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Stages to Succeed In Neighbourhood Rebuilding
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Jasmine Adaickalam (YSS Service Director)
Introduction
One year of working with forty over neighbourhoods is a very valuable experience that accords a lot of learning opportunities and time to ponder and reflect to come out with a social work model. This has been a time of challenges and excitement where a model has evolved to work with the neighbourhoods saturated with Malaysian Indians from low income earning families. Yayasan Strategik Sosial is excited to share this model for replication and reflection. Following are the tangible stages that stand out in practicing a Neighbourhood Based Social Work.
Contact and Analysis phase
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In this phase efforts are taken by the organisation to get in touch with the realities of the neighbourhoods such as issues, problems and potentials. This will enable the organisation to plan its strategy to empower the people to address the issues of their neighbourhoods in a responsible and affirmative manner. This first phase is the entry point. |
Surveys / Studies
Secondary Data
Informal Interviews / Meetings
Identifying Potential Leaders and Volunteers – ‘Pengenal pastian Sukarelawan’
Needs Assessment - Real needs and Felt needs
Confidence Building Phase
The activities and trainings are planned to gain the trust of the neighbourhood people in wanting to be involved in these mind set change programmes with greater teach-ability and acceptance. At the same time the potential people are also trained so that they will be able to move in confidence into the neighbourhood and that they will be able to gain the trust and acceptance of their neighbours. Activities to gather the community – Case Work, Community gatherings, Community Unity Initiatives such as ‘Gotong-Royong’, Dialogues for Resource Finding, Interaction and Integration and Family Days. Trainings to equip the local potential people – Leadership Trainings, Volunteer Trainings and Orientation, Group Work Trainings, Case Work Training, Safe community Trainings and other such Training opportunities. Instilling proper values and skills is the main objective of these trainings.
Conviction and Commitment Phase
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This is the phase where the people of the neighbourhood slowly come into a conviction about the activities conducted and they look forward to more such activities. The importance of transformation is realised and the areas of concern that need to be changed are identified. There is greater interest and enthusiasm in receiving the programmes. At the same time the potential people men and women are trained and are ready to put the things that they learnt to practice. But they are only committing to help run the programmes by mobilising the people of the neighbourhood. But they are not ready to organise the activities themselves.
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Activities such as awareness campaigns on neighbourhood safety, health, legalities, alternate employments and ICT, continuation of case work at the neighbourhoods, games project and ground preparation and mobilisation for other mindset changing holistic, systematic and regular programmes are underway.
Collaboration and Development Phase
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This is the phase in which the local people become collaborators in organising and running activities systematically with the help of YSS. More ownership and partnership is tangibly seen on the part of the neighbourhood. More or less at this juncture they forget their self-inhibitions and come out of their own cocoon or shelf and self security and start looking with confidence and boldness to work with other partners such as IBOs, local community groups and certain other specialised NGOs. The work is developing to such heights that they may make mark with government agencies and also the local leaders and volunteers start bringing in fresh blood from within and from outside communities.Here is were the local leaders start addressing certain neighbourhood, family and individual problems creatively through counselling, referrals, dialogues, mediation and crisis
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intervention.The local leaders play the crucial role to develop themselves and activities that promote greater interaction, education and integration to enhance the quality of life of their neighbourhoods, families within their neighbourhoods and the individuals. Activities such as life enhancing seminars, integration activities, and some camps for the different target groups and some regular programmes were the local people take the key lead with the backing of YSS.
Correction and Empowerment Phase
At this juncture, even when the neighbourhood is ready to stand tall on its feet, there might be personality clashes, difference of opinions and expectations, craving for absolute power control and power brokering, and difference of ideologies with that of the IBO’s and other agencies, loosing the original focus and vision.
This needs correction and consolidation. This is were YSS might provide for advance level training sessions on topics such as conflict resolution, servant leadership, team leadership, effective committee that knows to negotiate and create a win-win situation, individual and collective decision making, goal setting and skills needed to monitor the process and the progress of the work started in the neighbourhood. These trainings can be extended to the different levels that operate within a neighbourhood. Then comes the review and evaluation where there may be certain amount of modification, rectification and some times may even be re-structuring and re-organising needed. This will call for re-orientation that corrects the perspectives held by the different quarters and strengthening and affirming of appropriate values.
Cohesion, Correlation and Finale Phase
When the impact is assessed and there is perceivable and sustainable growth in terms of achieving the original goals and targets set, that is the people are aware of their rights and responsibilities as a citizen of this country and or there is an emergence of an effective core group that is concerned and committed to the welfare of their neighbourhood, it is exit point for YSS from the neighbourhood for the capacities of people within the neighbourhood are built. But YSS may still maintain its filial relationship without the ties of an umbilical cord to identify resources but neighbourhood committee or the core group becomes an autonomous body that looks into the affairs of the neighbourhood responsibly.
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