Introduction
The IASSID Academy was authorized and set up by the IASSID Council at its annual meeting in 2006 in Maastricht, Netherlands following an intensive discussion process involving many IASSID members and different facets of the Association. The Council authorized the establishment of an International Academy that would have its own Board which would design course and workshop structures, initiate and work with colleagues and national organisations and then develop, organise, oversee and run courses and workshops for which certificates of attendance or satisfactory performance would be provided. The Academy was requested to do this on a cost neutral basis but some initial funds were provided to get the organisation started. An expanded Board was formed with some representatives being appointed by Council.
The first Courses and Workshops
The first year was spent developing and organising the Academy and preparing for the first seminars and workshops in Mexico which took place in Mexico City, October 2007. Since then pre and post IASSID Conference workshops have taken place in Cape Town and Singapore and other workshops have been run as freestanding events in several countries. It should be noted that the Academy chooses to work on a bottom up approach inviting or responding to requests and developing the workshops and courses in liaison with local committees and representatives. This means a fairly wide range of approaches have been tried out.
A primary aim is to provide Academy workshops of a high standard that meet the needs for education and training in developing and low economic countries to professional and support staff many of whom would be unlikely to attend conferences because of the costs involved. A second aim is to provide workshops and seminars in more developed and economically wealthy countries concerned with cutting edge research and the application of that research. A third aim, which has developed, is to provide advice and support when requested from colleagues attending these meetings who face particular challenging issues in their own countries.
The first Presenters of Workshops
We have contacted SIRG Chairs soliciting interest from their members for presentations in particular areas. The invitations are posted on the IASSID website and are circulated through the Chair of the SIRG and IASSID Liaison Committee. The number of interested colleagues is growing and the Rome Congress should see a reasonably wide representation of IASSID colleagues from various SIRG's. We are delighted that 2 Co-chairs of SIRG's, not otherwise involved with the Academy, have already represented the Academy at freestanding workshops.
Reflections
The establishment of the Academy has been intentionally an emergent design. The Academy has attempted to modify its workshops based on experience, feedback from presenters, evaluations carried out by participants and comments from organisers.
There seems little doubt that the Academy is seen as an effective means of translating research into practice and providing input for frontline personnel, various professionals, agency and service managers as well as policy makers.
In 2 years it has run workshops in 8 countries. In several of those countries multiple workshops were provided. The number of registrations has been over 2000 though a large portion of individuals attended more than one workshop in Mexico and Malaysia. The number of different individuals registering is over 1000.
We look forward to a growing Academy with increasing representation and interest from the SIRG's though even now individual members of IASSID including several SIRG's are well represented.
For further information on the IASSID Academy please click here.
Roy Brown
Director and Chair
IASSID Academy
January 2010
