Article by Eleanor Tan, Tan Jun Yi, Ryan How, Ng Wei En
Storyblog by Euclea Tan, Verlyn Ku, Natalie Lem
Groundwork planning is underway! Throughout July and August 2020, the Batch Project Groundwork team will be designing and creating activity booklets in collaboration with Filos Community Services, a non-profit organisation providing social services for the community. These booklets will be used in conjunction with weekly phone calls to engage the elderly and alleviate the loneliness and boredom of staying confined at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
About Filos Community Services
Located at Chai Chee near the East of Singapore, Filos is a not-for-profit social service organization that aims to build resilience and empower individuals and families to live more fulfilling, meaningful lives. The name of the organisation is an acronym of the 5 core values they have: Faithfulness, Integrity, Love, Openness, and Servanthood. In 2005, Filos was registered as a charity and became a member of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS).
The range of services they provide can be summarised in an acronym, FACE; Family, Assistance, Children/Youth, and Eldercare. They conduct educational workshops, provide financial, material and emotional assistance, conduct life skills and enrichment classes, and mentor and care for young and old. They engage and interact with the elderly that live in the vicinity, encouraging them to meet friends new and old, as well as to check up on their wellbeing.
About Batch Project (BP) 2020
USP Freshmen participate in an annual Batch Project before the first semester, usually working together with social service organisations to understand and physically engage communities in need. For BP Groundwork 2019, USP started off by befriending the cleaners at the Faculty of Engineering. USP also worked with SUN-DAC, a Day Activity Centre for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Freshmen provided assistance during physical education classes, accompanied their beneficiaries for lunch, and even helped facilitate picnics at Sembawang Beach. However, with the Covid-19 pandemic rendering physical meetings unfeasible, a complete overhaul of the Batch Project was needed. To complicate matters, the seniors organising Batch Project had examinations that ended in May and were left with only a few weeks to formulate a new plan.
Despite the numerous problems arising from the mismatch between what freshmen can offer and what the communities need, the Batch Project Committee managed to contact Filos and agreed on plans to create activity booklets to distribute to the elderly each month. These booklets contain daily games and activities as well as weekly digital literacy lessons.
From speaking with the freshmen, twin threads of their motivations behind joining BP Groundwork emerged. Many were eager to help and interact with less-privileged communities. “I have been trying to teach my grandparents how to use WhatsApp to call their friends, and I thought it was a nice coincidence that Batch Project this year is doing the same things… and especially during this period… because a lot of the elderly are living alone,” says Delphie Yap ’24 of Luna. A few freshmen also shared with us how they were looking forward to making new friends. “I feel that Batch Project is an opportunity for me to meet my USP batchmates even before school starts,” adds Joey Low ’24 of Luna.
The Groundwork freshmen were split into three teams: Games and Activities, Education, and Design. The Games and Activities team focused on creating intellectually stimulating puzzles that help the elderly stay mentally active. They also created mood journals that aid the elderly in monitoring and regulating their emotional health. Meanwhile, the Education team produced lessons on how to download, set up and use WhatsApp. Some freshmen will be calling the elderly every Friday to provide additional guidance on these instructions. After both teams completed their work, the Design team made the booklet aesthetically pleasing and ensured that the activities were arranged in a coherent manner.
Reflections along the way
Although freshmen were unable to meet up physically, most still possessed a fervent passion for the project, motivated by their desire to contribute back to society. With only ten days to complete the July issue, the freshmen worked assiduously to meet the deadlines.
“The conversations you have with people. During our first call, we just came online, and even though we didn’t know each other, we just talked. These little moments are quite… organic… even though it’s so cliché.”
Being limited to online communication did not hinder freshmen from interacting with their batchmates. In fact, the interactions with other freshmen were indubitably our favourite part of Batch Project. Prior to Batch Project, most USP freshmen had only spoken to their housemates during Scholaris. We were heartened to hear how freshmen were able to bond with numerous other batchmates through the many hours spent discussing and interacting on Zoom. When asked what was memorable about Groundwork, Delphie replied, “The conversations you have with people. During our first call, we just came online, and even though we didn’t know each other, we just talked. These little moments are quite… organic… even though it’s so cliché.” Joey chimes in, “That day when we entered the Zoom meeting, we… started talking about random stuff here and there. In the end, we still managed to get the activity done well. In addition to completing the activity, you’re also making new friends”.
Amongst the authors, our own conversations morphed from preparing interview questions to revealing our personal lives with each other, at one point even drifting to a discussion on musical instruments. We feel that such experiences are an integral part of Batch Project and would form the basis for lasting friendships to come.
While the booklet creation process was mostly positive, many freshmen gave feedback that there were still many areas for improvement. As this was the first booklet, some groups found it challenging to gauge the appropriate difficulty level and had to rework their puzzles after receiving feedback that they were too complex. Additionally, the Design team was only given three days to edit all of the submissions, which was an incredibly strenuous undertaking. The BP Committee decided to reconfigure the schedule so that the freshmen would submit their documents in weekly installations, giving the Design team more time to piece the August booklet together.
“We want to create a good ethic in the team, and the hope is that everyone just participates together.”
We also learnt from the Design team that standards and processes are very important for systems to function properly. To ensure a consistent and standardised format throughout the booklet, there needed to be quality checks during collation, which was initially difficult because everyone had different ideas about what the format should be. This led to questions on whether people were doing their best given the tight deadlines or if they were truly not up to the task. Soo Yen ’24 of Luna emphasises, “I feel like everyone already did their best in everything (lah) — we give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but I guess the problem was with the lack of time.” To address these issues for the August booklet, the BP Committee pulled more people into collating the design work. The fonts and formats of the design submissions have also been standardised.
There is also talk of fostering a team ethic, norms that will help guide behaviour and decision-making for the current batch and beyond. Some expectations might include respect for deadlines, being dependable, and having more honest communication. Again, whether these should become norms is up for debate, and they will vary depending on who you ask. Perhaps it isn’t too late to open these conversations; future batches might benefit from it. As Gautum Vasnani ’23 of Nocturna says, “We want to create a good ethic in the team, and the hope is that everyone just participates together.”
Looking ahead to August, we hope that the phone calls and subsequent feedback will provide the freshmen with a deeper understanding of the elderly’s needs and abilities, so that they can design activities that hit the sweet spot between boring and challenging. Despite the setbacks faced by the BP Committee, who had to design many aspects of this year's Batch Project from scratch, Batch Project has continued to run smoothly thanks to the strong commitment of both the seniors and freshmen. Ultimately, we hope that the freshmen are able to make tangible contributions to the community while forging numerous friendships with their batchmates. On behalf of all freshmen, we would like to thank the BP Committee for successfully organising Batch Project. Let’s repay them by striving to make the August issue even better!
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