On the right track

I posted a couple of weeks ago about a capacity-building exercise I'd introduced at work, and how I was unable to work out how it had been received.  I concluded that only time would tell, and while one swallow does not make a spring, the follow-up meeting this week contained plenty of encouraging signs.

We'd spent the last meeting considering how to form the right partnerships to help our programmes benefit as many Kenyan persons with disabilities as possible. We're initially looking for organisations which can distribute our simplified introductions to the rights of persons with disabilities, and how to make them a reality, as well as provide fora for the outreach workers we are training to deliver the same messages.  

Geoffrey (l) sits a lap ahead of Max (c) and Rafa in joint 2nd

It's all part of Action Network for the Disabled's (ANDY) strategy to have a national impact while retaining its key strength; a close relationship with the people we're developing programmes with and for. We introduced a couple of visual elements to the programme – an Olympic running track that we’re ‘racing’ round, with team members moving further along as we produce active partnerships, and maps on the wall where we’ll be marking the growing influence and reach of ANDY. 

So a lot rested with the follow-up meeting this week, which was basically a feedback session on the work each member of the team has been doing; a chance for them to report back on their experiences and the partners they'd secured. Thankfully, they've thrown themselves into it with great gusto. We have secured around 40 relevant new partners to work with, with successes ranging from arranging outreach workers to attend small self-help groups through to international NGOs incorporating our work into their national programmes.

Geoffrey in action, meeting a local kids and youth club

This is massively extending the originally defined reach of the programme, supporting our desire to consistently provide value for money and to maximise impact.
The star of the show so far is Geoffrey, who used all the contacts he has made over the last couple of years as a field worker and running our sports programme to firm up a partnership approach with 10 organisations. It shows that while we're not coming here as volunteers with any magic formulas, we do have the time, the brief and the external perspective to help develop colleagues' natural instincts and talents into work focused on realising an organisation's programmatic and strategic aims.

We're having another follow-up in a month, which i will not be running, so I'll have an idea if this is going to sustain itself after my departure. But I am not going to worry about that now - I am going to go away for my easter holidays on Thursday happy that the signs are there that something is sticking.