Our Strategic Plan

 

The Strategic Plan was developed for the purpose of creating agreed-upon, sound, effective organizational goals which will guide each member within QHO to better fulfil their specific role in alignment with QHO’s vision and mission. This tool also allows for effective communication between QHO and its community partners/stakeholders with respect to our current focuses and future directions.

 
 

Strategic Drivers:

  • Collaborating with community partners to facilitate an ongoing discussion regarding health awareness and healthy living.

  • Continuously evaluating the effectiveness of the organization and our programs. 

  • Implementing needs-based health education programs to cultivate local youth leaders through peer education. 

  • Addressing stigma concerning various health issues on Queen’s Campus and in the communities and cultural contexts in which we work.

Goals of our Strategic Plan

Goal 1.

Increase intra-organization communication.

  • Restructure the executive team to a more tiered system

  • Establish PODs to allow for similar positions to work together more effectively 

  • Increase communication between initiatives in order to learn from each other

  • Constructive collaboration before final decisions are made

  • Improve transitions between years

  • Improve institutional memory

Goal 2.

Transition to training using workshop-style and empowerment-style programming.

  • Revamp Education Sessions to have PEs run practice workshops instead of “practice teaching”

  • Training on facilitating empowerment and leadership for PEs 

  • Edit current teaching manuals according to best-practices to ensure information is delivered in a workshop-style format

Goal 3.

Strengthen, define, and evaluate relationships with partner organizations.

  • Re-introduce MOUs where appropriate

  • Conduct needs assessments

  • Evaluate the effectiveness of our current partnerships 

  • Define what it means to be a “partner” in the context of QHO 

  • Reach out to potential partner organizations with the use of a manual laying out the specific role of QHO and a plan for how our organizations could work together in way that is mutually beneficial

Our Evaluation Framework

Our Evaluation Framework is an 8 phase plan for the creation of sustainable, locally-run health initiatives, with the goals of:

  • Establishing locally-run and sustainable health education and youth empowerment workshops/programming in global and local communities.

  • Transitioning from an organization that facilitates health discussions with youth to one that empowers local youth leaders to facilitate these discussions in their own communities.

  • Meeting all requirements of our mandate, principles, and strategic drivers.

While this general plan applies to each location, it is flexible based on yearly assessments and intrinsic differences between our diverse initiatives. This plan has been created with the intention of working in communities with an eventual exit plan to avoid creating a dependence on QHO’s presence in the community.

 

Phase 1.

Evaluate QHO’s potential impact within the community, the community’s openness for QHO, and the feasibility of running an initiative within the community.

Phase 2.

Work out the logistics of running an initiative within the location and create partnerships within the community to work towards sustainable opportunities for youth engagement, leadership, and health education.

Phase 3.

The implementation of QHO’s programming.

Phase 4.

Repeat phase 3 in its entirety with emphasis on community building.

 

Phase 5.

A continuation of QHO’s programming, while working towards sustainable opportunities for health education and youth empowerment and continuing to evaluate feasibility of initiative.

Phase 6.

Partial establishment of a sustainable, locally run program.

Phase 7.

The full establishment of locally-run and sustainable health education and youth empowerment workshops/programming in global communities, based on research and planning done in the previous years, with QHO and partner organization support where needed.

Phase 8.

Completely transition out of the community, leaving community leaders to continue facilitating the program that has been designed.

How we work:

QHO’s Yearly Timeline

August-September

Revise initiative plans and areas of focus based on ongoing discussions about the needs of partners and in conjunction with our evaluation framework.

The hiring process is completed for Peer Educators, as well as interns who assist the executive team.

Fall Semester

Education sessions begin to prepare newly hired Peer Educators for initiative. 

Kingston Peer Educators move into classrooms and youth spaces, while National and International Peer Educators continue training under the leadership of their Initiative Directors. 

Peer Educators begin personal fundraising and several QHO-wide fundraising events planned by the executive team occur in the Kingston community.

Winter Semester

PEs continue to attend education sessions. 

National and International Peer Educators begin running virtual initiative activities.

A QHO-wide weekend long educational retreat occurs in January. 

Initiative Directors and Partnership Coordinators continue to stay in touch with community partners to discuss ongoing activities and upcoming plans.

May-July

Summer initiative Peer Educators foster opportunities for youth and facilitate health discussions in classrooms and youth spaces in Belize, Guyana, and Northern Canada locations.

*Note: Summer activities have not taken place since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.