By Mr. Pham Truong Son | Director of NPO Services
On June 27th and 28th, just 45 minutes outside of Ho Chi Minh City, 15 young leaders of nonprofit organizations joined a two-day retreat focusing on "The role of leadership and how leaders can take care of themselves".
The objective of the retreat was to support young leaders that are focused on making a difference in our communities by enhancing their ability to stimulate community engagement and by facilitating peer sharing among organizational leaders and . A special guest speaker was Mr. Yoshitaka Ohara, Founder of Habataku who, in collaboration with Mr. Pham Truong Son, Director of NPO Services at LIN, shared their career paths, the reasons behind choices to work with nonprofit organizations as well as the challenges occuring in their work and and lessons they learned when they were young leaders.
Mr. Pham Thanh Nhon, Founder and Director of 5giosang (a nonprofit partner of LIN since 2009) designed and facilitated the retreat. Through the event, he helped members of LIN's NPO Young Leaders Circle to look at themselves as individuals, explore their strengths and weaknesses and learn how to take care of themsevles as they work to build a stronger community. He also shared with them how to connect and work well as a group.
According to Mr. Son (LIN), "The retreat was an experiment in leadership. Members of the NPO Young Leaders Circle were asked to organize the logistics, find a location for the event, communicate the plan, organize an activity for the whole group, prepare dinner and listen and learn from one another in order to create a harmonious atmosphere."
At the end of the training, the 15 members joined a networking event organized by LIN's Board of Advisors, who invited skilled volunteers and donors from the LIN Community. The event gave the Young Leaders an opportunity to approach and connect with potential supporters. Learning how to build networks is a key objective for the NPO Young Leaders Circle 2015, as the ability to enhance and grow one's network of support is essential to the sustainability of a non-profit organization.
***
Impressions of one member of the NPO Young Leaders Circle 2015:
Ms. Pham Thi Thuy Tien, the youngest member of the group, lives in Ben Tre provice, which is 150 km from Ho Chi Minh City. It took Ms. Thuy Tien 3 hours to travel to the training, by bus. As it was her 1st time to the training location, she faced some difficulties. Fortunately, Ms. Thuy Tien received a lot of help from the members of her team (Note: The Young Nonprofit Leaders Circle 2015 was divided into four teams, each electing to be responsible for one key component of the program).
As Ms. Thuy Tien shared afterwards, “This training model is so inspiring and engaging. Other members in my team helped me so much, they instructed me on how to get there, they shared their ideas and experiences with me. We exchanged so many things over the course of two days...Actually, I learned most about listening skills, how to think twice in real life, especially in realizing, boosting my strength in study, work and life. To live and shared experiences with people who work in the same field is really useful for young people like me. I have learned how to talk with and better understand different people."
When asked about the networking event, Ms. Thuy Tien added, "This was my first experience to network with potential donors, so I was a bit confused at first about what I should do. But, by observing those around me, I was able to calm myself down. I greeted and talked to people that I never met before. I feel like a stronger person."
"Overall, I really liked this two-day training because it was a unique and special first-time experience for me. I learned so much from my peers and even from people working in fields so different from my own. It was great to learn from their hands-on experiences. It made me feel more confident, reflecting on myself and assuring me of the career path I have chosen. I am so looking forward to the next event!”
***
The NPO Young Leaders Circle 2015 includes 15 members from 15 of LIN's Nonprofit Partner Organizations. Among the 15, there are 9 female and 6 male participants ranging in age from 21 to 35 years of age (26 is the average age). The first meeting took place in May, when each member was asked to join one of four small teams responsible for a key component of the program: Communications, Networking, Peer Sharing and Trainings. One LIN staff member is paticipating and one is coordinating the Circle, which will meet at least one time each month from May 2015 until April 2014.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
