2.2. Crafting your proposals (initial and final)

Objectives

1. Base on the top few preferences of your CCA members, make contact (e.g. email) with the potential partners to indicate your interest in working with the organization.

2. Base on the correspondence with the potential partner(s), draft the 1^st proposal to your CCA teacher I/C by T3W10.

3. Arrange a session to go through the 1^st proposal with him / her.

4. Based on the teacher’s feedback, make the necessary amendments to the 1^st proposal.

5. Submit final proposal to CCA teacher after you have completed the outreach events.

6. Upon endorsement by your CCA teacher, deposit the final proposal to your CCA sub-folder in the CCA VIA Sharing Folder.

From your correspondence with the potential partners, you will eventually select one whom your CCA will work with. Here are some factors to help in your decision-making:

Contact person is responsive (e.g. responds to your email quickly) and clearly explains the mission of his/her organisation
Organisation has a well-defined target group whom your CCA could reach out to
The activities are meaningful and safe for your CCA members to be involved in
The activities are not overly demanding (e.g. too many trainings / visits¹, or financial support²) for your CCA members
The proposed dates (and times) for the initial outreach event(s) and implementation of the VIA project are reasonable and do not overlap with critical time frames³

Footnotes 1, 2 and 3

¹Typically, the VIA committee and the CCA members would carry out one to several outreaches before the implementation of the project. The exact number depends on the comfort level of the CCA members. You may want to seek advice from your CCA teacher if you are unsure.
²Each CCA is given a $50 budget for its VIA project(s) per year.
³Examples of critical timeframes include mid-year and promotional exams, various deadlines of project work, oral presentation rehearsals and exam period, competition/performance period of your CCA, etc.

After you have selected the organisation as your partner, you are required to draft the VIA proposal form for the initial approval by your CCA teacher. This document (Service learning application form) is in General CCA VIA sub-folder

As a general guide, the more detailed the proposal form is, the easier it is for your CCA teacher to approve. However, it is also understandable that certain details cannot be determined at this initial stage of your correspondence.

Here is a checklist consisting of information that must be included.

1. Time period in carrying out the outreach events and implementation of project

2. Name of partner and a brief write-up of the organisation and its mission / role in the community

3. Intended outcomes of the project

(Note: They should be aligned with our college values and the mission of your partner)

4. Brief outline of timeline / work plan

5. Structure of the VIA Committee (members, roles and areas of work)

Refer to an exemplar below to see how a initial proposal could look like.

(This exemplar has also been deposited into the General VIA sub-folder)

After the discussion with your CCA teacher, or upon further discussion with the contact person from your partner organisation, there could several (or many) changes you will need to make.

If this is so, don’t be discouraged! It is all part of developing understanding the needs and issues of the partner organisation or/and target group, and of our college and your CCA members. In fact, the initial proposal of the exemplar was not the first proposal too! It went through some refinements before the CCA teacher endorsed the project proposal by the netball girls.

Once you gain a better understanding of the various needs and issues from various parties (especially after your outreach events), you are now able to craft a more detailed and customised proposal for your CCA teacher to approve.

Once approved, please deposit the softcopy of your final CCA VIA Project Proposal into your CCA sub-folder of the CCA VIA Sharing Folder.

Save your document in the following format:

Year_Name of CCA_date of approval by CCA teacher

For example:

2019VIAproposal_Netball_27May

If you intend to carry out more than one VIA project (e.g. with different partners, or 2 distinct projects with the same partner), you could provide the project number to differentiate the 2 proposals.

For example:

2019VIAproposal1_Netball_27May

2019VIAproposal2_Netball_14July

Example of a final CCA VIA proposal

(This exemplar has also been deposited into the General VIA sub-folder)