SCORA DIRECTOR 2015-2016 CANDIDATURE Carles Pericas Escalé 1
MOTIVATION LETTER Dear IFMSA Family, It’s with great honour that I present to you my candidature for SCORA Director for the upcoming term 2015-2016. For those who don’t know me, I’m a 22 year old Catalan medical student and I live and study in the beautiful city of Barcelona. Since I started Medical School I had always wanted to work on something that complemented our curricula (we all know that during the first years we are always eager of something more practical and effective). Therefore, I decided to get involved in something called AECS-Catalonia where they had a group working in Sexual and Reproductive Health, a subject that had always got my attention. “Interesting!” -I thought- so I gave it a try. It was then that I had my own first taste of SCORA and what would become my NMO and my family. Needless to say, I was immediately hooked. So hooked that in a matter of weeks I became a LORA, organizing a series of events, campaigns and projects throughout the year that began to shape my future, my passion and of course, myself. With great enthusiasm, I held onto that position for a second term and fortunately managed to step up the game in my Local Committee. That same year I attended my first IFMSA meeting, EuRegMe 2013 in Italy, broadening my horizons incredibly. Who were all those people? How could I get more involved? It felt like a wakeup call, I wanted to know better that Federation which I had barely started discovering. Since that moment onwards, I was in the game. After EuRegMe, came the SCORP Camp, and after that the first Southern European Cooperation on Sexual Education (SECSE) ever, in Malta. You know what they say, the more you get, the more you want, and of course, after receiving so much information and experiencing a lot of different perspectives I decided it was my time to help and pass on everything I had learnt. I wrapped my mind around it, ran for NORA within my NMO and…got elected! Being NORA was all sorts of amazing and the year that went along with it made me engage even more in IFMSA, attending my first two General Assemblies and hosting the second edition of SECSE in Barcelona. It was an incredibly fruitful term, but I couldn’t help but feel something was missing. Looking retrospectively I realised much more could have been done to empower my LORAs and all the Catalan SCORA active members, so, as I don’t like leaving things halfway done, I ran again for NORA. That was 10 months ago, and this second term has brought me everything I could’ve wished for. Without even realizing it, right at the start of the year, I was juggling with my NORA responsibilities (which included the implementation of a Peer Education Program and Empowering all my LORAs), volunteering as part of the Barcelona Global Health Summer School OC and actively contributing to the HIV and other STIs IFMSA Program Proposal. I had been told that once you get on the IFMSA ride, it’s extremely difficult to get down, but I surely wasn’t expecting something so treacherous and exciting at the same time.
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In December 2014, I also got the opportunity to attend the Team of Officials Meeting in Zagreb as an observer and I must say that was a major turning point for me. Seeing the TO working in relevant issues for the Federation, and moreover, allowing me to take part in those discussions, was incredibly motivating and enlightening. I went back home with new ideas buzzing in my mind, and of course, a broader vision and knowledge on IFMSA’s internal functioning. Feeling much more confident and enriched with such experiences I attended March Meeting 2015 in which I could facilitate some sessions, receiving positive energy from all the participants and reassuring the feeling that I was moving towards the right direction. I thought everything couldn’t get any better, my LORAs were all incredibly motivated building up projects left and right and SCORA was one of the strongest SCs in AECS-Catalonia. It was all of this that allowed me to settle my next goals within IFMSA, I wanted to make a change and I wanted to improve everything I had experienced so others could feel the way I felt. Imagine how happy I was when I got appointed as one of the new interim SCORA Regional Assistants for Europe, which brought things to the next level. I gained a whole new perspective on the internal organization of SCORA and the global issues that we aimed to tackle. I must say that these past months as RA have been the best experience I’ve had with IFMSA by far. Getting entrusted with such a wonderful job made me step up my game and work hard to reach what was expected from me. I wanted to be someone all European members could trust, someone that could motivate and bring the best out of them. I poured my passion on the EuRegMe sessions, engaged on several other regional projects and learnt from my International Team mates and of course from all the NORAs, LORAs and SCORAngels that I got lucky enough to cross with during my path. Throughout this time, I’ve acquired broad knowledge on all five SCORA focus areas and grasped the needs of each region. All these experiences and the people I met were the fuel that kept me moving forward and led me to the point I had to sit down on a desk and start writing this letter while telling myself: “I am running for SCORA Director”. I am running for SCORA Director not only because I want to contribute on making IFMSA and SCORA even better, but also because I feel confident and I truly believe I could bring in a positive change. Empowering people, setting an example and working tirelessly for my Standing Committee are the new gasoline that keeps me going through this amazing journey. A journey that started almost four years ago and that, at the same time, has just begun.
Thank you for going through this letter, if you have any questions about my candidature, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Carles Pericas Escalé
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PLAN OF ACTION Below you will find my Preliminary Plan of Action; I crafted it based on the work done in the previous years, my expectations for the upcoming term and the intrinsic functions of a Standing Committee Director. Of course, it is something clearly flexible and upon being elected I would make sure it goes in line with next year’s IFMSA strategic planning and the needs of the SCORA active members. My Plan of Action is divided into six main pillars, all of them sustained together by longitudinal requirements that I believe cover all the needs that SCORA will face throughout next year. Being something preliminary, I am more than open to feedback, suggestions or input. Before the detailed explanation of each point, you can find an overview of the Plan of Action below.
Annual'Planning' and' Staple'Events
Work'within'the'' TO
'''Regional'Empowerment' and'' ''''Inclusiveness Assessment'of'needs,' follow'up,'availability,' commitment'and' teamwork
Meetings' &' Conferences Motivation
Letter
Programs' Implementation
Capacity'Building'and' Knowledge'Sharing
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PLAN OF ACTION
Annual Planning and Staple Events It’s always extremely important to plan ahead, especially when it comes to the different Standing Committees, which all have pre-established events and internal deadlines to take into account. In order to be as efficient as possible and follow the mission and vision of our beloved Standing Committee, an overview of the year needs to be created right at the beginning of the term. That way it would be easier to overcome and anticipate the unexpected. To accomplish this, the following core points are important: • Agree with the VPA and other Standing Committee Directors upon having the Regional Assistants and the Program Coordinators appointed simultaneously in order to set up the same starting point. Coordination between these two SCORA components is imperative to follow up on the Programs Implementation and ultimately all the activities that take part within our Standing Committee. • Establish a timeline of action with all the SCORA staple events (World AIDS day, Women’s Day, IDAHOT…) and identify what will be done for each one beforehand. • Assign each relevant event to an RA, who coordinately with the corresponding Program Coordinator and their team will push forward the intervention through an outcome-oriented approach I would personally supervise. • Together with the LRA, keep track of the relevant external meetings SCORAngels could benefit from and make sure that appropriate time-bound calls are sent out, so any interested member on applying can do so. • Seeing how important it is to keep the members informed on the multiple events and campaigns as well as relevant conferences, push together with the IT for the implementation of a SCORA internal calendar with all the information our members require and find the best way to share it so it reaches everybody.
SCORA SESSIONS AECS National General Assembly. Lleida, April 2015
Peer Education Sessions in an Elementary School. May 2015
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PLAN OF ACTION
Programs Implementation
Hopefully, by the end of this August Meeting, SCORA will have all its five focus areas represented by official IFMSA Programs, but there would still be plenty of work to do. Having contributed twice on the Program Proposals, I am aware that the structure of the programs is fairly intricate and that their total implementation will take some time and quite a lot of effort. If elected SCORA Director I would help as much as possible in their implementation by taking the next steps: • Help with the selection of the SCORA Programs coordinators and smoothen the transition from the current SWGs we have on each focus area to the future appointed teams of each Program. • Make sure there’s a correct interaction with the Program Coordinators and their team and provide them with any help they require. Pairing them up with different RAs members would surely be a good way to ensure the information gets properly to the IT. • Encourage NMOs to submit their activities (as long as they are in line with the values of SCORA and IFMSA) and inform them on how to do that, so they can become part of the programs. Always keeping in mind the established criteria for each program and the ultimate decision of the Program Coordinator. • Work together with the Vice President for Activities to ensure that the developed mechanisms to evaluate the outcomes of the programs are pushed forward and that we can guarantee a proper way of measuring the impact of our interventions.
Regional Empowerment and Inclusiveness It is a well-known fact that most of the topics we take care of in SCORA don’t normally come without a collision of ideals, but this shouldn’t be by any means a problem, since one of the things that enriches our federation the most is the different perspectives that come from such a wide cultural diversity. Being inclusive and empowering the members is a basic and vital thing to achieve our committee’s goals. Catering to the needs of each region separately but ultimately keeping the main goals together can be accomplished by doing the following: • Push for the primary assessment of every region and agree upon creating a brief regional report with the International Team in order to get a proper overview of each region. • Make sure all the SCORA relevant news and calls are sent out through all the regional yahoo groups and servers when needed so they reach out every potentially interested member. Also, encourage our members to join in the Facebook group which would serve as an extremely useful source of information to stay up to date with everything SCORA related. • Develop, if there’s a proven need, regional webinars coordinated by the corresponding RAs and myself to cover the issues spotted in the report previously mentioned.
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PLAN OF ACTION
• Help if needed the corresponding Regional Assistant and the Regional Director of each region on any regional advocacy strategy related to SCORA. • Promote, if there’s a general consensus among the IT, inter-regional collaboration. It’s widely known that each region has its strengths and weaknesses and they could help each other overcome many issues. Working as a Regional Assistant this year, I’ve come to notice that it’s actually something that most NMOs are willing to do. • Promote the already started up regular informative webinars for each region, covering the topics established thanks to the needs assessment. • Ensure there are representatives from every region involved in every SCORA relevant SWG or intervention (such as the revision of SCORA related Policy Statements) as well as the facilitation of the GA sessions.
INTERNATIONAL PEER EDUCATION TRAINING. TAIWAN, AUGUST 2014
advanced INTERNATIONAL PEER EDUCATION TRAINING. barcelona, september 2014
Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing Earlier on this Plan of Action I pinpointed the importance of empowering our members. With the years and thanks to my national and international insight, I’ve come to notice that a lot of times NORAs, LORAs and active SCORA members don’t feel confident enough to step up their game and push forward their interventions. It’s essential, for the sake of the Standing Committee, that they are all provided with capacity building opportunities and resources that cover the main subjects SCORA works on. My main points to make sure this needs are addressed are: • IPETs: We already have an established network of trainers on Peer Education thanks to the multiple IPETs taking place every year. We’ve come to a point in which granting an IPET in our internal meetings is not enough. Diversifying their content and finding ways to streamline them within NMOs are issues that should be addressed as well.
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PLAN OF ACTION • The Ipas workshop has also been a staple training opportunity for the past two years covering an issue that was sometimes overlooked in IFMSA. Working together with the LRA to grant the presence of this workshop in all the Regional Meetings possible as well as ensuring that we keep working on Maternal Health and Access to Safe Abortion is a must. • Since Ipas doesn’t operate in Europe, I would make sure we follow the road we took for the pre-EuRegMe with the “A safe delivery: surgery in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology” workshop to tackle the needs of the region in this certain subject. • Work with the LRA and externals to increase the diversity of the capacity building interventions. The increasing number of partners SCORA is working with offers a wide variety of opportunities to develop our members, such as the workshop created in Ecuador alongside The Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights or the multiple webinars offered by externals that have been sent out throughout the year. • Help with the creation of the database of SCORA activities that will hopefully be pushed forward alongside the Program Coordinators and the International Team, to ensure our members have open access to manuals and projects from other NMOs. • Work together with the Regional Assistants and get advice from the Vice President for Capacity Building on the best way of approaching the needs of each region and overcoming the obstacles such as language barriers and logistic issues.
SOUTHERN EUROPEAN COOPERATION ON SEXUAL EDUCATION 2014, BARCELONA
European Regional Meeting. Aalborg. April 2015
ifmsa general assembly: august meeting 2014. taiwan
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PLAN OF ACTION
Internal and External Meetings & Conferences
Going in line with the previously mentioned points, a big amount of empowerment and capacity building opportunities comes from both the internal and external meetings. I strongly believe in how they can motivate and increase our members’ knowledge, therefore it’s something that needs to be worked on thoroughly, together with the rest of the International Team.
General Assemblies and Internal Meetings • Attend both General Assemblies and make sure there’s a proper coordination of the SCORA Sessions, having them totally planned at least a month prior the actual meeting. • Make needs assessment for the SCORA Sessions with the corresponding call for input. As mentioned previously, being totally inclusive with the needs of every region is totally essential to grant that the sessions are fruitful and of quality. • Choose a support person and set up a team of motivated SCORA members that would like to help with the facilitation of the sessions. • Make sure a proper report and follow up of the sessions is sent out to the participants so they can get all the resources and outcomes. • Guarantee my presence in every Regional Meeting to give support to the corresponding Regional Assistants. If that weren’t possible, I would follow the same strategy that the current SCORA Director and LRA set up, in which they split the RMs to make sure there was a SCORA TO representative in all of them.
External Meetings • Work together with the SCORA Liaison Officer to determine which meetings and conferences could be relevant for IFMSA and SCORA related members, and liaise with the corresponding organizers to be able to send a number of representatives. • Make sure proper calls for delegations are sent out on time for members to apply and participate in the selection process if needed. • Promote with the RAs the Regional Conferences that will take place next year (ICAAP, ICASA and European AIDS Conference) and make sure the delegates sent take full advantage of the meeting and get proper outcomes that can be later provided to the members.
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PLAN OF ACTION
Work as part of the Team of Officials Needless to say, being part of the Team of Officials entails a lot of responsibilities. Next term will be the culmination of the reform and many challenges may pop up, especially with the new TO structure and the implementation of the programs. If elected, I would collaborate with the rest of the team to the extent of my abilities to ensure IFMSA runs as smoothly as possible. It is also imperative that the SCORA endeavors align to those of the Federation and that the interests of our Standing Committee are taken into account by the TO. I would make sure to accomplish the next objectives: • Attend all the Team of Officials Meetings would be one of my main priorities regarding the TO. Since, as I mentioned previously, it’s imperative that the standing committee directors are updated on any action or process that involves them. • Collaborate and participate on the creation of the Annual Planning for the TO and make sure all the needs of our members are put on the table and properly taken into account. • Promote bilateral updates and serve as a bridge between the TO and the SCORA members (through each Regional Assistant) on any matter that may concern both sides. • Work individually with the other officials when required, especially with the Executive Board and the SCORA Liaison Officer, on all the SCORA actions and concerns that need to go through them. • Seek advice in my fellow official members, since their experience will always be very valuable regardless of their direct involvement in SCORA.
team of officials meeting 2. zagreb, december 2014
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Longitudinal Requirements and Values At the beginning of my plan of action, I mentioned how there are some longitudinal requirements that would help cement all my interventions. These values are the following: • Needs Assessment: Every intervention done, every step taken to push forward this plan of action has to be adapted to what SCORA members need. I would make sure there’s a proper needs assessment before any major event or activity in SCORA to redirect the approach taken based on the feedback and input received. • Follow up: It’s imperative to follow up carefully all the SCORA actions and prepare them in an outcome-oriented way. I’ll make sure reports for any sub-regional training, regional meeting, conference or General Assemblies are done within a reasonable deadline after the event and properly shared with IFMSA members. Information is power, and to me, sharing the outcomes and evaluations of what we do with our SCORAngels is the best way to make the SCORA engine move forward. • Availability and Commitment: Throughout my plan of action I’ve mentioned I’d be attending Regional Meetings, General Assemblies and Team of Officials Meetings. To do so, I’m planning on lightening down my 5th year at medical school by having only four subjects and a month of mandatory rotations during the term. The rest of the time I’d make sure it’s dedicated to SCORA and the Federation. Of course, I’d be totally available at any time on gmail and the different social media. • Teamwork: The key to a successful term is without any doubt working as a team not only with both the Regional Assistants and the LRA, but also with all the other active SCORA members. Taking into account every little piece of input is crucial to improve our Standing Committee. We need to keep people highly motivated and empowered to make sure the voice of SCORA IFMSA is heard.
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What's The Point Of Caring If We Don't Do Something About It? Elizabeth Glaser, AIDS Activist And Child Advocate
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