Alumni engagement

IPHU is a strategy for movement building.  See PHM's 'Building a movement for health' for further discussion of movement building.

IPHU, as a movement building strategy, involves:

• building a common understanding of the shared and different challenges we face together;
• inspiring and re-inspiring ourselves about the possibilities of progressive change;
• building new relationships which inspire, from which we learn and which help us to listen across difference and build solidarity;
• develop the practical skills of organising and activism. 

However, IPHU is not a stand-alone intervention.  People come to IPHU courses from different backgrounds, including different levels of activism. The success of the IPHU course is not just feeling good at the end of the course. More critically, it is about deepening participants' engagement in the people's health movement. 

Alumni move in many different directions after participating in an IPHU course.  

• Some were already involved in PHM at the country or regional level. As course organisers we want to know that the course experience has contributed to enhancing their work as activism, or if not what we need to do better.
• Some were already involved in health activism through other organisations and networks. As course organisers we need to know that the course experience has contributed to their activist work. However, we are also keen that we build on their links with PHM through the IPHU and that they find ways to link their activist networks to the work of PHM.
• Some participants join IPHU courses without a strong background in health activism.  As course organisers we need to create pathways and support them to grow their activist involvement.  Certainly we need to follow them up to ensure that appropriate pathways and opportunities are available for such growth. 

This kind of follow up of alumni and support for continued engagement has not been very successful following some of our courses.  We have a master list of participants and faculty from previous courses but it is not uptodate.

We need to be more systematic in:

• making the links with PHM's country circles before course commencement;
• communicating to PHM country and thematic circles about the conduct and content of the course including commenting specifically on the project work (posters etc) done by alumni from each country; 
• adding participants and faculty from each course to our master spreadsheet and to the full alumni email list (group);
• managing the privacy and informed agreement issues in enabling such records and communications.