Throughout the past three episodes, we’ve talked about community work and community development in the present. Today, we’ve gathered three guests - Ng Bee Leng (Director, Community Development), Chuah Xing Jun (Research Assistant), and Emeritus Professor Satvinder Singh (Research Consultant) - in a more open-ended conversation about the future. In particular, we zoom into measurement. That is, how do we know if we’re making progress? And how do we measure the effectiveness of our community-building efforts? We hear specifically about the TCI or the Thriving Community Index, which we previewed in the last episode. This episode is part of “The Community” mini-series, co-produced with AMKFSC Community Services. Learn more about AMKFSC's community-driven initiatives and play a part in building thriving communities: https://bit.ly/amkfsc-tcf.

There is broad consensus that research, evaluation, and evidence-based practice are important. However, to what extent are they compatible with community work and community development, especially when data and knowledge are extracted from participants? Today, we explore both participatory research and practice research with Ng Bee Leng (Director, Community Development) and Woo Pei Yi (Senior Assistant Director, Community Development), specifically through the use of Photovoice. We learn about the methodology, findings, and future plans. This episode is part of “The Community” mini-series, co-produced with AMKFSC Community Services. Learn more about AMKFSC's community-driven initiatives and play a part in building thriving communities: https://bit.ly/amkfsc-tcf.

What do community work and community development look like in practice? More specifically, what do they look like in social work practice? In this episode, I’ll first chat with Palvindran S/O Jayram (Manager, Community Hubs), who worked as a social worker before moving to community work. Next, Jermaine speaks with a resident, Lydia Susiyanti (Resident and Community Activator, 643 Community Hub), who first started as a community volunteer. A big theme you’ll hear from both conversations is that role demarcation and definitions, often framed through the lens of traditional social work practice, are not always clear or helpful. In fact, they could even stigmatise. With Palvindran and Lydia, we also talk about community development’s challenges and their plans for the future. This episode is part of “The Community” mini-series, co-produced with AMKFSC Community Services. Learn more about AMKFSC's community-driven initiatives and play a part in building thriving communities: https://bit.ly/amkfsc-tcf.

Before exploring the details of community work and community development, we ought to understand: What makes a community? More fundamentally, what is a community? Or the community? With Ng Bee Leng (Director, Community Development) and Muhammad Fazeli (Resident and Community Activator, 643 Community Hub), we learn how they describe the community, the Asset-Based Community Development approach, and an overview of AMKFSC’s community-driven initiatives. This episode is part of “The Community” mini-series, co-produced with AMKFSC Community Services. Learn more about AMKFSC's community-driven initiatives and play a part in building thriving communities: https://bit.ly/amkfsc-tcf.

In this teaser episode, we introduce our four-episode mini-series titled “The Community”, co-produced with AMKFSC Community Services, focused on community work and community development in Singapore. We also meet our mini-series co-host, Jermaine Boh, and describe the content you can expect. This episode is part of “The Community” mini-series, co-produced with AMKFSC Community Services. Learn more about AMKFSC's community-driven initiatives and play a part in building thriving communities: https://bit.ly/amkfsc-tcf.

On this podcast, I’ve traditionally featured the research and social work and projects of others. I make a small exception today, because I want to share about two recent research journal articles I’ve published, which, I think, in an interesting fashion, draws from earlier episodes I produced for past seasons of this socialservice.sg podcast. I’ve divided this episode into three parts. In the first part, I explore the first paper, titled: “Youth civic and community engagement under Singapore’s COVID-19 lockdown: Motivations, online mobilisation, action, and future directions”. This paper draws directly from socialservice.sg’s first season, “COVID-19 Community Chronicles”. After Singapore announced the first circuit-breaker, from April 9 to June 24, 2020, we had guests running community initiatives, some of whom talked about structural or systemic issues. In the second part, I feature the second paper. It’s titled, “‘Democracy and active citizenship are not just about the elections’: Youth civic and political participation during and beyond Singapore’s nine-day pandemic election (GE2020)”. “The Nine Days”, was socialservice.sg’s second season, and the season was titled as such because that was the length of the general election campaign period. From June 30 to July 11, 2020, we solicited youth views on election issues and candidates and their thoughts on the election. And in the third and final part of this episode, very briefly, I summarise the key findings and reflect on the potential of podcasts – in Singapore and beyond – to bridging research, practice, education, and policy. Parts of this episode were adapted largely from a June 2022 seminar I delivered, as part of the AcademiaSG Junior Scholar Seminar. This episode is part of the "Making Research Sense" series of the podcast's fifth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/).

"Jom" (Malay for "let's"; jom.media) is Singapore's new weekly digital magazine covering the arts, culture, politics, business, technology, and more in the country. With co-founders Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh, Charmaine Poh, and Tsen-Waye Tay, we ask them about how they got started, their plans to cover civic issues that are somewhat controversial or contested in society, and navigating long-term journalistic integrity and financial sustainability. This episode is part of the "Civic Engagement and Action" series of the podcast's fifth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/).

"Seeking Shelter: Homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore" is the country's second nationwide street count of its unhoused and homeless, conducted in 2021. With its authors Dr. Ng Kok Hoe and Jeyda Simren Sekhon Atac, we begin by reviewing the first street count and report in 2019. Thereafter, we dive deeper into their most recent report, to understand the state of homelessness during COVID-19, explore the role of social policy, and discuss volunteer engagement and ethical priorities. Dr. Ng is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Social Inclusion Project and Case Study Unit at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore. He previously shared about his other research projects and the Minimum Income Standard study on this podcast. Simren is a Research Assistant in the Social Inclusion Project at LKYSPP. This episode is part of "Making Research Sense" series of the podcast's fifth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/).

With Edward Yee of Givfunds (https://www.givfunds.org/), a non-profit which lends low-cost funds at scale to South Asian social enterprises, and Masref (https://www.masref.ch/), a Swiss fintech which seeks to increase the accessibility of safe and secure saving accounts, we chat about his three big ideas on finance and leaving nobody behind. First, the removal of persistent biases; second, the reduction of servicing costs; and third, the incentives for impact in the financial sector. This episode is part of "The Future of..." series of the podcast's fifth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Ng Shi Wen.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, the living conditions and well-being of migrant workers have received increased attention. At the same time, and consequently too, during the country’s first circuit-breaker in 2020, there was an intense flurry of volunteerism and donations among concerned Singaporeans. However, since then, over the past two years, public attention on both migrant workers and voluntary contributions has waxed and waned. With Michael Cheah, executive director of HealthServe, we discuss these phenomena and explore future advocacy and strategies. This episode is part of the "Civic Engagement and Action" series of the podcast's fifth season (https://socialservice.sg/podcast/). The feature photo is by Ng Shi Wen.