UNDER THE HOOD is a civic experiment that calls for creative solutions to a really tough problem: urban poverty. We had a weekend of prototyping 22-24 November 2013, which brought together smart, switched-on young professionals from across disciplines.
Best part: what happened there doesn't stay there - it'll be open to scaling to other parts of Singapore and beyond.
Stay tuned for big updates on our mailing list, and get smaller-but-still-interesting community posts on our FB page!
UNDER THE HOOD is a civic experiment that calls for creative solutions to a really tough problem: urban poverty. We had a weekend of prototyping 22-24 November 2013, which brought together smart, switched-on young professionals from across disciplines.
Best part: what happened there doesn't stay there - it'll be open to scaling to other parts of Singapore and beyond.
Stay tuned for big updates on our mailing list, and get smaller-but-still-interesting community posts on our FB page!
The Challenge:
Urban poverty is complicated. State agencies don't always know the realities on the ground, think tanks don't get to directly tackle problems with research papers, and service organisations don't normally benefit from the wider community's participation and problem-solving.
The Solution:
UNDER THE HOOD brings together sociological research, data analytics, and (most importantly) stories from the residents themselves - and opens this up in the form of "design challenges" to developers, designers, and other clever people to work with residents to co-create solutions to the most critical challenges faced by the neighbourhood. In the neighbourhood itself.
The Bottom Line:
The community and local organisations get real solutions they can use, our participants get to apply their skills for real world impact, and we all get to live in a better place.
Brainstorm solutions on our spiffy ideation platform. Click on each challenge to learn more.
We're still preparing additional research material for you including concept maps, detailed personas, and a stakeholder map of existing efforts. Don't let that stop you from brainstorming – join the mailing list, and you won't miss a thing.
Real stories, real lives. Bukit Ho Swee encompasses citizens of all stripes, welfare organisations that have seen its changes over time, and relationships within that form the fabric of its community. A struggling neighbourhood, rich with its own gifts and talents.
Real stories, real lives. Bukit Ho Swee encompasses citizens of all stripes, welfare organisations that have seen its changes over time, and relationships within that form the fabric of its community. A struggling neighbourhood, rich with its own gifts and talents.
Does urban poverty exist in Singapore? After all, we are home to 101,000 millionaires.
While their numbers are growing, the poor in Singapore remain relatively invisible. Like most people here, they live in HDB flats that - from the outside - look pretty similar from one block to the next.
It’s tough to tell which blocks contain government-subsidised rental flats. These small, one-room or two-room units are rented to families and pairs of elderly singles, only if their household income is no more than $1,500 a month. Some residents are not able to work at all.
We started with intense on-the-ground research and listening. The aim? To help reshape the cycles and system dynamics in Bukit Ho Swee by supporting disadvantaged residents to overcome barriers to their well-being. To ensure that the outcomes of Under The Hood are grounded in existing community efforts and relationships, we spent weeks interviewing residents, social workers, neighbourhood leaders. We are currently putting our findings into a Community Brief to inform anyone who wants to participate.
For now, read more about the challenges and get brainstorming!
We assembled a multidisciplinary group of advisors and mentors.
We assembled a multidisciplinary group of advisors and mentors.
Advisors & Speakers
Mentors
There are 3 levels of our objectives for this project:
This whole shebang/project is part of a larger initiative to re-imagine public assistance and neighbourhood transformation in Singapore. What might those structures, policies and programmes look like? What might a future approach to community strength-building look like? Over the next 2-3 years, Syinc is committing to work with our local community partners Bukit Ho Swee Family Service Centre, Beyond Social Services and others to facilitate piloting, testing, and implementation of solutions. (See our FAQ for what happens short-term vs long-term post-weekend.)
We’re doing this: