What does it mean to be in the profession of community building?

When was the last time you took ten deep breaths?

This question came up when working with Genevieve Ong from Stranger Conversations to run the second session of the Breathing Space Community Of Practice (COP) back in July 2025. Since then, I’ve made it a point to ask this question in our pre-session survey form, and make time for a short breathing exercise in the COP. In our current climate of busyness, it is always a good thing to remind one another of this: Breathe.

As Gen describes this word as her literal approach to community building, “a lot of things are more solvable and approachable when we slow down to breathe; when we make room / runways..”

And that’s what this COP is about.

This is a work-in-progress story about the process of creating a community of practice for community builders in Singapore who want to explore and understand what it takes to connect and learn from one another, and what I’m learning in the process.

For those of you who do not know me yet, hello! I’m Hui Ying, currently the Lead of Community Development at Common Ground Civic Centre & Consultancy, and through our nine-year project, Common Ground Civic Centre at the old Bedok Public Library in partnership with the Singapore Government Partnerships Office by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), we want to design activities that:

deepen understanding or broaden perspectives on different practices, approaches and social concerns,
provide connection and support, and
foster opportunities to collaborate between our resident and community partners.

If you’re interested in how the other sessions went, you can read about the first session here and the third session here! Over five sessions, I will like to gather people who relate to the work of community building in Singapore to pause and reflect.

How We Ended Up At The Foundry

Michelle Tan, Community Architect of The Foundry and I first connected last June when she reached out to Common Ground Civic Centre & Consultancy just as The Foundry was being built up – as both our spaces were similar in the sense that it is a refurbished state building. Because of our full-time professions, we connected. We’ve since met each other at Common Ground and The Foundry via various engagements, it’s been a good connection. We even planted grass together under the hot sun as volunteers at Ground-Up Initiative (GUI) 聚友爱, which was our featured community builder for this round!

About GUI

For those of you new to GUI, here is an introduction: they’re a non-profit organisation set up to nurture creativity and risk-taking in future leaders. By connecting and involving people in nature through farming, woodworking, cooking and housekeeping activities at their Kampung Kampus in Khatib, GUI aims to create a mindful connection for urban dwellers to explore and (re)connect through conscious living in Singapore. They want to encourage people to connect with nature, with one another, and with themselves.

To find out more, check out why GUI was started by the late founder, Tay Lai Hock here, and a glimpse of how working on the land looks like here by Jeremy and Celine, whom I got to know through Claudia Poh who runs Werable, our Resident Partner at Common Ground Civic Centre!

My connection with GUI goes back 12 years ago in 2013 as a wide-eyed 23 year-old where I interned, volunteered, and worked full-time with them, up till 2020. If you know me, you would have heard much about GUI from me already! If you haven’t, come and chat with me, or check out my Facebook or Instagram 😀

I wanted to feature GUI this round at the COP because it is a 17-year old living case study of community building in Singapore, and I believe that Singapore is better for it. This year, they had to uproot their community campus of 16 years to make way for new housing, and begun their crazy, uphill journey of building up their 21st Century Kampung (meaning village in Malay) from ground zero, on a barren piece of land. I’m curious about their reflections of their journey in building community so far, and would like more people to hear about it as well as they pause and reflect.

Beyond the space, what makes a community is about its people! To find out more, check out GUI’s Telegram channel.

What Went Down

My intention was for community builders to learn and gather with each other in a variety of civic spaces. So, for this session, we left Bedok and headed to town, into..

The Foundry @ 11 Prinsep Link, by The Majurity Trust!

The Foundry is a social impact hub established by The Majurity Trust. Housed at the repurposed former Elections Department building, it is the home base for social impact organisations to grow, collaborate and drive greater collective impact. They recently celebrated their one-year anniversary on 28 November 2025 (below’s a photo grab from their one-year report!)

Michelle and I discussed about what we wanted, and we would like the space to breathe, think and reflect about:

“What does it mean to do community building as a profession?”

We also wanted to unpack what it means to build communities not just from passion, but as a practice – with craft, care and clarity.

37 of us showed up that Friday evening, and the room was buzzing with energy.

If you’re wondering how we ran the COP that evening, this was the flow:

At registration, we invited people to respond to the prompt: Do you relate to a Think first, Feel first, or Do first? We then got people to pick one option, which was meant to group them up later at self-introductions.
We introduced ourselves as hosts, the space and set the context for the evening, with a bit of recap of what happened in the previous COP sessions.
We broke out into small groups and introduced ourselves – our names, what communities we’re a part of (if any), how long we’ve been in them, and one curiosity we have as a community builder.
We grounded ourselves into the present moment – by closing our eyes and taking a five-minute pause, to breathe in deeply..
We had a post-it activity that got people thinking and conversing around the question: What are some best practices you do as a community builder that requires passion / craft / clarity / care?
We heard from Bingyu Cai from GUI on their journey of community building and received questions from the audience.

PlayThere was a lot of good energy buzzing in The Anvil! Thanks Gen for capturing this video 🙂

Here were some questions posed to GUI – some answered, some not:

Who is the community builder at GUI?
GUI moved to a new compound recently. How has that changed its approach to community building (if any)?
How does GUI determine if it is successful? Metrics? Feedback? Revenue? How does it measure its impact, if it does?
What will live on beyond these people in the community, if the founder(s), members leave? What gets passed on to the next (batch of) volunteers?
To put your heart and soul into the soil for 16 years on a piece of land in Singapore, and for it to be taken away to generate economic capital speaks of underlying tensions in how resources are allocated – what does it speak about the current systems we are in?
How do you face the loss and keep the hope?
How do we make people who care less, care more?

Some Key Takeaways from GUI

			
It takes time to build community. A long time. 
The community is the community builder. The space allows people to come together and co-create.
The hardware (infrastructure), software (programmes) and heartware (human approach) are all required for community building to happen.*
It is important to hold space for people to experiment - to nurture creativity.

* The hardware has to enable, in the sense that the space has to be adaptive. The heartware is where the vision is set by the community, and where there is also emotional space that allows people to come and go in different seasons. I’m a prime example of that – I left, and I returned to GUI when I was ready.

What I’m encouraged by / reminded of from the COP(s)

Some of us have something in common – we do not know how to explain our work to our loved ones! Michelle, Bingyu and I all agreed on this unanimously.
People want to meet and get to know more community builders beyond their usual networks. We need to meet not just those inside our bubble, and also outside our bubble.
Witnessing the weaving of many interconnections from various communities – coming together to (re)connect, and learn about new pieces of work by other community builders (e.g. The Courage Chapter by Kai Ning Lim!)
Getting to witness the journey of some community builders and how it takes time – for example, Shireen Yeo who has been coming for every single COP so far and getting to know her, hear from her journey in SibsUnite, and see how the COPs have been supporting her in various ways!
A participant sharing her appreciation for the COPs: she shared: “Your sessions are always so motivating and inspiring especially for an elderly person like me. So wonderful to meet all the young ones with their passion and courage to want to do something meaningful.” By the way, she would like to start a project and would like to work with younger people – reach out to me if you’d like to find out more!
Bingyu was surprised to see many new and young faces in the crowd. It can be easy to take for granted that people know you, but not everyone does / might. So always set context!
Reading about people’s post-event thoughts, such as Lin Junxian, Michael Ong, Lewis Liu, Khoo Yi Feng 👋 and more…! Once again, people will make their own meaning/s…
Knowing of new connections who are meeting up offline after the COP and having friends like Victoria Lim and Dhanesh Thiru who shared that they had fun! Fun is a good KPI 😀
Many of us stayed on long after the session – we had to switch off the lights to invite people to vacate slowly..!
We can always get to inspire each other on how we host / organise / show up. For example, Michael commented how there is always a refreshment table provided, and Anna Shin from a previous COP shared how she took reference from how we always make it a point to mention housekeeping matters at the start of the session (though I didn’t do that this round at The Foundry!)
I love how social workers like Shi Chun Goh shared how she felt hopeful at the end of this COP because she got to meet people who genuinely care for community building for positive social & environmental impact. She particularly loved how the COP allowed her to meet & learn from values-driven, good-hearted people, that helps her stay hopeful as a social worker navigating large scale systemic barriers. “The COP in itself was a wonderful community, even if for just a moment, is enough to help me keep going back to building communities, to reduce my burning out.”
While some of us are feeling the tension more strongly than others as we go against the grain of the effects of urbanisation and capitalism, I felt hope as I see everyone in the room as a response to that situation – we are all disrupting the status quo in our own ways.

My practice as a community builder

Someone at the COP asked me how long it takes to plan the COP session, and as part of reviewing our year from all the engagements we’ve run at Common Ground Civic Centre, my team member had also asked me how much effort and labour I have poured in for the COPs so far.

I gave it some thought, and my reflection for now is that the work has been moderate – it was manageable and life-giving – I didn’t overextend myself, and I was working from a space of abundance. If I were to zoom out from the COPs and look at my year as a whole from the work I’ve gotten to do, it has been a year of ‘harvest’ for me. This is a strength that God has given me – and I am grateful for it!

This year, I’ve gotten to live out this sentence: Practice makes better. Not being afraid to try, and being willing to experiment has put me in the position of honing my practice as someone who connects with, and builds community. To be able to practise balancing being organic and structured, at the same time. To sit and stay in the mess. To plan, yet to work in the moment and follow where the energy goes – that only comes with practice, when I am fully present with my intentions of gathering each time. GUI has given me that foundation in my 20s, and I am deepening my learning in my 30s. Truly from one ‘ground’ to another ‘ground’!

I’m really grateful I get to do this through my profession. It brings to mind something Shiao-yin expressed to me, after the Connecting Narratives For Change Festival we ran at CG:

What am I learning about my vocation so far?

Thanksgiving

Sarah Djumin, my team member supporting and staffing the session, and being a steady front-of-house!
Aminur Rasyid – so happy to have a CG resident partner join us!! Check out Artably if you haven’t before 😀
Bingyu Cai, for making time to speak about the GUI story you’ve been a part of for more than a decade
Genevieve Ong for passing a helping hand along – Russell was a wonderful help as we set up together for the COP! And to Julian Paul Lee as well, for always offering a helping hand and an early presence.
Michelle Tan for allowing us to use your beautiful space! Thank you for introducing many wonderful connections to me too, and happy birthday to The Foundry once again, which you’ve been an integral part of.
My good friend and buddy Darren Quek for popping by to support the session and help me carry logistics back without even needing to check with me. You know what needs to be done and I’m grateful for our friendship, ever since we crossed paths at GUI in 2019!
To meet friends like Victoria Lim and Xin Yi YAP 叶欣仪 who bring good energy to the space. Earlier in April, Vic and I had worked together to run a youth dialogue for Minister Shanmugam within one week! I am also super amused by Xin Yi when she described Bingyu’s laughter in words hahahaha – she said Bingyu’s laughter is very rich, like the money emoji! 😂
To the many good folks who naturally documented for the session and sent it to me! Gen, Michael, Julian, Yi Feng, Vic, Xin Yi, Lewis Liu, Harini Ravichandran, thank you so much❣️

For now, Michelle Tan and I will continue to reflect on what it means to be in the profession of community building, as we continue our work…

What is a community builder?
Must I be a friend to be a community builder?
How much is personal and how much is professional?
How much should a community look like building a machine?
How do we know if we’re doing it right?
How much of it is for ourselves vs for others?

So, what do I think it means to be in the profession of community building?

It means we get to bring our personal and professional spaces together.
It means we get to navigate uncertainty and learn more about our responses each time.
It means we get the chance to put out what we’re learning about our practice.

I mentioned in my very first COP reflection that in my 20s and early 30s, I have been infused with the spirit of Ground-Up Initiative (GUI) 聚友爱 and Forest School Singapore. I also feel really grateful to be part of this nine-year project, Common Ground Civic Centre at the old Bedok Public Library with thanks to the Singapore Government Partnerships Office. How often do you get to get paid to work in a third space, and use my profession to initiate topics I care about as a citizen? Thank you, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY).

I’ve been involved in not just one, but two once-in-a-lifetime projects in Singapore that nurtures active citizens. How lucky!

My Final Thoughts

It’s often not easy to explain GUI as it is multi dimensional and interconnected with various topics – and I also shared at the COP that GUI often means different things to different people and can be easily ‘misrepresented’ – and sometimes simplified to it being a farm in Singapore. Despite the messiness, what’s for sure for me is this: 𝗚𝗨𝗜 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿. I personally do not think that more MRT stations or integrated hubs will create the heartware we wish to see in Singapore – even though I understand that supports our upcoming superaged society status, and I think community building organisations such as GUI are an increasingly important response to social ills.

There are many thoughts I continue to have about GUI – including why I chose to leave full-time, why I am back as a more active volunteer, how they are fundraising – and I will continue to ruminate about them offline. This season, having the chance to debrief my COPs with Shiao-yin Kuik has also been helpful for me as it made me zoom out and think about what I am noticing about what is important if we want to known professionally as a valued community builder, and the dangers we fall into if our narrative of the work is not clear and up for interpretation by anyone – including current and potential funders.

Getting to run this COP at The Foundry also made me realise the very different funding models that we are each in, as we do the work of building community and active citizenry. They are all important for the change ecosystem we wish to see in Singapore, and we all have something to learn from each other. That’s why I’m glad to have crossed paths with Marlene Rothschild Li-Mei, and I look forward to having a regular rhythm of catching up with your team in the new year ahead!

GUI’s new campus on their new land is a work in progress, and they’re continuing to do their work despite having 8 years left on the land (yes, there is a time limit for land in Singapore). For me, their space has always been about the people – and the people will shape the future of GUI. This work / place will never be finished – it is a work-in-progress, and you’re welcome to be a part of their story! Volunteer on the ground, donate, connect someone you think can support them in strategic fundraising efforts, etc.. there are many ways to support.

What’s Next

Consider the beautiful spaces that The Foundry and Common Ground Civic Centre & Consultancy has – to run events! Just check out our respective websites 😀
Before 2025 ends, if you’re looking for a chance to connect with community builders, and a space to share affirmations with one another, come join me in the final session of Breathing Space: A Community Of Practice (COP) for Community Builders! We will be back at Common Ground Civic Centre centered on the topic of Gratitude. Excited to have Krystle Nonis leading us for a breathwork session, whom we got to meet in the past two COPs! We’re going to be getting people to bring your favourite food in as well 🙂

If you wish to hear from some of our participants on why you should join:

			
Every participant at the session could easily have a RICE media-styled article about the work they do. If you think Singapore is boring or lacks initiative to try or dream differently, come and get that worldview shattered! 
Come to take away wisdom & hope! :) 
Take the time to pause and reflect together. It’s well worth it. 
Community builders needs community to learn how they can improve their craft and to problem-solve collectively.

Remember to pause, and breathe deeply. 🌬️

With gratitude,

Hui Ying (Author)

Article has been ported from Huiying’s linkedin article with her permission