Lifecycle of a Service Project (Part 1): Overview and Introduction
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These slides are adapted from a five-part webinar series to support the Rotary family in producing sustainable service projects. The series highlights different strategies, best practices, and Rotary resources available to help clubs and districts undertake successful, sustainable service initiatives. In these slides from the first webinar (part 1 in the series), recorded on 24 September, we helped our audience to: • Understand the stages of a service project, and the importance of each • Learn how service projects help support Rotary’s strategic plan • Hear real-life examples of Rotarian service projects, and lessons learned A recording of this webinar session are available at www.rotary.org/webinars.
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Lifecycle of a Service Project (Part 1): Overview and Introduction
- 1. Lifecycle of a Service Project (Part 1): Overview and Introduction Rotary International 24 September 2013 #Connect4Good
- 2. WELCOME TO THE WEBINAR #Connect4Good Sheena Lilly Adam Arents Coordinator, Regional Membership Plans Promotions Coordinator Programs Membership Development SEP 2013
- 4. LEARNING OBJECTIVES #Connect4Good During today’s webinar you will: Understand the stages of a service project Learn how service projects support Rotary’s strategic plan Hear real-life examples of Rotary service projects and lessons learned SEP 2013
- 5. PARTICIPATING IN THE WEBINAR #Connect4Good Getting connected to audio Use the Audio pod to select Use Telephone - or Use Mic & Speakers * To improve sound quality, please close all unnecessary programs such as email, MS Office, etc. If you have a cellular device, please move it away from your computer. SEP 2013
- 6. PARTICIPATING IN THE WEBINAR #Connect4Good Using the question pane Use the question pane to type in the one word you think of when you think about service projects. SEP 2013
- 7. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 8. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 9. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 10. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 11. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 12. LIFECYCLE OF A SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 13. MY ROTARY | PROJECT LIFECYCLE RESOURCES #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 17. POLL SEP 2013
- 18. Meet our panelists SEP 2013
- 19. MEET OUR PANELISTS #Connect4Good Enrico Ferro Past President Yale Rotaract Club (Sponsored by the New Haven Rotary Club), Connecticut, USA D7980 SEP 2013
- 20. MEET OUR PANELISTS #Connect4Good Marion Spence Club President Rotary Club of RC Durban Bay, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa D9370 SEP 2013
- 21. Tell us about your experience SEP 2013
- 22. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 23. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 24. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 25. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 31. POLL SEP 2013
- 42. Most Rewarding Aspect of your Service Project SEP 2013
- 43. MOST REWARDING ASPECT OF YOUR SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 44. MOST REWARDING ASPECT OF YOUR SERVICE PROJECT #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 48. Your service project tips #Connect4Good SEP 2013
- 50. Thank you for attending today’s webinar! Register for upcoming webinars and view recordings here: www.rotary.org/webinars SEP 2013
Notas do Editor
- SHEENA: My name is Sheena Lilly and I am fromMembership Development, and I will be co-moderating today’s session, along with Adam Arents from Programs.ADAM: Hi everyone. As Sheena said, my name is Adam Arents and I support Rotary’s youth programs.SHEENA: Let me just say, we are both really excited to be hosting the first in a series of five webinars on the topic of service projects! We will also be teaming up to host all of the webinars in this incredible an innovative series!
- SHEENA:Today’s webinar and all following webinars will help you produce sustainable service initiatives. We will highlight strategiesother Rotarians have used in their service projects, offer some best practices, and guide you to Rotary resources available to help support you with your service project.We understand that each service project is unique – some are large in scale, some are small in scale. Some use Rotary Grants to help fund them, and other projects are funded by clubs or districts. During this series, we will try to provide examples of a variety of service projects so you can learn from other Rotarians’ experiences. ADAM: You can find details about this webinar series and links to register for each session on the Webinars page at WWW.ROTARY.ORG/WEBINARS. We’ll include a link to this page in the follow-up email after the webinar.
- ADAM:During today’s webinar you will:Understand the stages of a service projectLearn how service projects support Rotary’s strategic planAnd hear real-life examples of Rotary service projects and lessons learnedWe want this webinar to be as interactive as possible. So during our time together, we will ask you to share some of your tips for service projects through the question pane, and we’ll also ask you to vote in a few polls. We encourage you to participate actively in the webinar, so send us your questions and comments either through the question pane or on Twitter using the hashtag #Connect4Good. We’ll be sharing some of your questions and comments as they come in. Now we’ll take a moment to show you how you can participate.
- SHEENASo how can you participate in the webinar today? For those of you who are on Twitter and like to multi-task, we’ll be tweeting some key points from this webinar during today’s session. Feel free to join the discussion, using hashtag #Connect4Good . You each have your own control panel in the upper right corner of your screen that looks similar to the one here. Use the orange arrow to open or close your control panel.Next, you’ll select the audio option for listening to today’s webinar. Select the option you prefer in your own control panel.If you’d like to connect via the telephone, the dial-in and access numbers will be provided to you in your control panel once you select the “Telephone” option.Or, you may choose to participate via mic and speakers from your system.
- ADAM: For today’s webinar we have __ registrants from __ countries joining us. To maintain the highest sound quality possible, all but our panelists and myself will be muted during the webinar. Please submit questions or comments to our panellists and to RI staff members by using the question pane on your control panel (in the upper right corner of your computer screen). You can also use the question pane if you’re having technical difficulties. Just describe the problem you are having in the Questions box, and a staff member will assist you right away.Now, let’s take a moment to practice. Please use your question pane to type in the first word that comes to mind when you think about SERVICE PROJECTS!****** Comment on answers coming into the questions pane
- SHEENA:We mentioned earlier that every service project is unique. However, there’s one thing all service projects have in common, which is that the best ones all share a common “lifecycle”. On your screen is a graphic that represents the lifecycle of a service project.As you can see, the key areas are: [break these out into separate slides]Planning Acquiring ResourcesProject ImplementationEvaluation and PromotionEach webinar in the series will touch on different aspects of these key areas, and give you best practices and tips that you can implement right away, no matter where you are in the lifecycle of YOUR service project.
- SHEENA:Planning
- SHEENA:Acquiring Resources
- SHEENA:Project Implementation
- SHEENA:Evaluation and Promotion
- SHEENA:Each webinar in the series will touch on different aspects of these key areas, and give you best practices and tips that you can implement right away, no matter where you are in the lifecycle of YOUR service project.
- ADAM:You may have already found the Project Lifecycle Resources page available within the “Take Action” section of Rotary.org. This page will help you find many of the resources that will be mentioned throughout the course of this webinar series. Some of these resources include:Resources for the planning stage, including*An area on My Rotary where Rotarians and Rotaractors can create and join groups and start discussions. This is a great resource for sharing a project idea and receiving feedback from the Rotary community. *There’s also Rotary Club Central, where clubs and districts can set service goals, track progress towards their goals, and evaluate successes and barriers in achieving these goals at any point throughout the Rotary year.For help with acquiring resources, *You’ll find information on working with Rotary’s corporate partners, who can serve as subject matter experts for your project*There’s also a description of the varying Rotary grants and guidance on the types of projects that qualify for each type of grant*Another tool is ideas.rotary.org, Rotary’s new crowdsourcing website to help project coordinators connect with donors, volunteers, and partnersFinally, you can promote your project by using Rotary Showcase to add your club’s good work to Rotary’s global footprint of community impactSHEENA:Additional resources such as Rotarian Action Groups, publications, templates for conducting needs assessments, tips, and best practices are also covered on this area of the website. Join us for the coming four webinars to learn about how you can leverage all of these resources, and more, to plan and undertake sustainable service initiatives, build local capacity to help fill identified gaps, and contribute to Rotary’s global impact.
- ADAM:Service projects are an important part of Rotary’s strategic plan. The core values that are part of the strategic plan are: [Service, Fellowship, Diversity, Integrity, and Leadership.] We build lifelong relationshipsWe honor our commitmentsWe connect diverse perspectivesWe apply our leadership and expertise to solve social issuesSuccessful service projects not only help to engage and retain members, but also raise awareness about the good Rotary is doing in the world.
- SHEENA: Statistics show us that the majority of people who join Rotary, join to positively impact their community and for the friendships they create.
- ADAM: These are also the two main reasons people STAY with Rotary. We see these results over and over again in all of our membership inquiries and surveys. Through knowledge and empowerment, you can convert Rotarians into a powerful network of promoters and service providers. Service projects have a positive impact on communities, and build lifelong friendships.
- ADAM:Before we hear from our panelists, we want to hear about your experience with service projects in your club or district: How have you been involved in a service project in the past? As a:VOLUNTEERORGANIZERFUNDRAISEROTHER ROLENO EXPERIENCE PLEASE SELECT ALL OF THE OPTIONS ON YOUR SCREEN THAT APPLY TO YOU:MAYBE YOU’VE VOLUNTEERED IN ONE OR MORE ROTARY SERVICE PROJECTSMAYBE YOU’VE ACTUALLY ORGANIZED ONE OR MORE ROTARY SERVICE PROJECTSMAYBE YOU’VE HELPED WITH FUNDRAISING FOR YOUR SERVICE PROJECT, OR HAD ANOTHER SPECIFIC ROLE ON YOUR PROJECT.OR, MAYBE YOU’VE NEVER PARTICIPATED IN A SERVICE PROJECT BEFORE, AND ARE HOPING TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WHERE TO BEGIN[DISCUSS POLL RESULTS]
- ADAM: Now let’s hear about our panelists’ service projects, and learn a little about how they moved through each stage.
- SHEENA:I’m excited to introduce our first panelist: Enrico Ferro, Past President of the Yale Rotaract Club, in Connecticut, USA, District 7980.Enrico is completing his last year as an undergraduate student at Yale University (Connecticut), where he is majoring in Cellular Biology and planning to pursue a career at the intersection of clinical medicine and global health. He is originally from Cagliari, Italy, where he has been involved in Rotary since Interact at age 16; He was also a Rotary Exchange Student in Canandaigua (New York) in 2009 and President of the Yale Rotaract Club in 2013.Thank you for joining us today, Enrico!
- ADAM:Our second panelist is Marion Spence,President of the Rotary Club of Durban Bay in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa,District 9370.She is a semi-retired dentist. She joined Rotary in 1997 afterneighbor was clipping his hedge and shouted over an invitation to his Rotary meeting. From then on, she was hooked.Welcome, Marion!
- SHEENA: Enrico, why don’t you start by telling us about your experience with Service Projects and how you got involved?
- ENRICO: Our humanitarian project implemented a vocational training center to benefit the tribal community of Baste, a rural village nearby Mumbai, India. The project began in 2010 and was completed in 2013, and today our center offers courses in welding, sewing, mechanics as well as paramedic training. Our scope is to promote economic self-sufficiency and social emancipation for the community of Baste. In addition to launching and furnishing the center, our project also established overnight accommodations in order to eliminate logistical barriers, reach out to other nearby villages and involve their people in our training courses. SHEENA: Wow, that sounds like an incredible service project, Enrico! ADAM: Marion, could you also tell us a little about your experience with service projects?
- MARION: We provided literacy and numeracy to adults in Demat informal settlement also known as squatter camps about 40 minutes’ drive from our club. Learners were also taught vegetable gardening and craft skills development which resulted in small business development, improved nutrition, understanding of saving and providing for seeds/materials in the future to enhance sustainability.ADAM: (Insert Comment)
- ADAM: Enrico, before you began your service project, how did you assess the needs of the community?ENRICO: Fortunately, in 2010 our Yale Rotaract Club had already established a relationship with the Rotary Club of Mumbai Midtown, which had not only assessed the needs of the community of Baste, but also completed a “Watershed Development Project” in 2008, building a system to harvest the monsoon rains and provide villagers with clean water year round. After addressing this fundamental necessity, villagers did not have to walk for about nine daily hours in the quest for water, and could now invest their time and energies in more productive activities. Together with the Rotarians from Mumbai, we then conducted another need assessment and identified the launch of a vocational training center as the next logical step in the development chain, and that is when our partnership began. SHEENA: Enrico, I’d also like to ask, how did you set goals for your service project?
- ENRICO: After the Rotarians from Mumbai conducted a first need assessment through the Watershed Development Project that I described, in 2010 we jointly initiated the “Planning” stage of our project’s life cycle: our club’s members worked via Skype and emails with the project directors from Mumbai in order to set feasible goals, especially because we were working in a resource-limited setting. After meeting the basic necessity for clean water supplies, the villagers did not have to walk daily in the quest for water: they gained a lot of “free time”, which at first was actually problematic. On the one hand, the older villagers had very limited employment opportunities in this rural area, and eventually they would sit idly in their houses or engage in drinking at the local bars. On the other hand, the younger villagers were facing significant barriers in accessing educational opportunities: with only one school serving a radius of several kilometers, students had to walk for several hours everyday, and girls faced additional obstacles because schools often lacked toilettes and most families did not feel comfortable sending their daughters alone for such long distances. Even if students completed their degrees, the competition with the students trained in the advanced schools in Mumbai made it very difficult for them to find a job to support their families. After studying the complex dynamics of this community, vocational training was selected as the goal for our project in Baste, in order to empower the villagers with practical skills that they could readily apply to benefit their families and the larger community.
- ADAM: So we’ve talked about the planning process as a key element in the Lifecycle of a Service Project. Marion, could you describe your planning process before you began your project?
- MARION: The first phase in the life cycle of this Grant was the planning which included gathering a team of Rotarians to work together to make this happen. We asked for volunteers from both Host clubs and predominantly from the main International donor club. Westville club set up a separate bank account to work with funds. We corroborated closely with the cooperating organization Op Up, learning from their experience. We were assisted by Pat Dean a Westville Rotarian who had worked extensively with adult literacy over many years. Sadly she died during the implementation further highlighting the need to have multiple people involved to enable a smooth transition.The planning of the project started with the cooperating organization and a group of Rotarians visiting the area, assessing the findings and comparing them with those proposed by Op Up. We planned the budget based on our assessment enabling us to project numbers of beneficiaries and the spread of expenditure. A PowerPoint presentation was made by Westville RC where after John and I set off to USA to highlight the plight of this community. ADAM: Great—thanks, Marion!
- SHEENA: Sustainability means different things to different organizations.For The Rotary Foundation, sustainability means providing long-term solutions to community needs that the benefiting community can maintain after grant funding ends. Global grant projects must be sustainable and display the following characteristics: It must fulfill a community Need and/or strength; it must have elements of training or capacity building built in; and also funding; knowledge; motivation; monitoring; and evaluation. Sustainability of a service project is very important in the overall goal of a Rotary Service project and a key element when beginning the planning stages. We will discuss sustainability in more detail in the second webinar in this series.Enrico, could you please discuss how you made certain your project would be sustainable during the planning stages?
- ENRICO:Given the international nature of our collaboration, we tried to ensure the sustainability of our project from the very beginning of the implementation, and there are two aspects that make our project sustainable. First, our strong partnership with the Rotarians in Mumbai is very valuable, as they are incredibly committed to the village community and pay regular visits to Baste and the center itself, in order to identify problems or simply maintain a relationship of trust and collaboration with the villagers and trainees. Second, the project is run in partnership with the Ramakrishna Mission, an educational center of an internationally renowned monastic order founded in the XIX century. Their record and dedication to the education and uplifting of villager communities guarantees that the service be provided at the center will be of high quality and sustainable, since the missionaries are daily present and help direct the training on site.ADAM: It sounds like sustainability was a clearly defined goal for you and your group when starting your project. Marion, could you elaborate on how you made sustainability a priority with your project?
- MARION:Sustainability is a key issue in the new Future Vision Grants and a difficult aspect in disadvantaged communities. This project is a shining example of sustainability because it incorporates both the vegetable growing and skills development. Learners are responsible for finding land, planting, tending and reaping which has resulted in improved nutrition and excess produce to sell for profit. Skills such as leatherwork, sewing, crochet further enhanced profit earning capacity and promoting pride and self sufficiency in the future.ADAM: That sounds like a great example of sustainability. Thanks, Marion!Now, let’s take a moment for a quick poll…
- ADAM: We’d like to hear from you about some of the Rotary Resources available to help you with the planning process.Which of the following resources have you used when planning a service project?:COMMUNITIES IN ACTION/ASSESSMENT TOOLSAREAS OF FOCUS GUIDEONLINE TOOLS (SHOWCASE, ProjectLINK, SOCIAL MEDIA)ROTARY EVENTSOTHER RESOURCESWhile we calculate poll results, we’d like to take a moment to encourage all of you to also sign up for the second webinar in our series, “Lifecycle of a Service Project, Part 2: Planning and Organizing.” The webinar will take place Tuesday, November 19 and will discuss in detail how to conduct a community needs assessment, select a service project, and evaluate how the service project ties into your club or district’s goals.
- ADAM: Acquiring resources is the second step in the Service Project Lifecycle. Resources can be anything your project needs. This can include funding for supplies, volunteers to help implement the project, or a venue to host the project. Marion, could you tell us about your process for acquiring resources?
- MARION: We managed to obtain commitments of $14000 from the supporting clubs in the USA, $14000 from District Designated Funds from D5020 plus $2500 from D9270 clubs and $4000 from DDF Funding within D9270 which totaled $34500. This was thankfully matched with an amount of $26250 from Rotary Foundation to equal a total of $60750.We browsed the website and learnt a great deal about the new Grant system and requirements for Future Vision.SHEENA: Marion, that sounds like an excellent way to get started in funding a service project! Enrico, would you also like to discuss how you acquired resources for your service project?
- ENRICO: As mentioned, we were awarded a Global Grant from Rotary International, which matched (50 cents per each dollar) the funds raised through a collective effort that involved our Yale Rotaract Club, as well as the sponsor clubs of New Haven and New London in Connecticut, the Rotary Club of Canandaigua New York that hosted me during my exchange in 2008 and my former Rotaract Club in Cagliari, Italy. In addition, the District Designated Funds (donated from the Rotary District 7980, which were matched one dollar per each dollar) in order to reach a grand total of $40,000, which were used for implementation and equipping the center with sewing machines, motors and other teaching aids, as well as covering the instructors’ salaries.ADAM: Thanks, Enrico. I’d like to point out that in this webinar, we’re highlighting two service projects that received Rotary grants. Service projects come in all shapes and sizes. Not everyone will need funding from The Foundation, and there are plenty of ways to gain resources right in your very own community!
- SHEENA: Moving right along our Lifecycle is Project Implementation. Marion, would you please discuss how you got your project off the ground?
- MARION: Target dates were set at which to implement each phase of the project. At each phase we visited the sites, interacted with the beneficiaries, checked and assessed the progress. At all times the cooperating organization was running the day to day operations. I believe that using expertise like this is essential to success esp. in communities which are so different from ours. They are experts after multiple years of managing the needs of the beneficiaries. This further highlights the necessity of good management choices. Liaison with CO was on a weekly basis.They kept the project on target, we checked. We met the Grant and club goals or far exceeded them .This was because of the overwhelming enthusiasm of the learners, educators and their community.SHEENA: Communications with the cooperating organization running the day to day operations sounds like a sure-fire way to succeed!ADAM: Enrico, back to you, could you describe the planning and implementationprocess for your service project?
- ENRICO: The twenty members of the Yale Rotaract Club organized themselves in two groups: those in the International Service Committee collaborated with the Rotarians in Mumbai to tackle logistical and legal issues related to the implementation of the center, and prepared our application for a Global Grant to Rotary International; those in the Finance Committee organized a series of fundraisers to acquire the economical resources that were later matched by Rotary. Given that our club is university-based, fundraising and awareness activities were organized in partnership with student organizations rather than community organizations. For example, we organized a concert in collaboration with Yale’s a cappella choirs, and a cultural showcase with the International Student Organization at Yale. As mentioned, additional funds were raised in partnership with the Rotary Clubs of Canandaigua (New York) and Cagliari (Italy).
- ENRICO:Gaining the trust and the support of a tribal community from rural India has been a particularly challenging task, especially because there have not been many previous interactions between these small villages and the people from the metropolitan area of Mumbai, and even fewer interactions with Rotarians from Western countries. The Rotary Club of Mumbai, however, has been proactive in overcoming the diffidence and building a relationship with the villagers of Baste since its first project in 2008, which aimed to provide villagers with clean and potable water year round. Even when addressing this fundamental necessity, the Rotarians have been wise in promoting collaboration rather than simply donating free aid to Baste. For example, they asked villagers for 1 Indian Rupie for each water filter, a symbolic contribution to indicate that they all shared responsibility with the Rotarians for the success of the project. Furthermore, the fieldwork conducted by the Yale Rotaract Club in January 2013 has helped to strengthen this existing relationship for the implementation of our vocational center. Given that the majority of our club members are pursuing a career in the health professions, we organized a series of panels on hygiene and sanitation together with five paramedic women trained in our center, which allowed us to directly interact with the people of Baste, gain their trust and progressive acceptance in the tribal community, and lay the foundations to continue our collaboration. ADAM: It sounds like the project planning and implementation portion of your service project went hand-in-hand.
- ADAM: Finally, the last step in the Service Project Lifecycle is the Evaluation & Promotion of your service project. Marion, could you tell us how you evaluated and promoted your service project?
- MARION: The evaluation is the final aspect of a grant. How did it work? The figures from coop org show the differences but much more than that was the initial site visit and then the final graduation ceremony. For our clubs this made it all worthwhile. It was an experience of a lifetime even after doing so may Grants. We come from diverse communities and yet we challenged them to learn and learn they did. Together we helped change adult literacy, income generation and pride in this community. Hearing the singing, seeing the dancing and feeling the gratitude of 100s of people benefitting directly and indirectly was better evidence for me than any figures.We are all ears as project has drawn to a close last month. OP UP will be monitoring community progress over the next year and we know their expertise and our connectedness going forward will continue to overcome any hiccups. We will cherish and nurture the bond between OP Up and all the clubs and work towards another project, building on the huge success of this one!SHEENA: Enrico, I’ll ask you the same question – how did you evaluate and promote your service project?
- ENRICO: I believe that our fieldwork in January 2013 has allowed us to directly experience the benefits introduced through our project. The center is now completely equipped with welding machines, motors and other teaching aids, and the classrooms are progressively filling up with motivated trainees that will receive valuable skills to apply on site, rather than venturing to the slums of Mumbai and leaving their families behind in order to look for a job. Witnessing these tangible results has certainly helped our club to grasp the impact of our project, but we are also in the process of creating standardized assets that will allow us to focus on “Evaluation and Promotion”, the last step of our project lifecycle that we plan to address in the months to come. Some of the younger members in our club, for example, are planning to conduct follow-up research to determine the retention in the training programs, as well as investigate barriers and facilitators to access the services provided by our center, such as the lack of public transport from and to the villages nearby Baste. SHEENA: That sounds incredible, Enrico!
- SHEENA: Now we’ve completed with all the steps in a Service Project Lifecycle, I would personally like to hear, what was the most rewarding aspect of your service project. Marion?
- MARION: Oh my goodness. I think we all agree the contrast between the atmosphere of hopelessness of the squattercamp at the investigatory stage and the graduation ceremony. Here liberation had arrived. …..” I can write my name. I can know my rights. I can be proud of myself. My self-esteem shines like a bright light in my community. I matter – my life has relevance!”As for the educators – “I have made a difference and I can and I will in the future because I am also special”.And to Rotarians in S A and USA the community honour you and thank you. We hope we will be able to share that honour with you first hand at our hoped for Rotary International Convention in my city DURBAN in 2019.ADAM: That sounds like a powerful experience. Enrico, could you share the most rewarding aspect of your service project experience?
- ENRICO: My experience in India has helped me to unveil some of the complex sociocultural dynamics that characterize these tribal communities. For example, I learned how women have traditionally been in a subordinate position to men in villages such as Baste. Through our vocational center, however, Rotary has begun to offer equal professional opportunities to women, and train them with valuable skills that can help them earn a respected role in their villages. (24) During our fieldwork in Baste, we worked very closely with the female paramedics trained in our center, and I still vividly remember the day when five of them found the courage to stand beforemany skeptic men to help us deliver a hygiene workshop to the village community. This showed that women can begin to promote change and inspire future generations. (25) As the others present applauded their symbolic initiative, I felt a sense of genuine reward in realizing that we were empowering these women with the educational resources that they needed to envision social and economic emancipation. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsor clubs of New Haven and New London in Connecticut, the Rotary Club of Canandaigua New York and my former Rotaract Club in Cagliari, Italy and especially the Rotary Club of Mumbai Midtown for having supported our project, and provided the mentorship to implement it. In addition, (26) I would like to conclude by saying that none of this work would have ever been possible without the dedication and commitment of Mr. Arrow Roy, the project director from the Rotary Club of Mumbai. He was the one who was responsible for launching the first project in Baste in 2008, and he has been the real mind and muscles behind our vocational center project in 2013. (27) Throughout the years, he has dedicated both his professional and personal life to the community of Baste, and it has been extremely rewarding for our club to work with and learn from such an inspirational leader, whose life example embodies what “Service Above Self” truly means. SHEENA: Thank you so much for sharing your experiences, Enrico. It sounds like that not only are Service Projects incredibly rewarding for the individuals receiving the service, but life-changing for those who participate and volunteer for the Service Project.
- ADAM: Now before we take some questions from our attendees here today, we’d also like to take a moment to ask our panelists for any words of wisdom they’d like to share. Marion, could you share some lessons you’ve learned from your experiences with our attendees who will be organizing or participating in a service project?
- MARION: Over and over find people involved in the challenges of that community and allow them to share with Rotary clubs and act as a bridge Make sure our Rotary leadership skills are going in the right direction between 2 differing worlds. Leadership is only as good as the Captain. Choose a good Captain.ADAM: That’s great. Thanks, Marion. SHEENA: Enrico, how about you? Are there any lessons learned that you’d like to share with our audience today?
- ENRICO:As I look in retrospect at this three-year long experience,I would say that there are two components that we have learned to seek and to prioritize in order to ensure the successful implementation of our project: teamwork and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Specifically, teamwork came into play especially during the “Acquiring Resources” stage of our project, since raising $40,000 was no small feat. Over a two-year period, it was the collaboration between five Rotary Clubs and the 7980 District that allowed us to organize so many fundraisers and assemble the resources that could have potentially been invested in implementing and equipping the center. In order to convert this potential into reality, however, inter-disciplinary collaboration assumed a pivotal role, because it allowed us to overcome the wide variety of issues that we faced during the “Project Implementation” component of the lifecycle: for example, the lawyers in the Rotary Club of Mumbai helped us to obtain the relevant permission to acquire a plot of land where the overnight accommodations could be established, members of the Engineers without Borders chapter at Yale gave us feedback on how to construct latrines in a resource-limited settings, and the Yale Rotaract pre-medical students worked to create health and sanitation workshops to engage the village community during our fieldwork in Baste. After all, it was Paul Harris’ original objective to create an association that could gather people from different professions, who could complement each other’s abilities and reach a common goal. And that is what we tried to do.
- ADAM: Our panelists have given us a lot of great information about their own service projects, and the valuable lessons they learned along the way. Now we want to hear from you – please share your tips for successful service projects with the audience. Use the question pane to type in your tips. Again, you can also share your tips on Twitter using the hashtag #Connect4Good. [READ SOME TIPS THAT THE AUDIENCE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE QUESTION PANE]ADAM: (After a few minutes of questions have gone by) Keep those service project tips coming. We’ll continue reading some of these during the last part of the webinar.
- SHEENA:While we’re waiting for more of your service project tips to come in, let’s go to your questions. We’ve already received a lot of great questions, and we will answer as many of them as we can over the next few minutes. Please keep your questions coming – any that we can’trespond to during this webinar will be answered by email afterward.The first question comes from ______. [Read questions, flagged in RED, and direct to the appropriate panelist for response.][Intersperse questions with Service Project Tips, these will be flagged in YELLOW.]
- SHEENA:Thank you for attending today’s webinar. We appreciate your participation! As a reminder, this is only the first webinar in a series of five, so we encourage you to sign up for the rest of the webinars in the series, at the web address shown here on your screen: www.rotary.org/webinarsThe next webinar in the Lifecycle of a Service Project series will focus on PLANNING and ORGANIZING your service project. ADAMYou can al find a recording of today’s webinar on the same page – just click “On Demand” to view this and other webinar recordings. After today’s webinar ends, you will see a survey on your screen. Please take a minute to complete the survey, since we will use your feedback to help us develop the rest of the webinars in this series. Feel free to share the recording with others who may have missed today’s webinar, and encourage them to sign up to attend the next webinar in the series, Lifecycle of a Service Project (Part 2): Planning and Organizing. Within a few days, you’ll receive an email with a link to a recording of this webinar, information about some of the resources mentioned during today’s presentation, and a link to register for the part two of this webinar series. Thanks again to our panelists, Enrico and Marion, and see you for the next service project webinar, on November 19th!