- Crystal Ong
Driven by community members themselves, ground-up movements tap on valuable social networks among residents and give them the ownership of their activities. The sense of ownership and allowing activities to be tailored to the specific needs of their community encourage the sustainability of movements.
To create sustainable ground-up movements for health, MOHT and its partners are committed to building the capabilities of the community.
Movements for Health – Capability Building for Community Movements Champions
As one of our pillars for Movements for Health (M4H), capability building is key to equip the community with the skills and knowledge for growing health movements. We do this through continual coaching sessions and training workshops on health literacy and movement building within an ecosystem, consisting of the Enabling Bodies (EB) which includes our funders and MOHT, Community Coach (CC), Community Movement Champions (CMCs) and most important of all, the residents (R) (Figure 1).
Within this ecosystem guided by our three main pillars are our main actors that are connected with each other through various networks.
Our CMCs, who are 3Pumpkins, Beyond Social Services, Green Nudge, Hatch, and VintageRadio.SG, play key roles in creating M4H. Each CMC works with specific population groups. They operate on the ground and collaborate with other partners to rally residents, and advocate for resident-driven health promotion. Capability building efforts empower CMCs to be more well-equipped in translating health knowledge into daily activities and programmes, and influencing residents to adopt healthier lifestyles.
Health Literacy Workshop
The M4H team conducted our first-ever Health Literacy Workshop from 2 to 3 February 2023. The CMCs and our Community Partners learnt more about health literacy through learning easy ways to prepare healthy meals through a mystery box challenge and designed simple outdoor workout routines. The Team carefully crafted these activities with the intent of experiential learning (i.e., learning by doing and reflecting upon it).
Mystery Box Challenge (cooking) and Green Gym Challenge (outdoor workout)
In addition, the CMCs brainstormed ideas on how they can weave health messages into each of the CMCs’ M4H projects, as well as explored possible areas of collaboration with each other. Some examples include:
- VintageRadio.SG co-creating podcasts with 3Pumpkins.
- Hatch promoting Green Nudge’s trails to potential participants and volunteers in the community.
- Beyond Social Services learning from 3Pumpkins on activities setup and engaging with children.
The networking and brainstorming session was well received by our CMCs, as they helped to better define their roles in M4H, sparked new collaboration ideas and forged closer support networks with each other.
Our Next Steps
Moving forward, the CMCs will continue to fine-tune their projects as:
1. MOHT brings in new partners to co-create the Health Literacy curriculum catered to the needs of each CMC.
2. Our Community Coach, Bold at Work, continues to work with the CMCs to build social movements and create a community of practice.
If you are interested to be a CMC to drive social change in the community, you may visit: https://www.majurity.sg/funds-and-grants/movements-for-health/
You too can be part of the Movements for Health!
For more information, visit: https://for.sg/healthyprecincts
Note: References to any product, service, or website of third parties or other information by trade name, trademark, supplier or otherwise does not constitute or imply MOHT’s endorsement or recommendation.