BRAINSTORMING IDEAS. City and municipal action team members of DSWD-Caraga, during their breakout sessions, pitch in ideas on how to improve their delivery of social services to vulnerable groups. Supplied photo.
Xavier University's Southeast Asia Rural Social Leadership Institute (Searsolin) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) conducted the “Leadership for Convergence Training Program (LCTP)” to more than 75 city and municipal action team members of DSWD-Caraga.
The event, held on June 10 and 11, was aimed at drawing together the development efforts of DSWD to achieve their goal of bringing 2.3 million impoverished Filipino households to a level of self-sufficiency.
“You need to be equipped with skills and the knowledge for you to connect with the vulnerable groups, the people we serve,” said Searsolin director Roel R Ravanera, in his message to the local leaders.
The participants serve as “foot soldiers” in delivering the development programs to the poor and the marginalized, namely, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Sustainable Livelihood Program, and Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan - Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services, among others.
Bridging Leadership is geared toward equipping leaders with the technical skills and principles to tailor fit their initiatives and lobby with the concern stakeholders from their respective communities to efficiently address a social issue.
Luther D Labitad, Estrella E Taco-Borja, and Robert dela Serna, who were all Bridging Leadership fellows at the Asian Institute of Management, served as lecturers during the two-day training.
The participants are considered as students, where this program is credited as a 6-unit subject for Master in Public Administration at Xavier.
In the long run, the organizers hope that the C/MAT members will be able to reach their goals in “managing a grassroots organization, facilitating partnerships, and enhancing engagements with external stakeholders.”
DSWD Northern Mindanao and Caraga are the two official partners of XU-Searsolin in training C/MAT members. DSWD-Caraga had their first module on May 27-28, 2016.
With a hundred students, DSWD-NorMin conducted their first and second LCTP modules on April 29-30 and May 13-14 this year, respectively.
The training runs for six months for both regions, including a two-month practicum that will culminate with a multisectoral colloquium.
Both NorMin and Caraga students are currently in their practicum phase, to be followed with the “Co-creation Module.”∎