The Office of Social Concern and Responsibility (OSCAR) convened the Social Involvement and Advocacy Council (SIAC). As part of the ADNU 2030 Strategic Plan, under Strategic Direction No. 2 (Nation-Building) – Goal 6, called together faculty, staff, and student representatives for the first major reconvening of ADNU’s eight social involvement clusters in several years. The two-day workshop seeks to discern and develop a more integrated, mission-driven, and outcomes-oriented ADNU Social Involvement Framework to guide the university’s engagement with partner communities.
Day 1 of the workshop was held on 26 August 2026, at the Arrupe Convention Hall. Participants representing the eight clusters – Environment, Governance, Health and Nutrition, Livelihood and Entrepreneurship, Education and Teacher Training, Religious Education, Disaster Response Management, and Housing – came together to reflect on ADNU’s experience, review existing priorities, and discern the changes the university hopes to contribute to in partner communities.
Led by workshop facilitator Rodolfo “Sonny” Virtus Jr., OSCAR Executive Director, Day 1 followed a process of experience, discernment, desired changes, impact, and strategic results. Participants reflected on lessons from the university’s social involvement experience, reviewed their respective development agendas, and engaged in plenary and small-group conversations. Rather than focusing primarily on projects and activities, the discussions encouraged participants to ask a more fundamental question: What meaningful and lasting difference do we want to see in the communities we serve?
A key component of the day was the Spiritual Conversation, facilitated by Thea Pramis, Director of the College Campus Ministry Office, with the support of small-group facilitators. Through prayer, individual reflection, and communal conversation, participants were invited to listen more deeply to their experiences, hopes, concerns, and the ways in which ADNU may be called to serve more meaningfully and deeply. This discernment process helped ground the strategic conversations in the university’s Ignatian identity and mission.
The clusters subsequently examined the social concerns addressed by their respective development agendas and identified areas that need to be continued, strengthened, refocused, combined, or reconsidered. Across the discussions, participants recognized the value of moving toward a more integrated approach to social involvement, where clusters share their respective expertise and work collaboratively to provide partner communities with more holistic responses to interconnected social concerns.
One of the major outputs of Day 1 was a draft institutional Impact Statement, developed from the common aspirations and desired changes articulated by the clusters. The emerging statement centers on the aspiration for empowered, resilient, and self-reliant Bicolano individuals, families, and communities that take greater ownership of their development, lead sustainable local solutions, pursue shared well-being, and contribute to a just and sustainable society while caring for one another and creation.
The workshop also generated provisional Strategic Result Areas, marking an important shift from organizing social involvement primarily by sector or activity toward organizing it around the broader changes ADNU seeks to contribute to. These initial areas will undergo further discernment and refinement.
Cluster representatives will reconvene to refine the draft Impact Statement and emerging Strategic Result Areas. A second workshop will continue the strategic planning process by translating these directions into intended outcomes, flagship projects, indicators, and appropriate monitoring, evaluation, and learning mechanisms.
The workshop marks an important step in reconnecting the university’s diverse social involvement efforts into a more coherent institutional direction. By bringing the eight clusters back into conversation, ADNU seeks to build on its long experience in community engagement while strengthening collaboration, integration, and shared responsibility for meaningful and sustainable social transformation.
