[EJB] EJB Team Questionnaire - Mia Engel (DEN)

EJB TEAM MEMBER CANDIDATE 2016 QUESTIONNAIRE

Mia Engel, Denmark Contact information Facebook: Mia Engel E-mail: mia.h.engel@gmail.com Skype: mia_h_engel Whatsapp: +4530502787

#1 ‘’By 2030 CISV International wants to reach twice as many people as today.“ This is the new vision of CISV International that was approved by the members. How should Junior Branch contribute to reach this vision and how could we measure the success?

I believe that our strongest asset in Junior Branch is the fact that we are youth – especially in terms of reaching out to a lot people. All of our members are at the time in their life where they have the most friendships, acquaintances and the highest number of social circles that they move in. We are the most proactive part of society and thereby the one most likely to have an impact on our local societies and the people around us – in a CISV context this could be through mosaics, other local projects or collabo-

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rations with other youth organisations. This, I believe, is our main force when it comes to contributing to the new vision of CISV international. As an addition to that our generation also has a great amount of knowledge on how to use social media and various communication platforms to spread the word about, for example CISV, very efficiently. Improving the way we communicate externally (as well as internally) is a very important step in reaching towards the new vision and this is something I see Junior Branch contributing with knowledge and ideas on. Generally I believe that Junior Branch should contribute with our ability to rethink, innovate and evaluate our own methods in terms of recruitment, communication and generally how work with our local communities. In my opinion Junior Branch is the one part of CISV that has the biggest potential of reaching outside of the organization (aside from IPP’s and mosaics) and therefor also the one that has the responsibility to do so. Therefor I would like to see an increased focus on involvement in local communities and outreaching when it comes to planning projects – an obvious way to do this would be using mosaics as a frame when planning projects as they have a requirement of a local need and therefore automatically obligates us to think outside of our own community that is Junior Branch.

In terms of measurement of success I believe we need to have a strategic plan for keeping record of our number of participants, events etc. that we host annually – including non-CISV’ers participating in f.ex.

Peace One Day or other projects both locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. This could be included in the JBSET and an evaluation tool for the entire organisation could be developed. Furthermore I think it’s important to focus on measuring outside of CISV as well f.ex. by registering every time an event is hosted in collaboration with an LMO or other collaboration partners. The measure of success would be a growth in those numbers over the years. A part of the plan could also be to focus on the importance of claiming participation – f.ex. on myCISV after attending a meeting. Maybe this function on the international website could be developed, to make it easier to register smaller events – especially local ones. I believe we might be reaching out to more people than we are aware of, but we maybe lack an efficient way of measuring it.

Even though the measurement would probably need to focus on quantity I want to stress that I find it extremely important to assure the quality of this process, so that it doesn’t only just becomes a matter of growth in quantity, but at the same time a growth in quality – especially to make sure that our mission is not overlooked or neglected when trying to reach the vision. After all the impact that we want to have on people is to educate and inspire them to act in a more just and peaceful way.

#2 The EJB Team goals for the upcoming year are Involvement, Innovation, and Integration.

Choose one of these goals and speak about how you want to help develop it this year.

One goal that I find really important – especially right now with the review process going on – is Integration. I would like for Junior Branch to further develop our thoughts on how we integrate as youth in CISV and our local communities and how we explain and understand Junior Branch.

To further develop this goal I think we need to focus on how to achieve the indicators at the local level.

One thing I believe could be key in this is training. Many of the indicators interlink quite well with the training curriculum and could be achieved by using it as a tool for achieving the goal. But I also believe that a development/review of the training curriculum is needed and more importantly the development of a tool on how to use the curriculum in order for JB’ers – especially LJR’s and other local JB’ers – to run trainings for their chapters. This not only being trainings for local JB’ers, but all chapter members, so that there’s created a better understanding of what JB is and does, within the chapter. The training could also work the other way around: the JB’ers receiving training in e.g. chapter development or other trainings that can help them understand the structures and roles within their chapters and NAs/PAs. What could be done at the regional level to achieve this could be to start by looking at the training cur-

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riculum and developing a way to easily present how the tool is used – without having to give all participants a full TTT. It could also just be focusing on the challenges and possibilities in the collaboration between local JB’ers and chapters and thereby developing ideas on how to use these as an advantage to further strengthen the relationship between the two.

Another thing that could help develop this goal is striving towards setting a more clear purpose for Junior Branch – not necessarily a different one than CISV’s, but something to make it easier to explain what Junior Branch does and why. This also interlinks quite well with the idea of increasing Junior Branch’s involvement in the local chapters and communities (the Involvement goal)– the better we are at explaining our purpose, the easier it will be to find collaboration partners, both within out without Junior Branch and CISV. Furthermore a focus on development of profile raising and communication skills – both internally and externally – is needed. This could also be part of a training or session run at the neighbourhood workshops in order for the highest number of local and/or newer JB’ers to feel empowered to explain JB to their local chapters.

#3 Why do you want to join the EJB Team?

If I ask myself which part of the organization I feel most connected to at the moment I would have to say the regional level. I’ve been in JB since 2010 and over the years I have really come to like our region: I see both great challenges and great potential, which motivates me a lot. What I like about the regional work is that I believe that the regional teams have the perfect balance of working with hands-on work (e.g. delivering sessions at neighbourhood workshops and EJBM/BEAM) and administrative work (e.g. coordinating the neighbourhoods, neighbourhood and regional workshop applications etc.) This is a balance I see myself fit into quite well and really enjoy doing - e.g. working as an NJR past two years, but also in my daily life, where I’ve often gotten involved in various coordinating roles. It is the fact that this type of work is possible within JB that motivates me to stay.

Additionally I’ve grown really fond of the neighbourhoods – I like to work with different types of people and JB’ers. I especially like seeing newer JB’ers grow and I believe that the neighbourhoods are a perfect place to do so. I’m very motivated about working with developing the neighbourhoods and the fact that we have so many both NA’s and PA’s in each neighbourhood (compared to the other regions) is a challenge (and possibility) I would really like to upon myself. Lastly my term as NJR is ending this November and I don't feel like I’m done contributing to Junior Branch yet. At the moment I feel that the region is the place where I have the most to give and where I would like to focus my energy as it is the part of the organization where I see the most potential of development.

Furthermore I want to contribute to making the EJBM/BEAM merger successful and useful as a platform for CISV and JB to become more integrated. I really want to see a change in the general mind-set we have when it comes to JB being a part of CISV and I believe that – if used in the right way – the merger is a great place to start. And I believe that the next two years will be key in the process of becoming more integrated as one big organisation.

Last but not least Junior Branch in general is what motivates me to stay active in CISV. The amount of knowledge I’ve gain from all the educational content we work with – especially on the regional and international level - and all the inspiration I’ve gotten from seeing other JB’s work really hard is definitely what keeps me going! Becoming a part of the EJB-team would be an amazing chance to keep working in Junior Branch.

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