Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 155

Special Editions
to innovate and improve services. Some VWOs are already doing things
differently for clients. Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities case managers are
using remote video-conferencing to communicate daily with seniors who
live alone and who require close monitoring and support. This allows the
case managers to check on and talk to their clients in-between home visits.
As service providers, they have in their possession much information which
when analysed can reveal fresh insights for improvements and even fuel
sparks for innovative ways of service delivery.
Role of the people – to support the community in accessing services and
help; to give constructive feedback and suggestions; to participate and
offer help and ideas. People can participate and facilitate mutual support
amongst service providers and beneficiaries and strengthen bonds in a
community. Constructive feedback from users of services, keen observers,
and trends observed can serve as useful input for improvements. Their input
can also generate ideas on new approaches to meet people’s needs and to
better allocate resources.
Role of intermediaries - to be a bridge and a facilitator; to help inform
and bring people together to solve problems and build the community.
Intermediaries need to understand issues and complexities and facilitate
understanding of perspectives; to experiment and bring parties together
to find solutions. What an intermediary can do is to bridge the desires to
volunteer with the opening of long term volunteering opportunities. Their
role is to make things happen through deliberate effort in bringing parties
together for a long term partnership that fulfils the objectives of each of the
parties.
The challenges facing the many helping hands approach are related to both
content and process. Content issues involve how much to provide, who
should provide and who should pay. Process issues is about how various
communities adjust to work together and the relationships that require
attention to facilitate productive work. Fortunately, some patterns have
emerged t hat can inform us about how to work better.
Clarity in understanding the problems at hand
At the practical level, all the helping hands need clarity in terms of
understanding every problem at hand. We sometimes don’t spend enough
time to clarify the problem at hand and dive into problem solving or
assuming that we are all agreed on the problem or its definition. We often
work hard to solve it without checking assumptions.
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