Deep Dives — Hack Kopitiam

Explore the different chapters in the community building playbook.

3 Deep Dive
Into Life Stories

COFFEESHOP AS SHARED COMMONS

When we engage the community in LifeStory sketching and interviews, we discover that many seniors are waiting to be invited to share the stories of their life and work experiences, their trials and triumphs in the journey of life.

LEARNING FROM COMMUNITIES

Student volunteers learn to engage with the coffeeshop uncles and aunties through framing interviewing questions and designing prompts for sensory ethnography. They learn care-centered empathic inquiry to discover the gifts of others.

COMMUNITY BUILDING BEYOND WALLS

The LifeStories uncovered
in the coffeeshop reveal unknown talents in the community, telling us how they may contribute. As we say in asset-based community development, you only know what you need when you know what you have.

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Senior: Mr Huang, 90, is probably the oldest sweeper in the neighbourhood park.
Student volunteers from NAFA–UAS: Isabel, Erin Nashira.
Location: Community node in Ang Mo Kio
Collaborating Partner: Thye Hwa Kuan Moral Charities
Photos by Song Yan

3.1

3.2

LifeStories is a visual ethnographic method we refined to gift residents with a beautiful sketch in exchange for a story of their lives. LifeStories sketches reveal the beautiful memories of the seniors and how they want to be remembered.

Explore the different chapters in the community building playbook.

When we engage the community in LifeStory sketching and interviews, we discover that many seniors are waiting to be invited to share the stories of their life and work experiences, their trials and triumphs in the journey of life.

Student volunteers learn to engage with the coffeeshop uncles and aunties through framing interviewing questions and designing prompts for sensory ethnography. They learn care-centered empathic inquiry to discover the gifts of others.

The LifeStories uncovered in the coffeeshop reveal unknown talents in the community, telling us how they may contribute. As we say in asset-based community development, you only know what you need when you know what you have.

The LifeStories uncovered
in the coffeeshop reveal unknown talents in the community, telling us how they may contribute. As we say in asset-based community development, you only know what you need when you know what you have.