Listening Living Labs with Migrant Workers

A call for anyone who cares to listen, stretch and act collectively to significantly improve the well-being of migrant workers in Singapore.

Our journey began as a response to support migrant workers during the pandemic.

In Feb 2020, our Founding Chairperson Anthea and changemaker member Abhishek started a chat group to gather changemakers in the migrant worker space.

As infection clusters broke out in migrant worker dormitories in Mar 2020, the group coordinated with each other and the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) to deliver masks, food and other essentials to workers stuck in dormitories across Singapore.

It was the first time that NGOs and ground-up movements in the migrant worker community came together to collaborate at such a large and wide scale.

In providing aid to our migrant workers, we came to learn about the complex issues that they face.

While masks and food were helpful in providing immediate relief, they seemed like short term fixes for the longer term issues that affect a worker’s well-being in Singapore.

What more can we do to significantly improve the well-being of our migrant workers, that we cannot do alone?

To create significant improvements, we need to rethink the way we look at these issues

Over the last 9 months from Nov 2020 – Oct 2021, we read different research reports that examined issues faced by migrant workers, published by folks like the National Volunteer Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), the Majurity Trust, Asia Philanthropy Circle, etc.

We also consulted with leaders – from dormitory operators, academics, doctors, non-profit organizations, employers and migrant workers themselves through various focus group discussions. 

Through these conversations,  we identified 4 key issues and realised that we need to rethink the way we look at them, because they are more complex than we realize. The issues are:

MW LL (1)
MW LL (4)

These issues are complex because there are competing perspectives

These 4 issues are complex because there are different sides of the story – employers, migrant workers, NGOs and dormitories could have competing perspectives and everyone has a piece of the truth.

Not only do we need to rethink the way we look at these issues, we also realized that no single organization or person can address these issues alone.

A diverse group of people needs to work together.

To significantly improve the well-being of our migrant workers, we need to improve the way we work together

Several initiatives have tried to gather diverse groups of people to create change, but issues in the migrant worker space still persist today.

We believe that to significantly improve the well-being of our migrant workers, we need to improve the way we work together through making 3 mindset shifts.

A Call for Changemakers

We are calling for anyone who cares about migrant workers to participate in the A Good Space Listening Living Labs (L3), an independent, multi-year initiative that gathers diverse participants to listen, stretch and act collectively to significantly improve the well-being of migrant workers in Singapore.

What you'll experience

Over the course of 5 months, you will journey with a diverse group of participants, including: migrant workers, employers, dormitory owners, academics and anyone who cares about migrant workers. 

Our journey together has 3 broad parts:

Through a series of facilitated workshops and group projects, we will create a shared vision and outline key work-groups to significantly improve the mental well-being of migrant workers in Singapore.

The work-groups could be ideas for an app, a policy recommendation paper, a community activity, etc… the canvas is yours!

We will each sign off on this shared vision as a pledge of our commitment and to officially launch the work-groups.

Key dates for Listening Living Labs

👂 Session 1: Listen

Saturday, 26 February 2022

1pm – 5pm

We’ll start by getting to know each other better through listening into our strengths. Then, we’ll draft some shared values that’ll guide our experience in the months ahead. Finally, we’ll uncover differing perspectives for the 4 key issues above through listening to each other.

Key Milestones

Create an asset map to capture the strengths of various members in the collective and form Listening Teams to uncover more viewpoints for the 4 key issues by speaking to other people outside of the collective.

💭 Session 2: Imagine

Saturday, 26 March 2022

1pm – 5pm

We’ll create a drawing of our shared dream for migrant workers in Singapore. Each Listening Team will share the perspectives they have heard and the key tensions that are emerging. Based on this, we’ll brainstorm some ideas for action, that will form the basis of work-groups later on.

Key Milestones

Create drawing of our shared dream for migrant workers, begin to appreciate the key tension points between perspectives of different stakeholders and start brainstorming initial ideas for action.

❤️ Session 3: Understand

Saturday, 30 April 2022

1pm – 5pm

We’ll discuss the ideas that have come up and prioritize the ideas we’d absolutely love to see happen. Then, we’ll have a preliminary discussion on the work-groups that can be formed out of these ideas.

Key Milestones

Begin initial discussions on potential workgroups.

💡 Session 4: Create

Saturday, 28 May 2022

1pm – 5pm

As a collective, we’ll reflect on all the discussions we’ve had from Session 1 – 3 and co-create our Community Aspiration, a document which outlines our shared dream for migrant workers, the work-groups that need to be formed and the governance structure for the collective after the work-groups are launched.

Key Milestones

Create a draft of our Community Aspiration document.

📢 Session 5: Declare

Saturday, 25 June 2022

1pm – 5pm

Present our Community Aspiration document and get members of the collective to sign off on it. We’ll also launch this to the media and invite members to indicate the roles they’d like to play moving forward.

Key Milestones

Launch Community Aspiration document to the media and enroll members to participate in the work-groups.

Post Session 5: Experiment

25 June 2022 – 24 June 2023

Members will participate in the different work-groups that were created as part of the Community Aspiration. 

Work-groups will aim to check in with each other every 3 months to review their progress towards the Community Aspiration. 

A Planning Council will also be formed from members of the collective to keep the work-groups and collective moving along as it evolves.

Requirements for application

The session dates listed above are tentatively confirmed. Because the collective needs to spend time together to create the Community Aspiration, we will prioritize applicants who are able to attend all or most of the sessions.

How to apply

Click on the button below and you’ll be redirected to a short form to express your interest and for us to get to know you better! Applications close on Monday, 31st January 2022 at 5.00pm. We’ll inform all applicants on the outcome of their application within 3 weeks of the application date’s closure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question that’s not listed here? Send us an email at: livinglabs@agoodspace.org

The Listening Living Labs with Migrant Worker Communities is an independent, multi-year initiative started by A Good Space Co-operative Limited, that gathers diverse participants to listen, stretch and act collectively to improve the well-being of migrant workers in Singapore.

For the purposes of this Listening Living Labs, we are concentrating on non-domestic migrant workers. This could be workers in the construction, shipyard and landscaping industries. After many conversations with different communities of migrant workers, we felt that the issues affecting foreign domestic workers may require a separate Listening Living Labs program of its own to address them in a meaningful manner.

You will get to work alongside a diverse group of people who care – employers, dormitory operators, academics, non-profit organizations and migrant workers themselves on ideas to significantly improve the well-being of migrant workers in Singapore.

Through a series of 5 sessions, you’ll get to hear perspectives from diverse stakeholders that might be different from your own and gain a deeper appreciation into the complexity of issues that migrant workers face.

After that, you’ll get to create a shared vision and outline key work-groups that need to be formed to create change, with other participants of the Listening Living Labs. The work-groups could be ideas for an app, a policy recommendation paper, a community activity, etc… it all depends on what you and the other participants come up with.

At the end of the 5 sessions, we hope to produce a Community Aspiration document, which will outline the change we wish to see as a collective, the work-groups that we will form and the governance structure we can adopt as we embark on these work-groups. Each participant will then sign off on this Community Aspiration, as a pledge of our commitment and to officially launch the work-groups.

The next phase, the Experiment Phase, will be a multi-year phase and members of the collective will participate in the different work-groups that were created as part of the Community Aspiration. Work-groups will aim to check in with each other every 3 months to review their progress towards the Community Aspiration. A Planning Council will also be formed from members of the collective to keep the work-groups and collective moving along as it evolves.

You will be required to attend all five sessions that will be between February 2022 to June 2022. Each monthly session will be around 4 hours on a Saturday. Apart from this, you will be required to do some homework with your teams in between the sessions in preparation for the subsequent session.

Unless there are changes to the current pandemic situation, we anticipate that the sessions will be held virtually over Zoom, to minimize contact and to keep everyone safe in light of the current COVID-19 situation.

You can register your interest by going to: https://bit.ly/AGSMWL3af it will direct you to a Google form with some questions for us to get to know you better. The form will take around 10 minutes to fill up.

Anyone who cares about and wants to do something to improve the well-being of migrant workers in Singapore is welcome to apply 🙂

Applications close on the 31st of January 2022.

We’ll inform all applicants on the outcome of their application within 3 weeks of the application date’s closure.

Feel free to email Vandhana at livinglabs@agoodspace.org or message us on Facebook at m.me/agoodspacesg. Have a wonderful day! 🙂

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