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CURLS NEWSLETTER
July 2023
CURLS taking the steps at the Free to Be Me's Pathways to Sustainability by Positive Vibes
A big big thank you!
CURLS President - Crystal Conners, Executive Director - Magdalena Robinson and Treasurer - Syndy Sulla in their group photo as they participate at one of the sessions at the workshop.
The CURLS Board extends its gratitude to the Free to Be Me Project and its global partners Positive Vibes and their Southeast Asia partners Arus Pelangi and Galang Philippines as one of the organization selected to participate in the Pathways to Sustainability workshop last July 10-14, 2023.
The organization applied to the call for participants from Galang Philippines and submitted the necessary documents such as Legal Registrations and Accreditations, Manual of Operations and Sustainability Plan as part of the criteria set by the training team for participants organizations.
Cebu's CURLS along with Gayon of Albay and Mujer of Zamboanga was among the selected Free to Be Me Philippines' Communities of Actions LGBTIQ+ groups sent to the said activity. The workshop is aimed to equip decision-makers of selected organizations with knowledge and skills to proactively source funds to sustain activities of organizations in their locality.
Learning by doing
According to President Crystal, “ I was more motivated to empower our organization kay sa akong nakat-onan nga lagsik kita sa tinguha nga maka agni ug mga funders sa atong organization, ug mapakita kanila ug unsa ang pagka-LGBTIQ+ Active Citizens contributing to social good”. She emphasized, “ Proactive nga mangita og other sources of funds para mahitabo ang mga kalihokan sa grupo ug pagduyog sa masaligan na sistema ug mga polisiya sa atong organization nga of purpose and of integrity”. ( I was more motivated to empower our organization because I have learned to be proactive in seeking source of funds to manifest what it is to be an “LGBTIQ+ Active Citizen contributing to Social Good” and materialized the activities of the group supported by effective systems and sound policies of the organization, with purpose and integrity.)
CURLS representatives further gained key learnings from the workshop. Syndy Sulla shared, " I was able to deep-dive where we are as an organization and we identify each gap where we can be able to respond to it." She continued, “ By identifying our past and present funders of current projects, we have assessed how they are impacting our purpose and the work as an organization so we can position ourselves on what kind of interest that comes along with the funds and work they want us to do.” She shared her takeaway of the content such as the GIFTED approach and Bruty's Matrix in assessing funders.
The Executive Director Magdalena appreciates the 21 questions essential to a proposal. She realized that those questions are the structure of a project proposal. There is a need for CURLS officers to be patient and clear in answering the questions to be able to narrate a story of change. She shared, “ I love that the sessions are very practical in nature because it brings out the skills we need in the pathway to Sustainability”. She further explained, “ I realized we have to be proactive in sourcing funds for our activities and create a strategy to generate the needed funds for us to continue the work that we do.”
Executive Director - Magdalena Robinson with Positive Vibes' facilitators Lee and Flavian presenting CURLS' workshop output on proposal writing
Re-echo
The team realized that as Trans women-led delegation and leadership in the organization, we need to optimize Trans* solutions. The delegation came up with a project proposal, TANGGAP, the Philippine Legal Gender Recognition Advocacy project. We need to review our Trans*activities to be able to see other sources of funding and donors. There is a need to revisit our Sustainability Plan and to ready our sustainability activities at the pipeline. The team proposes to do a workshop as an organization in September 2023.
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