| By Katie Cundale - Apr 3, 2012 5:22:45 AM ET |
| Also listed in: Students for PIH | Students for PIH - Canada |
Hello again,
Since the last time I wrote, we've solidified our organisation much more. We have structured the group around the three themes of PIH's community organisation - resources, advocacy, and education. For each theme, we have a director in charge of handling that porfolio within the organisation. During our first general meeting, we encouraged students to apply for various coordiantor positions under each director and recieved a wonderful and passionate response. We now have a core team of 18 people to start off fundraising and events in the new school year. We will advertise opportunities to join the organisation to students again at the beginning of the new school year.
For now though, we are starting to plan and set goals for next (our first) year. I would greatly appreciate anybody's input as to what he or she thinks realistic goals and projects should be. We plan to have at minimum three small fundraisers per term, while maintaining a year-long campaign based upon the 25x25 approach that PIH has already initatied. We will adapt this campaign to students, and allow for people to request 10 people to donate $10, or 15 for $15 - whatever people are willing to do!
If anybody has suggestions on good fundraising events that they have held or seen done, please let us know! We have a few good ideas already, but we would love the thoughts of all of you out there!
In addition, we plan to hold speaker events - we will ask doctors, PIH workers, or professors to speak of their experiences or work in the fields in which PIH works and advocates for. While supporting PIH, we hope to raise awareness about the issues that they tackle and overcome daily.
Thank you!
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Mark
That sounds like a great idea... What do the mini-campaigns you were thinking of involve?
I think it'd be great to have a few campaigns so we can discuss a broader range of ideas.
I hadn't flushed out the campaigns ideas too much, but one thought is to tie individual interactions to the health system to fundraising or awareness-raising for PIH. For example, could there be a campaign where every time a student visits or makes use of health services in any way (on-campus or off, talking with or seeing a physician / nurse / other health worker, filling a prescription, etc), it could be an opportunity to donate a toonie to in effect 'share the health' with those supported by PIH's work. Would McGill health center(s) allow you to place an optional donation box with some info on-site?
The 'universality' piece could also tie into something similar. If we truly believe as Canadians in universal health care as a fundamental right, there's no reason that principle of universality should stop at our borders. The timing might be interesting even to highlight PIH's POSER work (Program on Social and Economic Rights) around education given the current situation in Quebec, as access to education in places like Haiti and Rwanda is a key determinant of health.
I'm not sure how all that gets translated into a campaign or if it would even resonate or get attention, but this is a great time to test things and see what works....
cheers,
Mark
Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself. Wasn't sure what was the best way, but this seemed to be the latest post and Katie seemed to have some great stuff going on in McGill, so I thought, why not?
If there are any other Toronto people out there, which I'm sure there are, I would love to speak to them and set up something! So do message!
Otherwise, hi Katie. Just a heads up that there are probably a variety of grant or initiative funds that are available at McGill and its varying institutions. Depending on your proposal, you can also raise some funds that way. It's not much, but a few hundred dollars can be helpful. There certainly are methods like that here at UofT including the Dean's Initiative Fund.
Also, I think I read a few things in other blogs here, but timing your speaker series or movies, etc with fundraising, with concrete initiatives you can tie in, is usually far more effective than just a speaker, or just a movie.
You can also garner more support by creating different methods of presentation and contact with the speaker rather than - everyone sits, 30 min presentation, then questions.
You can divide up the session with activities, use the speaker to come in actual contact with people, talk to them personally, or even have a good solid 15 minutes post talk to force people to mingle instead of a lecture hall. That contact and corresponding initiative, besides "just" fund-raising means a lot to many people, including students. At least, from my experience anyway. I found certain movies or speakers, etc were most effective when used in conjunction of what your goal is - funds or otherwise.
Anyway, that's my two cents! Nice to meet you all!
Yours,
Sang Ik
I know that there are many funding opportunities for specific events here at McGill, but I will need to do more research to find if there are more encompassing ones.
Your ideas about speaker events are also wonderful. I agree, engaging the audience is a must, and I think helps everyone learn more. A number of student groups here do 'wine and cheese' events to encourage discussion, and I think this is something we will definitely tailor to our group and situation - if we can have some professionals speak about global health for a few minutes and then talk directly to students for longer, I'm sure people will be interested to meet and discuss ideas with them.
Thank you once again!!