Ulog 007: I C.A.R.E. (Strategic Planning with the CARES Program Coordinators for Community Extension Services!)

Good day Peeps! I really miss you so much! It is 3 straight days that I wasn’t able to update you about my errands, I will be posting them consecutively maybe today or tomorrow! Anyways, I am excited to share to all of you another set of learnings here in my ulog! This will be my 7^th time Ulogging with the theme: I C.A.R.E.

What is C.A.R.E.S.?!

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C.A.R.E.S stands for Community Awareness, Relations, Extension, and Services. This is an inititative of our educational institution to reach out to the community.

The Basic Education Department and the Colleges in our institution are implementing a program in a way that they can be able to cater the needs of the community. This is also an avenue of the students to be engaged in the community as an active member that may somehow give a positive impact to them. They will also learn life skills and share what they have to the needy: may it be goods or services.

I would like to share to you some of the programs created by the different departments of our school:

Elementary of the Basic Education Department

Pera sa Basura Program ”Money from the Trashes Program”: students of the elementary department will collect used plastic bottles and used papers in all grade school classrooms. Once a week, all the collected items will be turned over to the C.A.R.E.S. Coordinator’s Office with corresponding amounts of every item. The money will then be given to Eco-scholar.

Livelihood Program of the College of Hotel and Restaurant Management

They will be teaching livelihood programs to the community especially in the fields of cooking and the likes. This is to help the community in thinking for possible ways of earning extra income.

Computer Tutorials of the College of Computer Studies

They conduct trainings and lectures about the basics in computer to achieve computer literacy. The use of Microsoft Offices are given emphasis in the lectures as a foundation of the learners (from the community) which may be helpful in their careers.

Solid Waste Management of the College Maritime Education

They maintain the cleanliness of the community by participating and by conducting clean up drives.

Playgroup Class of the College of Teacher Education

The department invites kids age 3-5 years old to be their benefeciaries. They conduct playgroup classes to help the kids in learning the fundamentals of arithmetic, science, reading and language and to also hone the abilities of the kids. They conduct the class every saturday from 9 a.m.-11 a.m. with the supervision of the teachers, student teacher volunteers and the parents as well.

_{Ms. Camayra (@mcamayra), Me, and Vernel}

Honestly, I am still new to the coordinators’ guild of the CARES Program because it was my first time being appointed as the Program Coordinator of the Elementary Level.

The Program Coordinators of the different departments are appointed by the Principals and Department Heads. The appointed Program CARES Coordinator will serve the department for 2 years by maintaining and developing the programs of each department. As a program coordinator, we must also encourage our students, parents and co-teachers to join the conduct of every programs/activities that will be facilitated in time.

How do we select a Project/Program?

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A while ago, I have shared to you some of the projects or programs of each department but did you know how we select those programs?

It is also discussed during our meeting that before creating a certain project/program, a Program Coordinator must conduct an Assessment Study in which he/she will conduct a research in the community to know their needs in terms of a certain dimension like, livelihood, agriculture, computer servicing, and the likes.

What’s next after conducting the Assessment Study?

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After collecting the data, the Program Coordinator with the help of the CARES Director decides as to what program will be implemented and make a Program Structure that will be used.

^{Pera sa Basura Program of the Elementary Basic Education Department}

Annually, the Program Coordinators of each department will gather to conduct a Strategic Planning for the projects/programs of their department.

The Strategic Planning was done with the Over-all CARES Coordinator, Dr. Amparado who is a very supportive and a very intelligent person.

Before we started the Strategic Planning, we first answered the S.W.O.T. Analysis.

	Meaning
S	Strengths of the CARES Programs
W	Weaknesses of the CARES Programs
O	Opportunities/ Strengths from outside the school or from the community.
T	Threats/ Weaknesses from outside the school or from the community.

S.W.O.T. Analysis will help us identify the following:

• if we were able to sustain the strengths of our programs;
• if we were able to solve the weaknesses of the previous programs; and
• to know the current state of each programs.

After we individually answered the SWOT Analysis of each department, we then consolidated the result to make an over-all report which will be kept by the Over-All CARES Coordinator.

Evaluation of the Previous Annual Plan

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We need to evaluate the previous Annual Plan that was created by the previous Program Coordinator. The bases of the evaluation are the submitted Accomplishment Reports every month. We only need to put ”Accomplished” or ”Not Accomplished” in those Monthly Activities found in the Annual Plan. The printed copy of the evaluation report will then be forwarded to the Over-all CARES Coordinator.

Personally, I was so happy with the results of the evaluation. I have assessed that the previous program coordinator of our department has done his duty accurately and appropriately. He was able to accomplished all the monthly activities that he has planned! It is already my challenge to add more activities to enhance the program and to sustain the program itself.

Strategic Planning

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The process of the Strategic Planning was discussed first by Dr. Amparado. He emphasized that we need to consider the result of the Assessment/the survey. In addition, to complete the whole plan, we need to identify the following:

1.) Objectives

We need to identify and align our objectives to the objectives of the program and the school. This will also serve as a guide as to how we will create activities for every month.

2.) Activities

After knowing the objectives, we need to create appropriate activities. The activity must center on the implementation of the programs and must be aligned with the objectives also. The result of the Assessment may also serve as a guide to create a suitable activities for the community.

3.) Accountable

It is encouraged that all the teachers, student volunteers, parent volunteers, and the program coordinator are the people who are held accountable in the success of each event. Furthermore, we were advised to get first the name of the volunteers and include their names in the plan so that they will be guided.

4.) Budget

This is also the most essential part to make the project into fruition. We included the budget of each monthly activities so that the school can prepare the estimated/accurate amount of money to support the whole projects/programs. Usually, our budget is intended for the materials needed and foods/snacks for the volunteers.

5.) Target Schedule

Since we will be making a whole year plan, we need to make sure that each month will have a specific activities with a specific schedules. This will also guide the program coordinator and the volunteers as well as the principals or the administrators in avoiding conflicts with other activity schedules (unrelated to CARES).

^{Attendance Sheet/Attendees of the Strategic Planning}

Dear Readers,

Thank you for taking your time in reading this blog! I am always grateful with your support and love.

I hope I could share more about this sooner especially with the progress of ourPera sa Basura Program.

Lovelots,

Ken