Rap App Summary Report Poz Home
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The document provides a summary report of an assessment of the Poz Home Center Foundation conducted over three days in June 2015. The Foundation provides HIV care, support, and prevention services for men who have sex with men and transgender people in Bangkok, Thailand. Key points from the assessment include: - The Foundation has strong governance structures and policies in place to guide its operations. - Staffing levels are sufficient but only six of 12 positions are currently funded. - Financial management systems are robust but financial reports could be made more publicly available. - Current funding relies heavily on one source so diversifying funding is a priority area for growth. - The Foundation has good partnerships within its networks but could strengthen
Rap App Summary Report Poz Home
- 1. 1 Rapid Assessment Apparatus Summary Report The Poz Home Center Foundation 17 July 2015 Introduction History The Poz Home Center Foundation was established in 2005 and is the only community-based organisation, providing HIV care and support services specifically for men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people living in Bangkok, Thailand. It received some pro bono support from the AIDS Project Management Group (an Australian consulting company), Their service provides members with a drop-in center, home visits, telephone support and advice, peer-based one-to-one support and case coordination, group workshops, social gatherings, cultural events and educational programmes. One of the most used services is the Three Hearts Programme, which provides case coordination between the hospital and the home, as well as peer-based programmes for MSM and transgender people (including MSM and transgender sex workers), who are living with HIV. The aim of this programme is to prevent MSM and transgender people living with HIV (PLHIV) from ‘falling through the gaps’ between community and hospital services. This simple yet effective client pathway service provides a good model for incorporating outreach and in-reach services to clinics and hospitals which acknowledge the need for, and create a sense of trust between, the Three Hearts Programme in case coordination with clients, Poz Home staff and volunteers, and external service providers. Over many years, the Poz Home Center has built strong relationships across private, specialist, and government clinics and hospitals, so that PLHIV, and particularly MSM and transgender people affected by HIV, will have access to services without experiencing stigma and discrimination. The Rapid Assessment Apparatus (Rap App) The Rap App is one of the core tools of the JumpStart project, an MSM and transgender networks capacity strengthening initiative, implemented through a partnership between the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) with Australian government funding. The Rap App aims to explore the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation’s core competencies through analysis of 11 key organisational development and program areas, as well as six key affected population engagement sections. This is a summary report of the data collected during a three-day Rap App meeting, held on 10-12 June 2015 at APCOM and AFAO’s office in Bangkok, with members of the Poz Home Center Foundation board and staff. Due to time constraints, we continued running the Technical Plan component of the Rap App and completed the D-Plate on 13 July 2015 at the Poz Home Center Foundation’s office. Powered by: In partnership with:
- 2. 2 In general, this Rap App report provides an overview of the strengths of the network, and identifies technical support requirements to address gaps and needs in organizational capacity. Results A. KEY ORGANISATIONAL AREAS 1. Governance Score: 12/12 The Poz Home Center was established in 2005 by the current executive director. They started by constituting a board from existing staff and volunteers chosen by the executive director, drafting the organisation’s rules and regulations documents, and achieved registration as a foundation in Thailand in March 2012. This was considered an important strategic move in order to apply for future funding as an independent organisation. The board is composed of 5 members who are the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and one ordinary member. As The Poz Home Center is a care and support community-based organization, its board members are not appointed on the basis of representation for key affected populations, but they are expert or experienced on PLHIV treatment, care, and support issues for MSM and transgender people. One Board member is transgender; one is a doctor; one is a working on a sex worker project; one is working on a drug user project; one is a PLHIV. The Poz Home's Director has invited people who are qualified in various fields to join the board. They prefer people who have experience as a board member for a community-based organisation. The role of each board position is documented, and the overall functions of the board are to oversee, monitor, and evaluate the Foundation’s work. The Poz Home Center has board meetings twice a year. Minutes are taken, and are reviewed before distribution to all board members. Outside of official board meetings there is rarely contact amongst board members. If decisions need to be made outside of meetings this is done by email so that there is a written record, and is followed up with a phone call. The Poz Home Center is regularly invited to government meetings and conferences. It is registered as a foundation and focuses its work in Bangkok and greater Bangkok. The Poz Home Center is a member of the Ministry of Health Advisory Committee on MSM and Transgender Health Issues. The Poz Home Center is also on the board of National Committee Advisory Board (NCAB) - Research and Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people (LGBT). Also the Poz Home was invited to join Retro Cab as a board member. This committee receives advice from the community about research and medical issues for the Thai Army. Poz Home is a member of the Thai NGO Coalition on AIDS, Thai National Network of People Living with HIV (TNP+), and is also represented on the board of the Thai Sexual Diversity Network. The Poz Home Center also has its own network called M-Poz, and there are 14 member organisations in nine provinces. According to Thai law, the board members of the Poz Home Center can be appointed to the board for four years. Board members are appointed by invitation of the executive director.
- 3. 3 2. Staffing Score: 12/12 The Poz Home Center has 12 full time positions in total. These are: executive director, administration, human resources, finance, information technology, monitoring and evaluation officers, two program coordinators, three fulltime activities officers and one office keeper. All contract, job description and Terms of Reference are all in place. There are also seven part time activities officers, and some volunteers, The role of volunteers is to accompany PLHIV members to hospital, participate in hospital activities, provide counselling for PLHIV including a hotline phone counselling and information service, home visits to PLHIV, and assistance with social welfare. Additional to that, there is also a complete set of internal policies and forms, as well as a full set of procedures documented in Standard Operating Procedures. 3. Finance Score: 11/12 The Poz Home Center manages its own funds. There is a structured financial and accounting system for the organisation. There is a finance policy as part of the internal policies manual, which includes all of the forms needed for compliance with the finance policy. All financial documents are kept for 5 years. There are 2 forms of audit - internal and external. The internal one is done by the staff and board members. The external audits are done by donors as well as an annual external audit commissioned by the Poz Home Center itself. There are detailed budgets for each area of activities. The finance staff monitor compliance with budgets and check that funds are spent according to budgets. An external auditor carries out the annual financial audit. A donor also does quarterly financial audits. Finance reports including annual audited report are shared with the board and with donors, but are not otherwise made public e.g. through the organisation's website or through an annual report. The organisation believes that there is no interest in seeing their financial records outside of the staff, board, and donors. The Poz Home Center does not produce an annual report about the organisation as a whole, but just provides reports to donors as required. The organisation is still small, and if it grows bigger then they will consider producing their own annual report including a public financial report. 4. Resource Mobilisation Score: 7/12 At present, The Poz Home Center only has one source of funding as a sub-recipient under FHI 360. In the past The Poz Home Center has joined with other organisations as partners and has led efforts to raise funds (some examples are funding applications to the Elton John Foundation, and the Local Capacity Initiative funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for
- 4. 4 AIDS relief (PEPFAR). Funding applications have not been successful due to varying levels of capacity in partner organisations. They do not have the capacity in the organisation now to write funding proposals in English, but plan to increase their capacity to mobilise additional funds. They have a board member (the Treasurer) who is now establishing a fundraising team. The Poz Home Center is setting up a coffee shop; they have location, funds, and budget for setting up the coffee shop, which is intended to raise some funds for the organisation. Chevron will make a donation to the Poz Home Center but the amount is not known yet. This funding is secure until September 2016, after which there will be the need to secure new funding agreements. However, while there are 12 staff members, there is currently only funding for six. The Poz Home Center does fundraising activities such as donation boxes in entertainment places. Telephone Bar in Silom Soi 4 provides some money from special fundraising events; it donates money twice a year which consists of very small grants (around THB 5000), or other small amounts on a one-off basis. The Poz Home Center also receives invitations to speak about HIV from private companies, and this generates some income through a donation from the company. There is a draft Resource Mobilization plan which can be finalised and implemented without the need for board approval. 5. Partnerships and Networking Score: 9/12 The Poz Home Center is active in engaging, developing and maintaining partnerships with other local, national, and regional organisations. Sometimes, they organise activities with the partners, but most of the time, they only participate or engage with the activities organised by the partners. The Poz Home Center works with a number of partners in Bangkok who are also funded by FHI 360, and also provides assistance to other organisations to establish care and support services, for example for male and female sex workers who are PLHIV (with SWING), and some times they undertake joint activities on prevention and testing. The Poz Home Center created MPoz, which is a platform for engagement between The Poz Home Center and other organisations in the country which have the same aim in their work. The communications between The Poz Home Center and its partners are not very active, with the exception of the donor (FHI360), who they communicate with regularly. Usually, Poz Home Center representatives attend national and regional HIV conferences. Next year The Poz Home Center will provide oral swab rapid HIV testing, and will work with other clinics such as those run by SWING and Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand, who already provide these services. This should be another platform by which the Poz Home Center can be more involved with partners. 6. Membership Score: 10/12
- 5. 5 In terms of membership the Poz Home Center is different from some other organisations, as their membership is individual people. The Poz Home Center focuses strongly on establishing and maintaining relationships with their members. Members are their friends who need support. Originally The Poz Home Center focussed only on MSM and transgender people who are living with HIV as their key affected populations, but now some of their members are also HIV-negative MSM and transgender people as well. The membership of The Poz Home Center consists of 750 members altogether. There is a database of records for all members which is regularly updated. Names are not used so that service users are only identified by a code. The database is secure with restricted access, based on the need of staff who provide services to access the information it contains. The database may also be accessed where people have moved regions, and need ID papers in order to be registered to access services. Means of communication with members include LINE, Facebook, and group chat on Facebook, telephone or speaking face-to-face with individual members. Also The Poz Home creates “Family Days” which provide the opportunity for communication between the organisation and its members, and members-to-members. At the Family Days, people can choose a group to join (usually 3) to discuss different topics in HIV treatment, prevention, testing etc. They generally use the term "friends" rather than “members” or “clients”. There are no formal procedures for consultation with the membership. There have been some consultations with members about seven years ago. The board has members from KAPs including HIV-positive MSM, a transgender woman, a doctor, and a sex work advocate. Another board member is a former member of APN+, and is also knowledgeable about drug use issues and HIV. 9. Key Population Engagement The following sub-sections detail the network’s engagement with specific key affected populations. Please note that the Poz Home Center focus their work on access to appropriate health care services for members who mostly are MSM and transgender people, and particularly those who live with HIV as the target audience. However, it is possible some of those MSM and transgender people living with HIV are young people, sex workers, drug users and MSM themselves, and form part of the organisation’s membership. 9.a. MSM Engagement Score: 11 /12 MSM issues are integrated into organisational advocacy. The Poz Home Center has a system to record MSM issues and problems which are reported from the members. The issues and problems are dealt with by staff according to their expertise.
- 6. 6 Some board members are from the MSM population but are not officially representing the MSM community. People are appointed to the board for their individual expertise, and the board has to have expertise on MSM issues. Some MSM are represented in the membership with an active engagement with the Poz Home Center. There are MSM and transgender women employed by the organization. But there is no discrimination for or against any particular group and people are employed for their expertise in the areas in which the Poz Home Center works. The Poz Home Center targets MSM+ specifically. They do not seek the views of the wider MSM community because they are focused on their clients, or “friends”. There are brochures at MSM venues and clinical services that provide information about the Poz Home Center’s services. The MSM community doesn’t get involved in formal program design processes. The executive director does the design. MSM community members can suggest improvements to projects and activities. And information is collected by the Poz Home Center to inform the development of new projects and services. There are partnerships with MSM Organizations and commercial venues such as APCOM, Rainbow Sky Network, SWING, Bangkok Rainbow, M-Poz Networks, saunas, etc. There are 14 organizations which are part of M-Poz. The Poz Home Center’s engagement with APCOM includes attendance at meetings about MSM and transgender issues, participation in Test BKK, and receiving a grant for organizational strengthening, as examples. The Poz Home Center has a plan to extend services to the target population. Now, the Poz Home Center is expanding the offices and increasing numbers of staff. It is very interested to engage more with MSM, but there is a need for money. For their care and support program, they are ready to extend and get bigger, but it depends on more funding being available. 9.b. Transgender Engagement Score: 11/12 The Poz Home Center focus includes transgender women’s issues, which are integrated into organizational advocacy. There is a higher number of MSM members, while the transgender women are also a high priority. There is one transgender woman on the Poz Home Center board, but she is not officially representing the transgender community. Though the number of transgender women in the membership is less than the number of MSM, some of the transgender women members are actively engaged with the organisation. For example, they regularly join the family days. At the Poz Home Center, there is no fulltime transgender woman staff member currently, but there have been transgender women staff in the past. Currently there are two transgender women working for the organization as volunteers.
- 7. 7 9.c. Young People Engagement Score: 6/12 At the moment, there are some young people who are also MSM or transgender women who are members of the Poz Home Center. The Poz Home Center does not have any specific advocacy focus on young people at present, but they may in the future. Young key affected populations have never been represented on the board of the organization, and while some of them are youth living with HIV, there is a little engagement with the Poz Home Center. In the past there was one young staff member but he was not from a KAP. In addition, the board informed us that previously there were young staff living with HIV, but now those young staff have grown older. The Poz Home Center’s executive director said there is not any discrimination regarding a job opportunity at the Poz Home Center. They accept all types of people if they are appropriately qualified. It does not matter if a staff member will be a man, a woman, a drug user, an MSM, a transgender person, a sex worker, or a young person. Regarding sharing information with or receiving information from young KAP (YKAP), there is not a special focus for young people unless they are affected by the issues that affect other MSM and transgender people. However, within their engagement with the YKAP, the Poz Home collected information on young individual MSM but there is no scope to provide special services. The Poz Home hopes to provide young MSM and TG services and migrant services more in future. When asked how the Poz Home Center would like to better engage with the YKAP, they said it depends on availability of resources, and they plan to increase activity in this area when they have the resources to do so. 9.d. Sex Workers Engagement Score: 6/12 The Poz Home Center has rarely done advocacy in relation to sex workers, and does not currently have it as a priority area for advocacy activities. Though other organizations such as SWING address advocacy issues for sex workers, the Poz Home Center provides care and support services to MSM and transgender people who are sex workers and they are part of the organization’s work indeed. Nonetheless, the Poz Home does not address sex worker issues in their advocacy priorities except as they fit with Poz Home Center's core focus. Some of their previous staff had previous work experience as sex workers. There is not a special process for sex workers to exchange information with or participate in the organisation, and the organisation engages with MSM and transgender people who are PLHIV, regardless of whether they have a history of sex work and/or drug use.
- 8. 8 Once asked if the sex worker community is consulted in project design, they said members' issues are important for deciding what services to provide. Some members are sex workers or previous sex workers. Thus they can engage to the same extent as other members/clients. When asked about engagement with the sex worker community, they stated that the sex workers with HIV may access the Poz Home Center services, and become involved in the organization as members, and joined the activities on the Family Days. Some of them have joined the team as staff too in the past. The Poz Home Center has a partnership with sex worker organizations such as SWING, and Sister (Transgender sex workers). The Poz Home Center has recently trained these organizations to provide care and support for HIV+ sex workers. Last but not least, the Poz Home emphasized that their work focus is on MSM and TG issues with HIV, so sex workers are only a focus to the extent they are within one of these groups. 9.e. PWUD Engagement Score: 5/12 The score on this part is very low as the Poz Home Center does not focus their work on PWUD even though there can be some of MSM and transgender people living with HIV as their members who are PWUD themselves. The Poz Home Center rarely advocates on PWUD issues, as this is not a current advocacy priority. No PWUD is on the board or a staff member, as declared by people themselves. Nevertheless, in the past there were many MSM and transgender people disclosing themselves as PWUD, but not recently. In addition, the Poz Home has no particular information sharing arrangements with PWUD, and no partnership with any organization working on PWUD issues. However, the Poz Home Center expressed their interest in engaging with MSM and transgender people who use drugs, they don't have current plans to expand in this area. 9.f. PLHIV Engagement Score: 12/12 The Poz Home Center has a strong engagement with PLHIV especially MSM and transgender people. As noted in the first part of this summary report, the Poz Home Center provides services for MSM and transgender people living in Bangkok, Thailand. The Poz Home Center provides members and individuals with a drop-in center, home visits, telephone support and advice, peer-based one-to-one support and case coordination, group workshops, social gatherings, cultural events and educational programs. One of the most used services is the Three Hearts Program – which provides case coordination between the hospital and the home, as well as with peer-based programs for
- 9. 9 MSM and transgender people (including MSM and transgender sex workers), who are living with HIV. The aim of this program is to prevent MSM and transgender people living with HIV from ‘falling through the gaps’ between community and hospital services. There are two MSM PLHIV on the board. And certainly, PLHIV as MSM and transgender people living with HIV play a big role in the membership, with active engagement. At the Poz Home Center, a number of PLHIV are employed in different positions in the organization. The Poz Home Center has a very good and strong relation with other PLHIV organizations including AFAO and APCOM and they always have regular meetings to discuss PLHIV issues with their community to share and receive any most current information on HIV issues. When asked how the PLHIV Community is consulted in project design, the Poz Home Center informed us that the project design incorporates information from service users of Poz Home Center. The Poz Home agrees that within the engagement with the PLHIV population, they engage individuals who are part of other or multiple key population groups through the people who attend Poz Home Center during the Family Days. They also use social media such Facebook and group line chat, as well as their website to communicate with their members. Telephone is also used individually. Concerning partnerships with PLHIV organizations, the Poz Home Center indicated that there is a lot of liaison and information sharing, among partners and organizations. However, there is less joint work with other organizations although this happens on some occasions. On the issue of better engagement with the PLHIV population, the Poz Home Center said there is plenty of involvement of people with HIV. It is not necessarily public involvement but they think it works well for the organization. KEY PROGRAM AREAS 1. Project Design and Management, including Monitoring and Evaluation Score: 9/10 In addition to the services described above, the Poz Home has a hotline throughout Thailand to provide information to callers on health and HIV, prevention and treatment. Poz Home Center also has a shelter which provides accommodation for people coming to Bangkok for treatment. It is part of the office premises and is funded from general office/core costs. There is no separate grant for this service. Level of use of the service varies from year to year. The costs are not too high for the organization to absorb, and it would be difficult to apply for separate funding for this part of their work because of varying levels of demand for it. Poz Home Center has developed a strategic plan which guides the project activities. Poz Home Center has developed, and implements and monitors, an annual organisational work plan. Comprehensive work plans are also developed and monitored regularly for all
- 10. 10 core and project work. Each unit also has a work plan which the executive director uses to monitor the organization’s activities. This happens at the monthly staff meetings. As well as the monthly staff meeting, additional staff meetings are held as needed. The current monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan was written by the executive director as the M&E officer had resigned. Financial data is collected by the database officer from people involved in implementing the program. The finance officer also reviews and validates financial information. There are both internal and external audits. They are in the process of implementing a quality assurance and quality improvement system. So far it has been used only with campaigns, but will eventually be used for all of the organization’s work. The Standard Operating Procedures manual is used for quality assurance purposes. Next year the Poz Home Center will implement oral swab rapid HIV testing. A donor has agreed to support this project. 2. Technical Capacity Score: 12/12 The Poz Home stated that they are strong in all of the following areas: HIV, human rights KAP issues. They further explained that the project team has strong knowledge in all areas referred to in the Rap App, as well as other skills needed for treatment and care. Other staff in the secretariat have sufficient knowledge of HIV, human rights and KAP issues The organization knows how to source technical support when needed. They explained that they know the areas where technical support is needed and how to source this support. It was discussed that there are many sources of technical support such as FHI360, PSI, and APCOM, and Poz Home Center can access technical support when needed. They also said they have had many resources produced by other organisations which assist in their work. Also they have received information and support from nurses, doctors, and other clinical service providers. This includes clinical treatment of HIV and opportunistic infections. The information is shared in the organisation. Clinical staff often invite Poz Home Center workers to information and education sessions about HIV and related issues. The Poz Home Center regularly provides technical supports to their members or other organizations. Training is provided to other NGOs on HIV care and support issues. Information is also regularly provided at Family Days. Support to other organizations is now regularly provided starting from 2015, and will continue in future. Moreover, the Poz Home provided a list of key technical competencies together with comments in their organizational capacity as follows: Human rights: Address these issues in their program work and through advocacy. HIV prevention: Core work HIV treatment: Core work HIV care: Core work Advocacy: ED is member of MOH advisory committee and raises MSM and TG issues. Advocacy includes human rights issues. Work with other organizations. Gender: Particularly transgender issues and MSM issues SOGI: All their work is with and for MSM and transgender
- 11. 11 Communication: Focus on internal communications with members and service users e.g. IEC and BCC, access to services, with partners and networks Media: Not a core area When asked which areas would the organization prioritizes for further strengthening, The Poz Home addressed that they are interested in engaging with MSM and transgender migrants and youth, especially PLHIV, and undocumented migrants. Current sources of technical support include AFAO and APCOM who provide capacity- building support, as well as PSI, FHI360, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Red Cross Society, Pact Thailand, and AIDS Project Management Group. Also, they specified they were supported in capacity building for the organization including development of Standard Operating Procedures, human resources, finance systems, M&E including a database system, and strategic planning. 3. Advocacy Capacity and Priority Advocacy Issues Score: 5/12 The Poz Home Center is a health care service organization rather than an advocacy organization. It is therefore not surprising that the score in this part is just 5 out of 12 which is the lowest compared to all areas discussed. The Poz Home Center does not often initiate advocacy activities, but participates in discussions on advocacy issues which take place at partner meetings. Advocacy activities are not documented. Some advocacy issues and priorities have been identified, but there is not an agreement across the organisation about these. There is agreement that the main advocacy issue is the welfare of PLHIV MSM and transgender people. There is no written advocacy plan. The top three issues the Poz Home Center identified were: 1. Treatment, care and support for MSM PLHIV. 2. Treatment, care and support for transgender PLHIV. 3. Positive prevention. The Poz Home Center gave some examples of advocacy activities or tools that the organization has used to address these issues. Advocacy starts with solving the problem of the individual members, such as speaking with doctors and nurses, meetings with Ministry of Health (MOH) and meetings with networks. There was an issue where some hospitals were not accepting Golden Cards (used for the 30 baht scheme) and saying their quota has been filled. But MOH clarified that there is no quota under the 30 baht scheme, and all patients should be admitted as long as any beds are available. Another issue was PLHIV travelling, who needed access to ART. Following advocacy from the Poz Home Center, the MOH ensured that people can pick up an emergency supply of ART at any hospital. Even though the Poz Home Center does not consider itself an advocacy organization, advocacy was discussed further. Speaking about the main advocacy target audience of the organization, they would include the MOH; health service providers, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security; Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare; and migrant workers. SWING, SISTER, Rainbow Sky Network, and Thai Red Cross play a role as the Poz Home Center’s main advocacy partners.
- 12. 12 The Poz Home Center conducts advocacy activities to influence service delivery as well as to influence policy development and decision-making, by giving input to Ministry of Health Advisory Committees, and to health services areas by discussing issues with health care workers such as doctors and nurses. The Poz Home Center said that there is limited engagement with global policy issues. There is some awareness from sources such as internet petitions, and the organization is aware of regional and global policy discussions and debates. The specific advocacy skills which the Poz Home Center would like to further develop across the organisation are policy analysis, and advocacy strategic planning. Writing in English as well as specific advocacy activity planning are also challenges for them. At present, the Poz Home Center prefers to maintain a primary focus on service delivery. Additional information about the organization’s advocacy capacity is as following: The Poz Home Center is a member of regional and national networks and Ministry of Health committees, all of which function as advocacy platforms. The organization never works with the media, as they are concerned about members’ confidentiality. The organization receives funding for care and support services and does not have funding for advocacy work, or a lot of experience in this area. 4. Communications Score: 7/12 The organization’s main means of communication internally are regular communication with members through telephone, face-to-face meetings, a web board on their website, and social media such as a Facebook page. The website is a channel to disseminate general information on the organization. Most of the time, they communicate with partners via meetings, conferences, or telephone officially. Email is not commonly used for communication with members. The Poz Home’s main means of communication externally are limited. Communication is mainly with members and partner organizations. There is very little interaction with the media. There has been some use of YouTube to provide information about the Poz Home, but it is still mainly used among staff and members. Overall, there are limits to communication with members. There is a closed Facebook page for members to communicate with each other and the organization. Many members are unwilling to use this forum because of concerns about disclosing their HIV status. Only a small proportion of people who could use the closed page actually use it. All staff have access to internet, computer, and email accounts. They do not primarily use these means of communication, and the organisation does not have a communication plan or strategy. The primary focus of communication across the network is information sharing on MSM and transgender related issues that they can highlight. This is an area where the organisation could benefit from technical support to evaluate and make recommendations regarding efficient and effective communication both internally and externally.
- 13. 13 5. Strategic Information Score: 9/12 The Poz Home Center has regular sourcing of strategic information through internet, partners meetings, and consultation with members and stakeholders. Strategic information is collected from a wide range of government, NGO, partner, and other sources, and used in designing projects and all aspects of the organization’s work. The organization regularly distributes strategic information internally to members, board and staff. They further explained that previously information was distributed by newsletter but they are no longer funded for this. Now they rely on social media for communication of strategic information. The Poz Home Center secures access to SI in many ways such as meeting with UN agencies, the government, other NGOs as well as INGOs. Also, they receive the SI from journals, particular websites, conferences, and regional networks. In addition, the organization has surveyed members about the services they need, and this has informed the organization’s work. They would like to do more research relating to member needs and appropriate service provision but do not have funds for this. The Poz Home Center sees the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre, UNAIDS, and the Ministry of Health as the key organizations producing relevant SI at national and regional levels. APCOM is recognized as a reliable producer of SI but the information is not available in Thai mostly. They also have some SI on care and support, but a lot of the publications are not directly relevant. Links to these organisations have arisen in various ways. The relationship with the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre is from personal links, and face-to-face meetings. Also there are some partners they work with in referral of cases. With UNAIDS, they have built up a relationship by attending meetings occasionally by invitation. APCOM has provided some funds and some information. The relationship with Ministry of Health started by the Poz Home Center attending meetings by invitation. Other information the Poz Home Center provided us regarding the organisation’s use of strategic information included the following: The organization does not translate international SI into local languages. The organization is involved in research studies by being a member of Community Advisory Boards for various research studies. The organization produces their own strategic information: Some information IS collected from members during service provision. There is a lack of SI about implementation of programs at the field level, methods of working, what is effective, and what is not effective. I. Summary of Recommended Technical Support
- 14. 14 The Rap App provides the Poz Home Center with a snapshot of their strengths and identifies areas where technical support would further strengthen the organisation. The Rap App indicates that the Poz Home Center is relatively strong in the areas of Governance, Secretariat/Staffing, Project Design and Management, Finance, Membership and Technical Capacity. The network would benefit from technical support in the areas of Partnerships and Networking, Strategic Information, Communication, and Advocacy Capacity. Engagement with key populations is stronger for PLHIV including MSM and transgender people. However those MSM and transgender people living with HIV can be young MSM, sex workers, and people using drugs, but the organization does not have the intention to develop specific strategies to engage with the young people, sex workers and people using drugs as a priority. Based on the results of the Rap App and a verbal discussion, the Poz Home Center has identified some key technical support needs: Short term: 1. Developing a strategic plan for the period 2016-2020. The previous strategic plan expired in 2014. They hope to be supported by FHI and AHF, as well as hospitals and public health centres. Also, they hope APCOM and AFAO will be able to support them with funding. 2. Implementing a community clinic in 2016 at the newly open office. The organization would like APCOM and AFAO to support resource mobilisation efforts to fund the clinic. 3. Arranging more strategic and effective meetings among members to facilitate members’ engagement, better understand their needs, and give them a forum in which to express their views. 4. Developing better follow-up processes or methods in order to follow up members more effectively. For example, in the case that a member changes a phone number, there should be alternative means of maintaining communication in the short term. 5. To translate, design and give away WHO guidelines, with support from AFAO and APCOM on the artwork and design Medium term: 1. Develop more effective communication skills among staff. The organization seeks volunteers and individual trainers to support on this. 2. Develop staff to be able to manage documents in English. Long term: 1. Funding for human resources development. 2. Maximize staff capacity and training. 3. Ensure regular trainings for staff to be effective recruiters and trainers of volunteers. 4. Develop business marketing plans for the Poz Home Center coffee shop, and expand the business to help provide sustainable funding. 5. Develop products and packaging for the Poz Home Center's businesses. 6. Support from a business consultant. 7. Implement finger scans for membership that will be developed by the Poz Home’s IT officer.
- 15. 15 8. Recruit staff to coordinate the M-Poz Networks. 1. Secure sustainable funding to continue the activities with the M-Poz Networks. 2. Technical medical support. 3. Support for writing proposals in English. The Poz Home Center would like APCOM and AFAO to support them with proposal writing. 4. Present useful information to stakeholders more frequently and comprehensively. 5. Improve digital media to be able to communicate with members more effectively 6. To develop an application that will allow the Poz Home Center to follow up with members on their health management.