HERE WITH YOU
SOCIAL SERVICES
Here With You Social Services provides peer-supported casework and support groups for migrant workers and public education on migrant-related issues.
Starting out as a helpline in 2020 during the COVID-19, volunteer social workers, counsellors and migrant workers collaborated in intercultural teams to provide psychological first aid and case management support to migrants in distress. We attended to migrant workers who experienced heightened anxiety while they were quarantined, provided updated information and provided counselling for workers who had mental health-related issues. We also assisted migrants who suffered from unpaid salaries, work injuries, who needed to transfer employers or whose basic needs were not met.
Moving forward, we recognized the need for community-centric approaches that recognize the strengths of migrant workers and foster their voice and participation in collaborative action. Adopting an Asset-Based Community Development approach, we collaborate with migrant community members and work towards relationship-building with community members, group associations, and local institutions to better the lives of migrants in Singapore.
Our Commitments
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A community built on inclusion and dignity where migrant workers thrive.
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Collaborating with migrant workers to improve their lives through fostering a community of support and protection, and promoting their inclusion in society.
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Train and collaborate with migrant peer-supporters to support migrants in distress
Identify shared concerns with migrant community members and include migrants voices in solution-finding.
Creating opportunities for mutual aid.
Collaborate with migrant community members, interests group associations and institutions.
Bridge social and cultural differences
Our Guiding Values
Inherent worth and dignity
We believe everyone has innate worth and should be treated with dignity and respect. We believe in acceptance, confidentiality and mutual participation.
Participation of Migrants
We believe that migrant workers should have a part to play in the helping process, and be involved in
co-solutioning on issues and challenges that affect them
Community Centric
We appreciate the assets in the community. We identify connectors, networks and safe persons, and seek to partner and collaborate with them. We also encourage relationship-building between locals, migrants, businesses and organisations.
Cultural humility
We recognize that there are strengths in the knowledge base of migrant workers’ ethnicity and cultures. Understanding cultural differences is an ongoing process. We believe in providing a safe space for dialogue, bridging intercultural barriers, and fostering relationships of mutual aid.
Strengths-focused
We recognize that every member of the community has skills, talents, wisdom or lived experiences which they can contribute. We affirm these strengths and provide opportunities for migrants to contribute towards serving others.
Promote humane social institutions
We advocate and persuade agencies to promote policies and legislation that enhance the physical and social environments of migrant workers.