunch and continue the discussion over lunch.

14:00 – 15:00

Capacity Building through Rehearsals: Recce with Resident

Resident Arthur from the walking group planning team was excited but also anxious about organising walks with other residents. Community Worker joined Resident Arthur in a recce around the neighbourhood area and invited him to take on the role to update the rest of the planning team who could not join the recce to enhance Resident Arthur’s sense of ownership and opportunities for him to interact and build connections with other residents on the planning team.

During the recce, Community Worker role played and rehearsed with Resident Arthur to build up his capacity and thus confidence in handling different scenarios that might happen during walks with residents (e.g. residents feeling tired and lagged behind, conflicts among residents).

At the end of the recce, Community Worker facilitated a debrief with Resident Arthur to process the experience together and for Resident Arthur to summarise the follow-ups with the rest of the planning team to enhance his commitment and ownership.

15:30 – 17:30

Asset Mapping: Outreaching to Discover the Abundant Community Strengths and Assets

Asset mapping refers to the community process of discovering strengths and assets of residents and the community, connecting them with one another, and mobilising them to take collective actions to contribute to community wellbeing.

Community Worker does three asset mapping sessions a week through door-knocking at different timings and locations in the neighbourhood. Before the asset mapping session, Community Work hosted a briefing among residents, volunteers, and colleagues who were mapping the neighbourhood assets together to align the purpose and rationale of the session. The team chose a few floors at a nearby rental block to build on the existing network of residents that the team had got to know and connect them with opportunities to contribute their strengths and assets at an upcoming resident-led National Day celebration event. Team members paired up to have as diverse language abilities, gender and ethnicity in each pair as possible to effectively engage residents of different profiles.

Community Worker walked to the rental block nearby with the team and went up to one of the floors to greet a resident who had her unit door open. Community Worker engaged the resident in a conversation along the corridor to get to know each other, how she finds the neighbourhood, and discover her passions, strengths, and assets that can be connected to other neighbourhood assets to create an abundant community. Community Worker discovered that she is very good at growing plants and is concerned about food safety and growing organic and safe vegetables in the neighbourhood. Community Worker shared with her other residents who are passionate about gardening and food-related issues and invited her to connect with like-minded people at upcoming resident gatherings.

At the end of the asset mapping session, Community Worker gathered the team for a debrief to share and process the discoveries from each pair. Community Worker facilitated the discussion to create a psychologically safe space for the team of volunteers, residents, and colleagues who conducted asset mapping to share their diverse observations and reflections about the community.

19:00 – 20:30

Leading by Stepping Back: Supporting a Resident-led Planning Meeting

Community Worker attended a discussion with a group of residents who were planning a National Day celebration at a void deck table. Community Worker stepped back by asking the residents to set the meeting agenda. Residents led the discussions and one of them took down notes.

Community Worker encouraged the residents to open the celebration to others from the other two nearby estates to create a bumping space for connectors and residents with similar passions to connect.

Residents volunteered to contribute their strengths and assets towards the community celebration during the discussion (e.g. speakers for performance, ideas for games). Community Worker intentionally engaged a few quieter residents and asked them whether they would be interested to take on roles to help out during the actual event for inclusiveness and shared ownership.