Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Afternoon session of the Council Meeting: Social Projects Survey Results


From left second one is Br. Jim.....
Report to the General Council on the Social Projects Database

This afternoon we had video conferencing with Br. Jim, an american friar from New York but now working in latin America. He is the member of the JPIC commission. Through the video conferencing he shared with us how they went about collecting database. The also shared about the various responses from the conferences of the Capuchin world.  Minister br. Mauro Jöhri asked the commission to take on the task of creating a database of all the social projects in which the order and the friars are involved throughout the world. The commission was informed that the database was necessary for a number of reasons: that it would be useful for the purposes of knowing in what social engagements the friars have been involved throughout the world; that reliable data about our social projects is necessary in order to connect the various social projects of the friars to outside funders; and that since many of our friars are serving in areas where the Catholic population is a minority, supporting the friars’ social projects could be a viable means of supporting the life and mission of the order in those parts of the world.

The commission was given a short timeline for the task, with a request that the database be completed by September 2014. For this reason, it was decided that the only way the data could be collected in a sufficiently timely fashion was to utilize an online survey tool. Based on the experience of various circumscriptions, SurveyMonkey was selected as the means to carry out the survey. The survey was designed as a joint effort among the commission members, coordinated by br. James Donegan as the technical designer of the online instrument. After settling on a survey format, the survey was then translated from its original version in English into Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Polish, and German. The survey was then sent to the friars-at-large, with an electronic correspondence requesting responses from those responsible for all our social projects. Use of the survey tool was opened to all on June 1, 2014 and closed on August 31, 2014. The responses were then translated to English for compilation and analysis.
The translation and compilation of the initial database was completed on October 19, 2014. A brief verbal report was given to br. Mauro at the commission’s meeting following the Damietta Peace Initiative Peace Gathering in Pretoria on October 25, 2014. The commission next began to analyze the survey results, beginning with an examination of the data to eliminate duplicate entries and entries that were not deemed to be actual social projects. Each commission member reported back his impressions by electronic correspondence, and the database was modified accordingly.

At the end of all analysis and editing, the database currently contains ninety (90) entries of social projects throughout the world. While it is clear that this is nothing close to an exhaustive list of all the social projects in the world, the commission submits it as its work product to the General Minister and Council, with recommendations for its continued use, maintenance, and updating.

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