Volunteerism

Nevara's visionary leader has been studying entrepreneurship for 15 years, with 14 years in higher education, focused on how to maximize impact. In the 4th year of his PhD, he is doing action research - bringing together all his insight in recruiting passionate interns to join Nevara, in additional to preparing a new class called Impact Assessment.

While much of the efforts recruited to improve quality, efficiency and sustainability is done out of goodwill and passionate students volunteering their time - Nevara has reached a bottleneck caused by financial constraints.

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Brazil is a country of toothless individuals. Research indicates that half of the Brazilian population does not have a mouth full of teeth, and a third of adolescents in public schools have never been to the dentist. In the rest of the world, the problem is not much different. To make things worse, the general population's access to dental kits (toothbrush, toothpaste, and dental floss), which is the only tool that prevents oral damage, is very limited (the absence of these items in public health clinics and in the “basic food basket” is proof of this). Beyond that, society still does not view access to oral health as a medical right, but rather as a luxury. On the other hand, the government does not offer any sort of viable program, and the dentists in general do not see themselves as agents of health and social transformation.

The project Dentists for Good manages a network of volunteer dentists who provide services to youth in need from ages 11 to 17 who have serious dental conditions. All of the treatment support and followup—selection, referral, monitoring of monthly treatments, and conclusion—is done at the project's office. The project has three main base groups: volunteer dentists (who see one or more youths in their own offices, at their own discretion); beneficiaries (who are treated by the dentists and selected through screenings in public schools and institutions); and lastly, regional coordinators. These are also volunteers and dentists, but their mission is to stimulate the project in their cities by hosting screenings and recruiting new volunteer dentists.

Our vision is to help create a world where everyone can smile, and our mission is to change society's perception of both oral health and the dental profession in relation to its socio-environmental impact. Our goal is to offer solutions for accessing dental care while stressing healing, prevention, and education. Our proposals:
For society: to promote solutions for access to dental care
For the dental profession: To empower and mobilize dental professionals to adopt new socio-environmental conduct.
For the business sector: To discuss ethical practices in dentistry. To incentivize low-cost products and services in order to promote access. To inspire responsible conduct in other sectors.
For government: To influence and change policies.

Through the recovery of oral health, we seek the following for our patients:
-Increase in quality of life
-Ease of entry into the job market, given that companies either discriminate against or do not hire those without teeth. And, consequently, an increase in monthly household income.
-Rescue of social and family life, due to the fact that almost all new beneficiaries have suffered bullying and social discrimination at school and in their social circles.

Young people from 11 to 17 years old who attend public school or use public institutions, who are in need, and who present with serious oral conditions. The choice of this public is because the social impact of serious dental damage is much larger in adolescents than in adults (social environment, employability, bullying, etc.), and also because dentition is already formed (in comparison to children).

Screenings in public schools and social institutions. The volunteer coordinator, along with a director or social worker, reserves a time for screening registered students. The volunteer coordinator conducts a visual, non-invasive exam of all the youths and fills out a record form called IHC. This record also shows the social condition of the screened individual. Next, the coordinator sends all of the IHC records to the organization headquarters, where candidates are selected based on 3 criteria: the oldest (who are the closest to employment), the poorest, and those who have the worst oral damage.

Through its network of volunteers, Dentists for Good offers free dental treatment to youths from 11 years old on until they reach 18. Or rather, once in the project, youths only exit once they have reached the age of legal majority and received all of the necessary treatment, including orthodontic.
Smiles for Good – a training seminar for volunteer coordinators, an 4-day event that, in addition to training new coordinators, is geared towards motivating, aligning, and training existing network coordinators. In 2012, the event hosted 400 coordinators from 12 countries.
Smiles for Good Awards: an awards event, open to the public, which has the goal of recognizing the work of the best volunteers in our network. In 2012, the awards event hosted 1800 guests in the Abril Theater.

The Abrinq Foundation runs the Adotei um Sorriso (Adopt a Smile) project, but in contrast to Dentists for Good, this project has no criteria for selecting beneficiaries. In general, dentists and clinics end up providing some kind of free or voluntary service on some level to those in need. The problem is that the people, including dental professionals, who participate in these one-off events believe that the dental and social problems have been solved, which is far from true. Another problem is that oftentimes, because of these services, public schools close their doors to our volunteer coordinators; the school's directors, who have the final say, do not let our project come to the school because they believe that there is no longer a problem in their area.

Right now the project is 90% funded by supporters (companies). In the medium term, the project relies on a strategy that reverses this percentage and comes to depend less on private social investment. One of the strategies is the creation of a reserve fund by selling dental products, whose returns will be reverted back to the project. Another challenge will be bringing the project to rural regions that do not have dentists. Right now, the Dentists for Good model is essentially urban. Therefore, we have been studying implementation and have designed a few projects in areas that are far from urban centers, in Brazil as well as on the African continent.

To increase the number of volunteers, beneficiaries, and regions and countries where the project operates. Diversification of donations and of the organization's resources. Project implementation in rural, distant areas where there are no dentists, such as the African continent.

The project's strategic design and solid organization. A team of highly capable employees. The implementation of new strategies this year: screening megaevents open to the entire Brazilian public, the sale of products whose financial yields are used for the project, and mini training sessions for new coordinators.

An increase in volunteers and beneficiaries and expansion into new regions and countries. Moreover, the diversification of donations and partnerships.

The project has an annual beneficiaries goal. By 2015 we want to have sixty-five thousand patients and thirty thousand dentists.
In order to reach this goal, we need to implement the weekend training events throughout the year, bringing on new coordinators.

By spreading the word of my venture throughout the State in order to prepare for a longer more difficult phase in which I will expand my venture nationally

By gaining recognition on a national level as an organization that positively effects communities around the nation

I will measure success not by the amount of money I raise towards my cause, but by the amount of people which my venture affects. Although it is only aimed towards helping children with Autism, I believe that my venture will allow communities around the nation to come together in order to fight for a common cause.

Patient leaders have a valuable role to play in tackling the problems facing health and social care at a national and local level, but we need to improve the development of and access to learning opportunities in order to grow this pool of talent, Amidst chaos of reform and unprecedented challenges to improving health, the biggest asset we have - people who live with health problems and use services - remains untapped. Instead, patients are a problem to be solved, not the solution. Meanwhile, patient and public engagement has been co-opted by institutional interests as a buffer against change, rather than as a co-production engine for it. We need a new generation of 'unusual suspects' who can act strategically to help tackle crises in health and social care

Patient leadership is:
Rooted in self-leadership - patients learning about themselves to steer their own life.
A work in progress - good leaders develop through continuous learning
Dependent on context - involves a complex mixture of interdependent behaviours

Our learning approaches incorporate:
Co-design and co-delivery
More than ‘chalk and talk’ - We use highly interactive methods
Working with what happens in the room - Leaders learn from practicing and reflecting on how they behave
Acting into a new way of thinking - We help people to construct meaning and knowledge from experiences by practicing on their ‘live’ issues
Working with others – integrating dialogue and inquiry
Process skills of leadership - skills of relationship-building and influencing

We provide patient leaders - patients, service users and carers who influence change with:
Learning and Support - a variety of face to face offers and facilitated e-learning
Network and Community of Practice - Patient Leaders become Members of The Centre for Patient Leadership
Ongoing support to take next steps

We provide healthcare organisations with support based on co-production principles to foster patient leadership

Equipped with the capability to influence change, PLs will help shift power relationships underpinning healthcare to a truly patient-centred model. This will transform:
Patient experiences and outcomes (responsiveness)
Quality of decision-making (transparency, governance and accountability)
Trust and confidence
Financial viability of healthcare systems

We are in a unique position with regards to the UK and international market, as
Thought-leaders (around the policy and practice of patient leadership)
Pioneers in providing learning and support to a new generation of health leaders able to shift the very fabric of how health and healthcare is delivered.
Offering constructive and sustainable solutions to healthcare organisations in the current economic climate

Our customers are two-fold:
1. Health and healthcare organisations (customers) - local, regional, national, international - these organisations resource individual beneficiaries (patient leaders) who are:
2. Patients, service users and carers (direct beneficiaries)

We have run learning programmes for organisations at national, regional and local level (e.g. NHS Commissioning Board, now NHS England; NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement; Midlands and East Strategic Health Authority; National Voice - the umbrella organisation for the health voluntary sector; various commissioning organisations and provider trusts). We have undertaken a variety of programmes, ranging from one day workshops to five month programmes (with coaching) to over 500 patient leaders.

We have marketed progammes to commissioners, providers & national agencies. Given the shifting policy environment, our marketing strategy will segment in the following ways, towards:
1. National agencies (in service development, research, third sector) - these will also help ceate the environment for patient leadership
2. Commissioners of health and social care
3. Providers (acute hospital trusts, community and primary care providers)
4. Condition-related organisations/initiatives (eg. building on recent success in renal field) & moving towards focus on long term conditions
5. Locality and regionally based work (building on recent successful programmes in the Midlands)

Each of the above require bespoke business cases that focus on relevant incentives (e.g. safety for hospitals)

We provide
Learning and support for Patient Leaders
Networks and communities of practice;
Information, advice and support for Patient Leaders

For organisations:
We provide organisational development support that fosters the cultures and systems for patient leadership (NB. We have just produced the first Guide for NHS organisation to foster patient leadership - see 'resources' section on our website)

We also undertake research and policy with partners that will help create the wider cultures and systems and enviornment for patient leadership

We are unique thus far. National professionally-led training organisations are beginning to take an interest in patient leadership, but don't (and may never) truly understand the model; Patient-led & Third Sector organisations are at an early stage of being able to deliver training programmes and these are based on very different learning models to those we believe in and offer.

There is a window of opportunity (3-5 yrs) to create a social movement for patient leadership before an idea like this is 'captured' by mainstream organisations and distorted to fit institutional needs and the status quo. In this time, In this time, our work needs to support & develop a critical mass of patient leaders who share the values and have the skills necessary to radically shift the face of healthcare

The current policy and practice environment is volatile and organisations do not yet recognise the value of patient leadership - and may not want it if they truly understood it! On the other hand, the steep rise in demand demonstrates that another set of players want us to step up to the mark. To overcome this paradoxical state of affairs, we need to:
Hone and articulating the vision - communicate the business case to all stakeholders
Build capacity for delivery at scale and pace
Refine the operating and business model
Clarify roles & responsibilities;
Move to mixed investment strategy
Ensure quality
Beware of mission creep (eg other areas of citizen/lay leadership)
Stick to our values
Develop range of accessible learning offers/curriculum (incl. facilitated e-learning)

These phases are largely being run in parallel:
Phase One: Market Research & marketing strategy based on refined assessment of current landscape and potential funders (including assessment of investment and philanthropic options)
Phase Two: Building infrastructure, operating model and capacity for delivery at scale;
Phase Three: Developing the offer (to patient leaders, organisations)

We have significant interest in our work from organisations & Patient Leaders themselves; hugely positive feedback from programmes (500 'alumni') Recent experience of delivery at scale and pace; Proof of concept of operational and delivery model (incl train the trainers; online network; virtual learning environment); high profile (e.g. articles and network interest)

In the next 3-5 years, we aim to grow from £100k/yr turnover to £1-2m/year (yr 2) and double that by year 5. This will depend on developing 'Patient Leaders' as the 'go to' place for an expanding range of learning programmes and establishing the Centre for Patient Leadership as a non-profit making research & policy organisation.

Short term (1-2 yrs): £500,000 turnover, six new learning programmes (300 alumni); development of online network; six new core associates; Establishment of operational model to deliver at scale and pace (with financial director on board at least p/t and project manager f/t)
Medium Term (3-5 rs): £1-2m turnover, 40 programmes, expansion of offers; Thriving membership of community; UK-wide delivery;

NB. There will be a general election in 2015 and this will inevitably lead to shifts in policy and practice. We will need to adapt our work and growth plans for these circumstances.

We are trying to increase awareness of women on health, exercise, and many kinds of women issues by providing them places where they can exercise and socialize and by providing them to start up their own business.

We offer women; accessible solution to avoid and heal their health problems for affordable prices.

- to take the business to Middle Eastern countries.
- to provide more free services to women in need.
- to start new women schools to educate more illeterate women

We would like experience more and more women of healthy life. So that, new generations will become more knowledgable and health. We will be able to decrease the level of illnesses.

Any women from 13 - 81 years old are our customers.

We have 218 branches all over Turkey and we grow by selling franchisees to only women. As the chain enlarges, our member numbers increase.

We sell sports membership to only women for affordable prices so that we can reach and more and more women everyday.

We make alliences with many institutions such as hospitals. So that we can continue their patient's healing process in our bfit centers.
We have 4 main competitors in the market. They follow all the strategies applied in bfit and open their clubs just next to our branches. However, competitor's strategy allows members to try both clubs and make the final selection on our clubs.

Management is one the main issue for our organization. As we have 218 franchisees, they are all expected to serve the same service and quality. However, this is mostly impossible. We have our own auditing system to monitor and evaluate all the branches once in a year.

Our success has been proven by many awards. As mentioned before, we, now, aim to enlarge the business by entering international markets.
To achieve this aim, we are looking for new people or organizations that can invest on our business.

We consider ourselves ready for growth, as we monitor the success and positive change on the women that we could reach.
All we need for growing; is to find new sources for the business.

The investor has to fully understand our company mission in order to provide the same service and quality in different markets.

We have been increasing the number of our branches at ther moment in the domestic market. The big plan - investing on Middle Eastern market - is a mid-term plan. We made and continue our market research for that market.

In the initial months of its operation, MAGIC will define success through the promotion of a new, unique approach to education. Through the creation of technological platforms, MAGIC has, in essence, “socialized” peer tutoring by incorporating organizational programs into prominent teenage trends (such as: the Internet and iPhone Android Application Store) in the modern society. The utilization of these technological platforms by students of all ages, ethnicities, and genders, is MAGIC’s fundamental measure of organizational triumph.

An additional measure of success MAGIC will endorse is the vast social networking associated with the matchmaking process of academically struggling students with qualified, organizational scholars. MAGIC’s academic help sessions will revolve around an individualistic approach to peer tutoring. During a scheduled tutoring session, MAGIC staff members will wholeheartedly strive to address their particular student’s difficulties. Supplementary to a particular student’s academic growth through MAGIC’s programs is the fostering of an environment conducive to social interaction. By means of scheduled peer tutoring sessions, struggling students will receive the opportunity to expand their social network via sustainable, personable relationships with MAGIC staff members.

Finally, MAGIC will chronicle the key components to its matchmaking formula used to provide struggling students with academic assistance in the organization’s evaluation of success. MAGIC’s technological platforms will utilize a formula to match struggling students with qualified, organizational scholars that encompasses the following:
1) Select the Specific Academic Subject with which You Are Struggling
2) Select Your State of Residence
3) Select Your City of Residence
4) Select the Academic Institution You Attend
5) ***(Enter In Your School Specific Student ID Number for Verification and Safety Purpose. This ID Number Will Ensure that the Students Utilizing MAGIC’s Technological Platforms Are Who They Say They Are.)
6) Check the Following Boxes of the Days of the Week You Find Most Convenient for Tutoring
7) Click the “See The MAGIC” Button and You Will Be Presented with a List of Organizational, Scholars that Best Match the Specific Credentials You Selected. ***(If You Have Verified Successfully Your School Specific Student ID Number You Will Be Transferred to a Page with a List of Tutors that Can Provide You with Academic Assistance.)

Students in need of assistance will be presented with the contact information of organizational scholars who they can contact by email, text, phone call, or either platform’s database inquiry feature (where the tutor receives notification he or she has been requested for help through his or her account on either of MAGIC’s platforms). If MAGIC’s technological platforms are unable to provide students with sufficient assistance, contact information of MAGIC’s “Executive Board of Directors” will be presented to the students, which they can utilize to inquire about other means of receiving academic help. (Students can contact any of MAGIC’s “Executive Board of Directors” by email, text, phone call, or either platform’s database inquiry feature (where the specific Board Member receives notification he or she has been requested for help through his or her account on either of MAGIC’s platforms). By means of these available options for academic assistance, MAGIC will address the academic needs of all struggling students, regardless of age, ethnicity, or gender, (if these students wish to receive help). The ultimate measure of success for MAGIC, after one full year of operation, is the effectiveness of matching struggling students with organizational scholars who can provide help to the students at a date, time, and place convenient for both parties. If MAGIC’s matchmaking formula is successful, students will no longer be experiencing academic difficulty and, by choosing to participate in MAGIC, have placed themselves in an environment conducive to academic, social, and personal growth.

(Let it be clarified that when MAGIC refers to a "qualified, organizational scholar" it is referring to students that have shown extraordinary academic achievement in specific (or multiple) subject area (or areas), which has qualified them to provide academic assistance. The academic achievement of these students has been documented through School Specific Report Cards, AP Exam Scores, SAT/ACT Exam Scores, and SAT Subject Test Scores.)

MAGIC will view the progression of its continued expansion to educational institutions outside Collier County as a guideline for its definition of long-term success. After establishing an effectual tutoring base in Collier County, MAGIC will look towards impacting educational districts across the state of Florida and, eventually, the nation. MAGIC has developed a plan for its expansion that constitutes of the following procedures:
1) Select an Area for Expansion (Specifically State, City, County, Specific School or Educational Institution)
2) Present MAGIC’s Programs and Empirical Data and Analyses to Administrators and Faculty of Selected School or Educational Institution
3) Incorporate MAGIC’s Programs through the Presentation of MAGIC’s Technological Platforms to the Student Body of the Selected School or Educational Institution
4) Deal with Logistical Matters of Establishing MAGIC’s Technological Platforms (With Regard to Verifying Student Identities via School Specific Student ID Numbers and Promoting the Website and iPhone/Android Application within the Selected School or Educational Institution)
5) Amalgamate Students in Need of Academic Assistance and Scholarly Students Willing to Provide Academic Help
6) Begin the Matchmaking Process and Administer Further Supervision of Organizational Activity (at that Specific School or Educational Institution) to MAGIC “Regional Directors” from the Selected Area

Following these steps, MAGIC will continue its expansion outside of Collier County and spread the effectiveness of its unique, individualistic approach to peer tutoring. By the end of a year’s worth of operation, MAGIC will possess a myriad of statistical analyses and data illustrating the academic achievement of multiple students (and, eventually, entire educational institutions) before and after their participation in MAGIC’s programs. Through the utilization of this empirical data, MAGIC will prove the positive impact it has had on the educational world and be granted continued permission to further advance its operations. Academically struggling students across the nation will have their educational troubles resolved by MAGIC’s arsenal of tutors. The address of these students’ academic needs is what MAGIC defines as triumph. Through MAGIC, the youth will become more educated and academically motivated to achieve scholastically and occupationally in the real world.

Personally, I will measure the success of my social entrepreneurial venture, MAGIC, through the positive impact its programs have on academically struggling students. Through the work of MAGIC’s technological platforms and MAGIC’s “Executive Board of Directors”, students experiencing academic difficulties will be matched with a qualified, organizational scholar who can provide them with help. The matchmaking formula MAGIC utilizes to most efficiently provide academic assistance will be integral in my definition of MAGIC’s success. The success of the peer tutoring academic assistance sessions that will follow the formula’s employment delineates the level of MAGIC’s effectiveness from an organizational standpoint. From these peer tutoring sessions, individual students will have the opportunity to learn from peers who understand the educational material at hand extraordinarily well. I, as the founder of this organization, will check in with tutors and students every once in a while to offer my gratitude for their participation and inquiry regarding the effectiveness of my organization’s programs. Students who have improved academically and enjoyed educational success upon their participation in MAGIC, will be considered “testaments” to the organization’s triumph. These testaments will account for how MAGIC’s programs impacted an individual student’s life, and the unique way in which the organization operates. In the future, MAGIC will also have empirical data and analyses illustrating the academic achievement of multiple students (and, eventually, entire educational institutions) before and after their participation in MAGIC’s programs.