This past week the entire Red de Sobrevivientes staff and board of directors gathered for three days to review and finalize the 2010 Annual Plan and the Strategic Plan for the next five years. Sounds exciting, right? Well, what if I were to mention that the annual retreat was held at a great little place on the coast? It was the perfect balance between work and fun. Something Salvadorans have mastered. Meetings were held the majority of the day and provided a space for open dialogue and honest feedback. It’s a rare moment when the entire staff and the board of directors have the opportunity to sit in the same room together, let alone for three days. Because the Network is newly independent, they are still finding their balance and learning to stand on their own. Ahmed Martinez, from the Survivor Corps office in DC, was able to join the group for the first two days of meetings. His presence was definitely appreciated as his opinion and guidance are greatly respected by the team. With hopes of expanding their services to include a wider array of persons with disabilities (other than amputees), there was a lot of discussion about how to expand services while not losing the foundations of the peer support methodology. The outreach workers, because they are the ones in the field everyday working side-by-side with survivors, had a powerful voice. It was great to see that through all the discussions about budgets, policies, proposed projects and programming outputs, no one sitting around the table lost sight of why they were there…for the survivors and the persons with disabilities that need their support.

This past week the entire Red de Sobrevivientes staff and board of directors gathered for three days to review and finalize the 2010 Annual Plan and the Strategic Plan for the next five years. Sounds exciting, right? Well, what if I were to mention that the annual retreat was held at a great little place on the coast? It was the perfect balance between work and fun. Something Salvadorans have mastered. Meetings were held the majority of the day and provided a space for open dialogue and honest feedback. It’s a rare moment when the entire staff and the board of directors have the opportunity to sit in the same room together, let alone for three days.

Because the Network is newly independent, they are still finding their balance and learning to stand on their own. Ahmed Martinez, from the Survivor Corps office in DC, was able to join the group for the first two days of meetings. His presence was definitely appreciated as his opinion and guidance are greatly respected by the team.

With hopes of expanding their services to include a wider array of persons with disabilities (other than amputees), there was a lot of discussion about how to expand services while not losing the foundations of the peer support methodology. The outreach workers, because they are the ones in the field everyday working side-by-side with survivors, had a powerful voice. It was great to see that through all the discussions about budgets, policies, proposed projects and programming outputs, no one sitting around the table lost sight of why they were there…for the survivors and the persons with disabilities that need their support.