Day 373: LNK 2012 - Leaders Forum

One part of our Linggo Ng Kabataan 2012 Celebration is the Leader’s Forum.

Why the need?

Yes, it is not required for every Sangguniang Kabataan to have a Leader’s Forum but we deemed it necessary in our barangay to further invite our young people to participative governance.

Furthermore, we in ourselves know that our barangay is huge. This barangay consists of more than 95,000 people. Granted, the young population today exceeds that of the adults. Therefore, not involving them to inputs and plan of actions will ultimately affect them disadvantageously.

Is it a success?

Leader's Forum at Fatima High School Audio-Visual Room last December 14, 2012.

Yes.

Problemo: Attendance has always been a struggle in these sort of formal head-on meetings; some physical activities even face the same. Assuring service of food has not done the trick.

No Problemo: What else can be done but to carry on. Right?

Moving on. Even of the low attendance, the representation is considerably good. We have representatives from the students and student’s organizations; Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and People Organizations (POs); the barangay fund-assisted young people, barangay scholar as we usually call them; and the Purok Sangguniang Kabataan (PSK), or technically the Katipunan ng Kabataan (KK).

With this force, our will to carry on with the program was boosted. We are not even disappointed with the results, not at all!

Discussions and Resolutions

The program started late as we have considered individuals and organizations to might come and take part. Should we have waited for them any longer, the forum would simply be a plain waste. So we continued.

In the forum we first re-introduced the composition of the Sangguniang Kabataan, and the Kagawads’ Committees and achievements on those respective assignments. Also, we reported an overview of our budget this year; it’s composition, appropriation, and expenditures.

Then we proceed to the forum proper. I led the discussion through an assessment from the view of our constituents. I made them remember the best program they can think of that the SK had done in 2012, and the worst one they hated most. Their responses have been our springboard to what our aim in this forum will be.

As we continue, we invited them to suggest and decide what the focus of the SK for the next year is so we may start realign programs that would cause the desired effect.

All the sectors involved took part and had their share on the forum. With regulation to the influx of ideas, the participants identified three major focuses for the next year, or even the years after next. They are the focuses on: Children Welfare, Anti-Drug Abuse and Security, and the Environment, in that order.

As you can see the forum was far from orchestration but the major focuses raised by the young people are aligned to the Millennium Development Goals, which is due on 2015.

We further conceptualized the programs they desire to implement on those areas. But we have not fully structured them because of time constraints. However, the points raised and affirmed in this forum will provide the “Whereases “ needed by the Kagawad/s on that specific Committee. The resolutions that may be produced can bring these requests to its realization.

Any more words?

Gladly, the participants of the forum were thrilled to help and know that they will form part of the implementing body of the programs drafted in the forum.

True, the picture shows there’s not much participation compared to the whole of our constituents, but I, in behalf of the SK, can say that even with such response it helps us keep going.

I'll  update this post with other pictures we've taken on the forum.