ISSUP hosted a General National Chapters meeting on October 26, 2023. This meeting was held online and formed part of a bi-annual call for ISSUP National Chapters around the world.
The meeting agenda was packed with various exciting new updates, opportunities, and resources. Fan Yang kicked off the meeting with an introduction to the Youth Forum and the potential role of National Chapters in advancing the role of youth in prevention.
As part of a pre-launch, Michele Worobiec offered the National Chapters a preview into the operational scope of the 'International Consortium for Alternatives to Incarceration (ICATI).' ICATI is the newest partner to ISSUP with a mandate that is focused on the full justice continuum through deflection, diversion, and re-entry programs.
Another key highlight of this meeting was the update on Thessaloniki 2024. Nataliya from ISSUP Greece delivered an overview of the conference venue, activities, and side-events. The images of the proposed conference site sparked so much excitement amongst the National Chapters. The ISSUP 2024 event, dubbed 'The Art of Healing,' has been designed to enable a seamless integration of knowledge acquisition with an introduction to Greek archaeology.
The National Chapters also had the advantage of a sneak peek into the results of the ISSUP membership survey: How do we increase membership engagement at the local level? This question stemmed out of the survey and formed the basis of an intense brainstorming session during the meeting.
Another new development presented at the meeting was the 'Investing in Evidence-based Prevention' (IEP) program. This ISSUP-led initiative is targeted at policy/decision makers and aims to provide fundamental knowledge on evidence-based prevention as a basis for policy design and implementation.
All in all, the general meeting provided a unique platform for discussions, partner updates, and networking. It was great to see how far and wide the National Chapters had grown over the past few months. The image below is a Padlet poll taken at the meeting. It offers an idea of the geographical spread of the ISSUP National Chapters and the diverse network of ISSUP stakeholders around the globe.
