A call for anyone who cares to listen, stretch and act collectively on ideas to enable low-income families to live with dignity.
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Our journey began as an emergency response to support low-income families struggling financially due to the pandemic
In Apr 2020, our Founding Chairperson Anthea founded the Mind The Gap Collective (MTG) with 8 social service agencies, non-profits and ground-up groups, to join forces in an emergency response for low-income families struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the collective initially hoped to raise S$50,000, an outpouring of generosity from Singaporeans enabled it to raise S$1.12 million from 585 donors.
MTG worked with 19 other social service agencies and community groups to identify and provide emergency financial assistance to 766 low-income individuals and families financially affected by the pandemic.
We came to learn about some complex issues faced by low-income families. Yet the aid we gave was just a mere drop in the ocean, a short-term fix for longer-term issues that affected their quality of life.
Beyond giving financial aid to help people beat the odds in the short-term, we wondered:
What more can we do to change the odds for low-income communities, that we cannot do alone?
To change the odds, we needed to rethink the way we look at these issues
Over the last 9 months from Nov 2020 – Oct 2021, we read various research reports that examined issues faced by low-income communities, from publications by Beyond Social Services, AWARE, the National Volunteer Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), etc.
We also consulted with leaders – from ground-up movements, academics, employers, non-profit organisations, government agencies to members from low-income communities through various Focus Group Discussions.
Through these conversations, we identified 3 key issues and realised we need to rethink the way we look at them because they are more complex than we realize. The issues are:
These issues are complex because there are competing perspectives
These 3 issues are complex because there are different sides of the story – employers, social workers, the government and low-income community members 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 change the odds for low-income families, 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 low-income space still persist today.
We believe that to change the odds for low-income families, 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 low-income communities to participate in A Good Space’s Listening Living Labs (L3), an independent initiative that gathers diverse participants to listen, stretch and act collectively to enable low-income families to live with dignity.
What you'll experience
Over the course of 5 months, you will journey with a diverse group of participants, including: employers, social workers, academics, members of low income communities and anyone who cares. 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 change the odds for low-income communities 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, 12 March 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, 16 April 2022
1pm – 5pm
We’ll create a drawing of our shared dream for low-income communities 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 low-income communities, begin to appreciate the key tension points between perspectives of different stakeholders and start brainstorming initial ideas for action.
❤️ Session 3: Understand
Saturday, 14 May 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 work-groups.
💡 Session 4: Create
Saturday, 11 June 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 low-income communities, 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, 9 July 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” Phase
9 July 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
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 these 5 sessions (12 March – 9 July 2022). The session dates listed above are tentatively confirmed.
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 is an independent, multi-year initiative started by A Good Space co-operative, that gathers diverse participants to listen, stretch and act collectively on ideas to enable low-income families to live with dignity.
Absolutely not. We welcome anyone who cares about low-income communities and wants to collaborate with others to join us! We believe in including all voices, especially those who have lived or living experience of low-income communities.
After speaking to several leaders representative of various issues in low-income communities, we have uncovered 3 issues in particular. They are:
(1) lower-wage gig workers (eg. food delivery persons) and their challenges with income security and labour protections
(2) a lack of digital literacy guidance for those in the low-income community
(3) challenges with interim social assistance.
If you’d like to learn more about these 3 issues, please read the Listening Report that we have produced here:
http://www.agoodspace.org/listening-report-issues-faced-by-low-income-communities-in-singapore
You’ll get to work collaboratively with participants from all walks of life – from businesses, government agencies, social workers, academics, ground-up movement founders, persons with lived experience on ideas to enable low-income families to live with dignity.
Through a series of 5 sessions, you’ll get to hear perspectives from diverse stakeholders and gain a deeper appreciation into the complexity of issues that low-income communities 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.
You’ll need to attend all 5 sessions on Saturdays as follows:
Session 1: Listen (12 Mar 2022)
Session 2: Imagine (16 Apr 2022)
Session 3: Understand (14 May 2022)
Session 4: Create (11 June 2022)
Session 5: Declare (9 July 2022)
The session dates are still tentative but each of them will be around 4 hours. Apart from this, you may need to meet up with your team in between the sessions to do some ‘homework’ to prepare for the subsequent session. We anticipate this will take no more than 2 hours per month.
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.
Register your interest here: https://bit.ly/AGSLIL3af. 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.
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.
Yes please feel free to do so! We need diverse participants if we are going to create something meaningful!
Feel free to email Nurul at livinglabs@agoodspace.org or message us on Facebook at m.me/agoodspacesg. Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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