Storyblog and Groundwork by Tharun
Most of us have a particular conception of community service as a one-way process where we volunteer and give back to a community - think visiting old folks homes for a day, collecting newspapers, flag days, mandatory CIP activities and the likes - and the process usually ends there. While this kind of community service is deeply crucial and indeed does benefit those in need, I think we can think about service and social work more broadly, and find ways to improve our capacity to help those in need. Successful community service is always defined solely along the lines of what the beneficiary has “gained” in the process, and this often means that we forget to think about how we can improve upon the actions we undertake to help the community in order for them to be more lasting and more empowering.
Helping to facilitate a physical education class for the clients at SUN-DAC helped me to reflect upon what “meaningful” community service might look like. Initially when I volunteered to help out with the progressive sessions at SUN-DAC, I was slightly nervous as to how to go about interacting with the clients and whether they would be receptive to our presence there. I think this was mostly due to a lack of experience in interacting with Persons with Disabilities in general. As a result, I was approaching the sessions with a slightly patronising attitude, where I kept thinking along the lines of “how can I help? What can I give?” I feel these questions came from a well-intentioned sympathy for the clients at SUN-DAC. Nevertheless, thinking along the lines of sympathy can be limiting and straining. When community service is defined narrowly as entirely being about charity and giving, we tend to treat our beneficiaries as passive, and falsely prejudice them as unable to participate in helping themselves and others.
When I helped to facilitate the physical education class I was initially worried about how to approach the clients but to my surprise they were more than happy to speak to us volunteers and were keen to know our names and even to get to know us a little better. When we switched to playing ball games they were more than happy to play with us (although I think some of them were a little dissuaded by the sun and were enjoying the shade instead). It was deeply heartening to see the clients being on the whole engaged and open, and it made me reevaluate the initial impressions and anxieties I had when I chose to volunteer.
We later accompanied the clients for lunch, and I noticed that the clients were given certain roles during lunch to make them more proactive. Some of them were tasked with distributing water, whilst others were tasked with distributing lunch to each other. I realised that the clients took a lot of pride in doing these tasks, and found that it gave them a sense of ownership and responsibility. It is difficult for any volunteer to be able to give that feeling to a beneficiary; such feelings of pride ultimately stem from a genuine personal engagement on their part. Their enthusiasm in participating this way made me realise that community service should not be practiced from a perspective of sympathy alone. It should be practiced with empathetic engagement; where we try to see things from their perspectives, and try to collaborate with them as best as we can with their specific needs and struggles in mind. Simply put, seeing them in a different light as active participants, rather than just as passive recipients of help - as I had initially thought - was more effective, and had a greater impact.
During the reflection session we had at the end of our day, a point was brought up which really resonated with my own earlier experiences. Beyond just getting the clients to actively participate and be engaged in our community service to them as beneficiaries, we could also get some of the higher functioning clients to participate in community service for other beneficiaries in need as well. For example, some of them are huge fans of singing (in particular backstreet boys!), and could help lead a karaoke session for an old folks’ home. This meant thinking of the clients not just entirely as “beneficiaries” but also as active citizens with something to give back to the community at large.
I think we can re-imagine community service as an act of empowerment and enabling as well. When we help to provide our beneficiaries with the tools to be engaged and active in the community, I think it creates a more lasting impact on their lives. It serves as a strong boost to their self-esteem and morale, and helps other people in the community who are in need as well. Encouraging participation in this way is incredibly powerful, and it makes community service a more dynamic and lasting process. Instead of thinking about community service in ways that we are used to, we should think more deeply about what truly “meaningful” community service might look like. At the very least, my own personal attitudes towards community service have changed for the better thanks to my experiences at SUN-DAC.
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