Some 49 different local non-profit organizations (NPOs), one government department and one private organisation benefited from the first round of capacity build workshops organised by NPOwer, a project of Foresee Foundation (4C). The workshops were financed by St. Maarten Development Fund (SMDF) and Samenwerkende Fondsen Cariben.
The first round of 11 capacity building workshops were held between March and May and superseded the expectations of NPOwer. With a 90 percent attendance rate, the workshops had 172 unique local registrations with a total of 81 persons directly benefiting from the workshops and with 12 persons qualifying to earn a capacity building certificate for their respective organisation.
The workshops were evaluated on a 4-point scale where 4 represents ‘excellent’, 3 being ‘good’, 2 being ‘fair’ and 1 being ‘needs improvement’. The median average for all the workshops was 3.5. There is no doubt that participants valued the knowledge of the presenters and what they gained as participants. The participants also gave 3.8 scores for the usefulness of the content, which NPOwer considers one of the most important criteria for successful workshops.
According to 4C Board President Leonaris Lloyd, “We appreciate the tremendous time and effort that the presenters have displayed not only in facilitating the workshops, but also in the preparation of engaging content that will in the end strengthen the technical and social cores of our NPOs to enhance their self-sustainability.”
The workshops hosted in the first round were: Project Management, presented by Rolf Hunink and Steve Duzanson, Google Drive and Google Photos by Sergio Blomont, Gantt Charts presented by Nelly Blaise, Grant Writing by Margot Mesnard, Making short movies presented by Julia Grigg, Google Mail-Calendar-Docs by Sergio Blomont, Budgeting by Sjaoel Richardson and Emilio Kalmera, CANVA for Beginners presented by Laura Bijnsdorp, Writing Reports by Margot Mesnard, Facebook for Beginners presented by Brianna Barrie and Ana Wout and The value of securing your intellectual property by Director of Bureau For Intellectual Property Sint Maarten (BIP) Vincentia Rosen-Sandiford.
“One of the amazing spinoff effects of these workshops is the fact that NPOwer’s motto of ‘Where St. Maarten’s NPOs Connect’ rings through as we see more and more of our NPOs start to connect and collaborate. We see that the networking possibilities and capacity building provided by these workshops are facilitating positive connections that are worth fostering and will further enhance the services these NPOs provide to our community individually and together with each other.” said Lloyd.
The second round of workshops will be held later this year, from September to November. There will be an additional 30 hours of workshops covering topics such as accounting, stakeholder and community engagement, graphic design, PR and Communication, CANVA 2 and more. Interested persons and organisations can find more information and register via npowersxm.com and NPOwer’s Facebook page: NPOwersxm.
