Laying the foundations for a caring community: Exploring the experiences of residents in a new low-cost housing development in Sarawak


 

THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL
VOL LXIV NO.85 DECEMBER 2007
 
 
Title : 
Laying The Foundations for a Caring Community: Exploring The Experiences of Residents in a New Low-Cost Housing Development in Sarawak.
Author : 
Gill Raja and Dolly Paul Carlo
Abstract:
A feature of development is an increase in new estates to house families with low incomes. Such estates create the challenge of how to transform a collection of family units into a caring community. This paper explores the experiences of residents who have recently moved into a new estate of low-cost flats on the perimeter of an urban area in Sarawak— a state that has a strong tradition of community living and good inter-racial relationships. The authors argue that to maintain and foster these traditions, the State needs to lay the foundations by (a) developing bond between neighbours through paying attention to how the physical environment affects the social life of a community, (b) facilitating the formation of effective community leadership, (c) providing opportunities for the migrants to stay connected to their communities of origin, (d) enabling the fledgling community to develop effective links to external resources and (e) fostering the development of norms which encourage consideration and care of each other and the shared environment. Ideas on how to practically implement these goals are discussed in relation to building social capital, community landscaping and promoting empowering partnerships between a range of stakeholders. The need to engage residents early in the community life of the estate is stressed. This can be facilitated by employing trained community-oriented social workers to work on the estates.
DOI:
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How to cite:
Gill Raja and Dolly Paul Carlo. (2007). Laying The Foundations for a Caring Community: Exploring The Experiences of Residents in a New Low-Cost Housing Development in Sarawak. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LXIV (85) : 35-70
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