Roving Community Innovation Lab

What is it?

• To promote mutual aid and build supportive communities, the Roving Community Innovation Lab will set up a pop-up exhibition at different neighbourhoods featuring ideas for peer-driven projects or ground up initiatives. Residents can browse these ready-to-run ideas and indicate interest to participate in or organise such activities.
• Those interested will be equipped with playbooks that acts as a 'DIY manual' so that residents can self-organise these initiatives. There will be a half-day workshop where a facilitator helps run through the mechanics of each concept.
• The half day workshop also includes an ideation session where residents can propose solutions to address local issues. Good ideas will then be added to the list of curated solutions that can be shared with other communities as the Lab moves from place to place.

Why do this?

If you decide to do something tomorrow with your friend or neighbour that helps your community, that is a 'ground up initiative'. The Roving Lab hopes to encourage people who may not ordinarily think of themselves as 'social innovators' or people mobilisers to start such local initiatives. By curating ideas and then sharing them on posters exhibited in a community space, we hope to reduce the barriers to getting involved. Our theory is that people do not participate in the life of their local community because they do not consider themselves to be the 'sociable' type and find most current community gatherings awkward or boring. If asked to join the grassroots, or to 'volunteer' for some social cause, many people might not want to step forward.

However, if people become aware of an interesting and doable idea--a meaningful way to get involved and contribute--they may be more likely to come forward not just to participate, but even to organise. What if we simply offered parents the opportunity to organise their kids in peer-to-peer learning circles, or play host in a neighbourhood orientation tour, or to join a group to share energy savings or sustainability tips?

Venue and Dates

Jurong: May - Jul 2023

Local Partner: Tasek Jurong

Venue: Taman Jurong Community Centre / Tasek Jurong Youth Drop-in Centre

Address: 1 Yung Sheng Road, #03-06 S(618495)

Dates:

• Design Thinking / Asset Mapping Session with Tasek Jurong Youths (May 2023) - ideas get included in pop-up exhibition
• Preliminary engagement with Tasek staff / local volunteers who are keen to drive and organise some initiatives
• Week long pop-up exhibition (July 2023)
• Half-day Community Ideathon (July 2023)

Half-day Community Ideathon

1. Run through playbooks, link up or sharing with experienced organisers (1 hour)
2. Identify local issues + problem framing (30mins)
3. Ideation (1 hour)
4. Share back (30 mins)

Yishun: Sep - Oct 2023

Local Partner: Tzu Chi Singapore

Venue: Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre

Address: 30A Yishun Central 1, Singapore 768796

Dates:

• Design Thinking / Asset Mapping Session with Tzu Chi Youths (Sep 2023) - ideas get included in pop-up exhibition
• Preliminary engagement with Tzu Chi Volunteers / Grassroots who are keen to drive and organise some initiatives
• Week long pop-up exhibition (Oct 2023)
• Half-day Community Ideathon (Oct 2023)

Ideas

The solutions we have curated here those that can already be run by a community without the need for any professionals, philanthropy or permission.

Peer-to-Peer Learning

[youths version vs adult version are more skill swops]

Giving Circles

Giving Circles - Mobilize small groups of 5-7 families to give directly and top up the income of a family with lesser means to a minimum level required to provide stability, coupled with a circle of support to meet ad hoc needs and even longer term aspirations.

Interest-Free Loans

to insert

Neighbourhood Orientation Tours

to insert

Circle of Support

to insert

Timebanks

[to include asset mapping through block IC, floor IC]

Open Collaboration to Map Social Needs & Community Assets

Contribute to the wiki.socialcollab.sg platform itself, or organise a wikithon.

See the range of roles you can play in this draft of our Landing Page

Dancing in Pitch Darkness

Come and dance like nobody is watching—because nobody can in almost total darkness.

Dancing used to be a natural way of expressing joy at hearing music. Professionals have stylised these movements, created standards and  determined what kinds of bodies can dance. Now dancing is mostly performance and posturing. There are norms on who should be doing what kind of dance, and how they should look, dress and move while participating.

What if we took that judgment away? What if we could participate in collective joy again?

Come for a one hour dancing in the dark social experiment.

Come dressed in comfortable clothes. Bring the young, the old and the awkward.

(Inspired by the No Lights No Lycra movement from Melbourne. )

Other Ideas

[These might be ideas that your local grassroots may already be doing]

• Toy Swops / Toy Libraries
• Estate clean up
• Setup our own Repair Kopitiam