Telling Our Stories

Solidarity Bridge is blessed with an active Board of Directors whose members make personal commitments and contribute professional skills to enrich our work. Today’s blog is written by one of our Board members, Cynthia Judge.

Communication tools serving our Mission

As a Communications Coach, I have the privilege of working with people in a variety of industries. My goal is to encourage others, through focus, motivation and method, to become compelling communicators. The art of creating clear messages and delivering those messages in an impassioned way that engages an audience and inspires positive change is a lifelong journey.

As a member of the Board of Directors of Solidarity Bridge since 2017, I’ve designed Development Days, co-created Board and Staff Retreats, and coached our people on how to speak with impact. Each one of these experiences has shown me a Board and a Staff deeply committed to rich communication.

Cynthia (right) with members of the Solidarity Bridge staff and fellow Board member, Sr. Donna Wolowicki (left), at a staff retreat in June 2021.

I’ve also had the pleasure of helping to represent Solidarity Bridge in emerging global forums, to which our 21 years of experience have much to contribute, and from which we can tap into new resources to serve our mission. In that spirit, Solidarity Bridge is a founding member of the Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma and Anesthesia (SOTA) Care, known as the G4 Alliance. This organization advocates for the neglected surgical patient and for increased access to surgical care as part of universal health coverage. The G4 Alliance holds two Permanent Council meetings each year, and since 2020, I’ve been part of the Planning Committee for these vital gatherings in which members learn from and engage with speakers from across the global stage.

In May 2021, the theme of the G4 Alliance’s two-day Zoom meeting was “Telling the Story,” and Solidarity Bridge was featured throughout the event. Patricia Vargas, the Executive Director of our sister organization, Puente de Solidaridad (PdS), was a panelist on “Achieving Change Locally in SOTA Care.” She spoke passionately about how PdS serves our patients by managing programs and leading day-to-day operations in Bolivia with deep care and commitment to patients and their families. The work of Solidarity Bridge was also showcased in the panel: “Telling the Story of SOTA Care,” which brought together filmmakers who use their talents to tell global health stories of heartbreak and hope. Lauren Ready of Forever Ready Productions, who produced our 2021 Fiesta videos, was one of the panelists.

Finally, I was thrilled to moderate a panel entitled “Communications Leads: Principles for Responsible and Effective Advocacy.” This panel featured communication experts from six G4 Alliance member organizations. All agreed that communication skills and telling patient and provider stories are essential for any thriving organization. Telling these stories can increase awareness of our missions, can be used as advocacy, and can lead to increased funding. Through discussion, the audience learned of the guiding principles that fuel the work of these panelists: listening, focusing on the audience, and telling human stories.

The three noted panels may be viewed within the full-day recording of the May 22nd G4 Alliance meeting.

Preparing these panels and presentations required multiple Zoom sessions among Planning Committee members and speakers and panelists. Aside from organizing logistics, we dove into rich conversations covering topics important to each of us. We spoke of the necessity to keep one’s ear low to the ground, to choose inclusive language, and to effectively use social media. We also questioned how emotion drives decision-making, and discussed how to use our stories as important qualitative data versus simply statistics. We laughed that humility and forgiveness were part of our day-to-day work. We even decided to meet again this Fall, as we want to be the champions for the G4 Alliance to continue telling our stories.

The most important part of communication, I find, is the opportunity to elevate the human experience. Storytelling is a skill that must be developed, with precision and practice. But with the neglected surgical patient as our inspiration to do more, we can tell their stories with the firm belief that they will be heard and our lives will be changed.

Thank you to Cynthia and to all our Board members for your key volunteer contributions in support of our shared mission!