In order to gain inspiration for our craft activities, we conducted a desktop research to identify potential organisations we could observe and learn more from. After liaising through emails, we managed to seek the permission of Mr Alfred Ng from Lions Befrienders to conduct an on-site visit at Ghim Moh Senior Activity Centre.
Batik* Workshop is a progressive craft that requires eight sessions in total. An external artist was paid to conduct this workshop for seniors who visit the senior activity center.
*Batik is an art that uses resist techniques to strategically dye fabric to form patterns and create unique dye patterns on cloth.
Our takeaways
During the workshop, besides the seniors, there were also interns and staffs from the centre who sat in to learn together. From there, we recognised the importance of involving everyone in an activity. This involvement actually helps to uplift the spirits of the seniors who are participating in the workshop as well as encourage befriending opportunity. Overall, it has also made the workshop more engaging for all the participants.
At the same time, we seized the opportunity to find out more from Mr Alfred Ng regarding the types of activities they have conducted in Lions Befrienders.
As Lions Befrienders is also a non-voluntary organisation, he shared about several ways to remain sustainable such as using recycled materials and working with other organisations including National Arts Council for funding and Workforce Development Agency to invite artists to conduct programmes.
This experience exposed us to various cost-effective measures to gather our craft materials with limited budget for REACH Senior Cafe’s craft activities.
We also learned about effective manpower management within their centre. Apart from soliciting external artists, they have a staff that can conduct art programmes in the absence of an artist. With this alternative plan, this reduces the over-reliance of their organisation on external artists to conduct their workshops. This manpower allocation strategy could also be explored in REACH as well.
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