iCelebrate, iReflect and  iRenew

A gathering of iHELP volunteers for sustainable and significant community engagement

Rationale

At the 2011 biennial conference of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) the participants made a historic commitment known as the Clark Declaration. In this document, the leaders of PCEC responded to the Scriptural mandate for “churches to transform communities,” and specifically commit themselves to seek the alleviation of poverty. Thus they pledged to work to equip and empower our churches to be sensitive to the needs of our immediate communities.

And so given this framework of PCEC and DSWD’s call for partnership with its Pantawid Pamilya Program, the iHELP Tawid Pinoy program was born. Beginning April 2012, iHELP volunteers have been deployed into the communities to assist DSWD staff and walk alongside the poor family-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilya program. As of January 2013, iHELP has conducted over 62 training sessions with over 4,000 participants covering 54 municipalities/cities in 9 provinces from 6 regions. Out of these training, iHELP has deployed 2,116 volunteers who are actively engaged in 6,801 family-groups or a total of 262,936 families.

Given these, iHELP needs a venue where key stakeholders can celebrate the gains of the program, learn from each other, and further seek their collective thinking (and feeling!) on how to sustain, expand and deepen our current community transformation engagement.

Identified participants

Participants to this conference would be representatives from key municipalities/cities in the provinces and regions where iHELP is currently engaged with the DSWD program. Specifically, the following stakeholders:

1.       Regional iConnects                            6           

2.       Provincial/District iConnects        13

3.       Municipal/City iLinks                       54

4.       Community Facilitators                  16

5.       iHELP National Staff                          3

6.       Selected PCEC leaders                   10

7.       Other regional leaders                     8

8.       DSWD representatives                    6

Total:  116

The conference would also invite strategic leaders from other regions where iHELP is hoping to be engaged in the near future. Likewise, iHELP will also invite DSWD representatives (local and national) so as to significantly contribute in the conference objective.

The Conference Objectives

The conference aims to heighten the engagement of the participants for community transformation. Specifically, through the conference, the participants would have:

1.       Celebrated the gains of iHELP;

a.       Provided a venue to showcase the best practices

b.      Received affirmation for their initiatives

2.       Deepened their commitment for community transformation;

a.       Reviewed the Kingdom of God Framework

b.      Assessed the iHELP framework on Community Engagement

c.       Examined Integral Mission in the light of their current engagement

3.       Developed new creative initiatives to enhance the current engagement

4.       Strengthened partnerships within and among all stakeholders

5.       Given their comments on DSWD’s future plans

Conference Outcomes

Through the conference, it is hoped that the participants upon returning to their respective areas, and after a significant time (3 months), would exhibit the following:

1.       Renewed passion, zeal and energy in doing their work

2.       Increased solidarity among themselves and with other community stakeholders

3.       More focused and sharper engagements in the community

4.       Leveling up of engagement, from FDS to other relevant and practical engagements with the community.

Date

June 26 (beginning Lunch) to June29 (ending after lunch), 2013 for a total of three full days.

 Venue

Christian Development Center – CDC, Tagaytay City.