COMPREHENSIVE PLATFORM

In order to improve SEC my platform focuses on four key goals: ONE: Improving the volunteer experience, TWO: Increasing awareness of SEC and its programs, THREE: Increasing traffic to the SEC office and FOUR: Improving SECs resources. Through a total of twenty three unique proposals outlined below I want to work to ensure that SEC is an organization that students not only know about but can be proud of. If elected as External Education Coordinator of SEC I will work to:

ONE. IMPROVE THE VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE BY:

1. Hosting cost effective but entertaining socials like the examples listed below: NIGHTCRAWL / BONFIRE
This is an event Ive had a lot of success hosting in the past. The idea is quite simply to coordinate a trip down to Erindale Park at night through the nature trail where you have a mini-bonfire and marshmallows waiting. This event gives volunteers an opportunity to interact and get to know each other without the trouble of an expensive trip off campus. Not only is it cost effective its a lot of fun.

SEC SLUMBER PARTY

Going along with a winter break / Christmas theme this is also an event Ive had a lot of success hosting in the past. The idea is SEC would decorate the old daycare room with a variety of seasonal decorations (snowflakes, gingerbread men... maybe a mini-Christmas tree) then invite volunteers to show up in PJs for a mini-SEC Slumber Party. The theme makes it easy to incorporate bonding activities that will make it easy for volunteers to get to know each other and we can also serve hot chocolate and other seasonal treats! In the past weve also watched a movie and served popcorn at this kind of event.

KARAOKE NIGHT
At Young Street or another venue. Rather than rely on the blind duck pub for the final social, explore other venues that have the potential to be more cost effective. In order to serve alcohol at a pub event Shane requires you to have kitchen staff and security on hand which arent cheap, his contact for Karaoke costs over $200, and having the pub cater an event isnt cheap. In the past Ive been involved with hosting volunteer appreciation events at venues like Young Street (formerly Oasis) which while they arent perfect present much more cost effective alternatives. With a nicer overall atmosphere and in my opinion better food, they are worth looking into.

2. Purchasing SEC t-shirts as part of a volunteer appreciation and overall SEC awareness program. Purchasing SEC t-shirts for volunteers provides us with an opportunity not only to show our appreciation for our volunteers but also to promote and raise awareness of SEC. By having t-shirts our volunteers can wear when tabling or interacting with students, SEC establishes a recognizable brand that will draw in some much needed new attention. These t-shirts are also re-usable year after year so for a small initial investment of $5-10 per shirt it really is worth it. SEC downtown, OUT@UTM and PHE

are all great examples of groups that use t-shirts to promote themselves and appreciate volunteers. 3. Bringing back the wall of volunteer photos in the office as a way to promote volunteer community. In the past SEC included a collage of photos of current volunteers in the office and I think this initiative is worth being brought back. For relatively little effort having photos of current volunteers in the office helps volunteers to recognize each other and reminds them that they are a big part of our office. 4. Improving volunteer training and skill development through the implementation of optional booster trainings and through the use of my networks to attract skilled facilitators for these trainings. Booster trainings would be once a month bonus training sessions that cover a topic of interest to volunteers and the public in place of the current workshops hosted by SEC. The idea would be to attract skilled facilitators to host or host workshops ourselves on topics not covered in training but that relate to SEC and its mandate. An example of this type of workshop would be a How to listen: Introduction to the basic listening sequence workshop facilitated by a staff member from a support line like Youth Line or a Strategies for Communicating through Conflict Workshop facilitated by a conflict resolution training service like Peace. Through my years of working with not for profit and student groups I have an immense list of qualified contacts to host these kinds of workshops and I would love to put them to use. Other examples of boosters we could host include but are not limited to: Faith, Religion and Sexuality: Understanding and respecting religious perspectives on relationships. Potentially facilitated by my friend who is an Ecumenical Chaplain at U of T and United Church of Canada Minister. Sensational Oral and Anal Sex facilitated by Carlyle Jansen. Challenging Misconceptions of HIV & AIDS facilitated by the Peel HIV / AIDS Network or the Planned Parenthood Positive Youth Power Project. Kink 101 facilitated by Andrea Zanin. Anti-Oppression training or Self-Care training that could be facilitated internally. Much more!

Ultimately I feel these workshops would help facilitate volunteer skill development and also interest members of the public in a way previous workshops havent. By offering them as booster trainings we establish a built in audience of volunteers not just from SEC, but also the Womens Center, OUT@UTM, and PHE to ensure these workshops always have attendance, something current workshops dont. 5. Bringing back and overhauling the volunteer manual so volunteers have easy access to information that will help them support students. In the past SEC had a volunteer manual that complemented volunteer training, this year Ive been told this manual was not used because it was out-of-date. Using my contacts with various social service agencies I would like to bring back and overhaul the volunteer manual so that our volunteers have easy access to the information covered during training and additional information that would help them address student concerns. 6. Creating a quick referral guide that will help volunteers refer students to appropriate services based on their problems. Ever wanted to know where you could send students who had mental health concerns? Concerns about gender identity? Sexual Orientation? Birth control? STI Testing? I want to create a simple quick referral guide that lists suggested organizations to refer students to based on the problem theyve come forward with. This simple document which could be kept easily accessible in the office would help volunteers make effective referrals. 7. Focusing on training volunteers in the peer support method of counseling, which will help volunteers to provide effective support, information and referrals. This model of counseling is widely used by a variety of social service agencies and phone lines where the service providers are not trained professionals. It focuses on recognizing the limitations and strengths of peer counselors encouraging volunteers to provide support in one of three ways: 1. By providing emotional support through basic listening (including open questions, paraphrasing, reflection, summary, normalizing and general empathy).

2. By directly providing the service users with information about their problem e.g. risks associated with particular sexual practice or effectiveness of different methods of birth control. 3. By providing referrals to more appropriate services.

8. Hosting minimum one general meeting per semester to give volunteers and members of the UTM community a say in how SEC is run. I want to do more then tell you what I think you want, I want to ask you what you want, which is why Im proposing the implementation of general meetings which will give all members of SEC regardless of their status as executives input into how SEC is run, what events we hold, what workshops, what socials etc. 9. Utilizing agendas and other guiding documents to ensure meetings are productive and assigned tasks are always completed so that SEC is always an organization that volunteers can be proud of. In my past experience running student organizations Ive developed a method for creating agendas and other guiding documents so that meetings are productive and executives fulfill their duties to the organization. I would like to bring these to SEC to ensure SEC stays an organization that volunteers can be proud of.

TWO. INCREASE AWARENESS OF SEC AND ITS PROGRAMS BY:

1. Building up a mailing list during orientation and clubs week. By simply offering students an opportunity to sign up to receive more information about SEC and its events at orientation and clubs week SEC will be able to drastically increase its ability to promote events and volunteer opportunities. Currently SEC only hands out volunteer applications at these events. 2. Hosting collaborative events and building strong relationships with other campus groups as a way to raise our profile with their membership. Hosting collaborative events is one of the best ways to get your name out because you engage their membership as well as your own. Done right they enable you to share resources and split the costs for events in a way that works for both groups. In the past Ive successfully collaborated and worked with

UTMSU, UTSU, OUT@UTM, Peer Health Ed., CFRE, The Medium, UTM Student Life, Bike Share, UTERN, UCS and the list goes on. Id like to bring this spirit of collaboration to SEC to forge effective partnerships that will raise our profile and improve our events. 3. Creating a pamphlet for SEC that details our services and can be given to referring groups. In order to increase traffic to the SEC office, I want to create a pamphlet which can be given to students that might benefit from SECs services by referring groups such as PHE, OUT@UTM, RLS and the HCC that details our services, what students might be interested in coming in for and how we can serve them. The pamphlets would be similar to those that already exist for the HCC and Campus Police. 4. Ensuring SECs tables always have interactive components that will attract students, such as games, quizzes or Petey the SEC penis. In order to draw in students, Id like to work to ensure that not only does SEC table for events, but that they include an interactive component like a quiz or game to draw students to these tables. Two students sitting behind a table with a cash box simply just wont cut it anymore! 5. Working to ensure SEC volunteers actually leave the SEC office to interact with students e.g. through tabling and doing class speaks. This is pretty self explanatory but in order to pull it off I want to work to ensure SEC recruits enough volunteers to do external tabling and that sincere efforts are made to ensure all events are promoted. Class speaks and writing on blackboards are simple ways to engage students as is just walking around handing out flyers. 6. Creating a video promotion with UTMTV. UTM TV has video equipment and skills to create promotional videos for student groups. In the past theyve volunteered to create these promotions for free and I think this is too good an opportunity to pass up. A simple video promoting SEC and explaining what we do could be used for years to come!

7. Improving the utilization of social media. While SEC has both a facebook and twitter I feel these could be used more effectively. Events could be created sooner and messages could be sent out through them. The group could also be used to create a community through the posting of interesting articles related to SEC the way SEC downtown and OUT@UTM have created a community. 8. Using the student center newsletter and other existing mailing lists to reach students. The student center newsletter reaches over 9,000 students and all it takes to send a message through it is a message to Arsalan the student center manager. This is one simple way SEC can drastically increase awareness of its events without any real drawbacks. 9. Ensuring SEC is visible in campus media like The Medium. By simply taking the time to fill out coverage request forms we can ensure SEC is covered by The Medium and events like Health Day dont go unreported. When I was Executive Director of OUT@UTM issues related to our club were covered in twelve out of seventeen issues that year.

THREE. INCREASE TRAFFIC TO THE SEC OFFICE BY: 1. Promoting less intimidating ways of interacting with our service. i.e. through our phone line or email. Physically entering the SEC office can be quite intimidating for students so I want to promote alternative less intimidating ways of interacting with SEC such as the existing phone line or email. Both of which I feel could be promoted more to students. 2. Increasing general awareness of SEC through the means listed above, which will in turn also increase traffic to the office. 3. Hosting a social research survey to determine why students arent using the service and what they would like to see from SEC. Im a big believer in asking students what they want instead of assuming I know, so Id like to propose doing a social research survey to ask students what they want to see from SEC and what if anything is interfering with them using the service so we can address any issues that may be present. The survey could be sent out through the student center news letter and integrated into the two social research method classes at UTM.

FOUR. IMPROVE SEC RESOURCES BY

1. Creating a sponsorship package for SEC which properly utilized will allow us to obtain new books, new sex toys and other materials. In virtue of our website, frosh inserts, cornucopia of posters and massive events like Sex pub, SEC has a lot of potential to attract sponsors and in kind donations like books and sex toys. Through my experience as a student leader Ive successfully collected over $10,000 worth of grants and in kind donations for the student organizations Ive run and Id love to bring these skills to SEC to improve our resources (without hurting our pocket book). 2. Improving the volunteer manual and creating a quick referral guide as explained in the improving the volunteer experience section. 3. Investigating the feasibility of introducing a liaison from the HCC to SEC as a way to improve resource sharing. A non-voting ex-officio HCC liaison would help provide institutional memory to the organization which would in turn improve transitioning. Furthermore it would help create dialogue between SEC and the HCC to ensure optimum resource sharing and prevent wasted energy on the duplication of resources. 4. I want to make a limited supply of SEC brand condom packages available directly outside the office so students can access them outside office hours and without having to enter the office. By making a limited supply of SEC branded condom packages available outside of the office i.e. through a shelf on the door we can improve student access to these resources and at the same time gain exposure of SEC in virtue of the fact the condoms contain our name and information about our organization. Forcing students to walk into our office to reach for condoms adds an additional barrier I feel is worth reviewing.