Community Connect is an inclusive, vibrant space at The Union World Conference on Lung Health 2023 where the voice of the affected TB and lung health community echoes to the world. Representatives of the affected community and civil society come together to share experiences, address challenges and develop solutions on issues surrounding lung health.
This year, Community Connect comprises of thought-provoking discussions from civil society and affected communities, panel discussions, sessions, campaigns and even an exhibition area within Community Connect.
Currently, we are accepting entries for the photography and art exhibitions at Community Connect until 31 August 2023.
Session submissions for Community Connect are closed.
Photography Exhibition at Community Connect 2023
The Theme
Stigma & Voices of Vulnerable Populations
Rules
To enter the Exhibition, you must:
- Submit a minimum of one and maximum of five photographs, which closely relates to the theme mentioned above.
- If a photographic series in the form of a story is presented, it must be specifically mentioned in the entry form.
- Due to international and national laws, all identifiable people within the photographic image must sign a media release form – please feel free to use The Union’s media consent form
.
- Although the photographer will retain their international copyright, they do agree that The Union may use selected images in print and digital delivery for 3 years with credit.
- A photograph will be rejected if it appears to have been taken in such a way that health and safety may have been breached, that it has been otherwise taken in an irresponsible way, or that the artwork breaches in any way public order or moral standards.
- The Union and Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) reserves the right to remove or refuse any entries from the exhibition for any reason. Such reasons will include, but not be limited to, fraud or any dysfunction in a participation at any stage of the entry.
- Such decisions from the selection panel to reject, remove or refuse an artwork will be irrevocable and will not have to be justified.
Submissions are open from 13 June to 31 August 2023. All submissions received after this time will not be eligible.
By entering the exhibition, you agree to the provisions of the above-mentioned rules and comply with them fully.
The exhibition is free and open to all, except UCAP members and those directly involved with organising the exhibition.
Photographs will have to be digital (maximum: 5MB each). Each artwork should be submitted in JPEG or PNG format and the associated word document should have the title and/or description regarding the photograph (maximum: 150 words).
The organisers cannot be held responsible for emails that do not arrive due to the entrant’s email security settings or restrictions placed by their Internet service provider.
Your entry must be submitted to communityconnect@theunion.org digitally via WeTransfer along with the entry form .
By submitting photographs to The Union, each entrant confirms and warrants that they:
- are the sole creator of each photograph entered and that it is their original work
- own the copyright and any other intellectual property rights of each image, especially the rights for authorship, reproduction and presentation to a public
- have the permission of anyone pictured in the image, and who can be identified, for the usage rights required by The Union. They also consent that, where the image shows any persons under 18, they will collect the consent of the parents or guardians, as many as the national law of the child requires. They will indemnify The Union against any claims made by any third parties in respect of such infringement – please feel free to use The Union’s media consent form to gain consent
- have not licensed or disposed of any rights in the image that would conflict with uses to be made by The Union.
The Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) will select the images that will be displayed in the Exhibition area. Minor digital adjustments/enhancements are acceptable, but artificial images will not be acceptable.
The decision of UCAP is final and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the exhibition’s selection and organisation.
Notification about the status of the submission will be emailed to the submitter by end of September.
By entering the exhibition, you grant The Union a non-exclusive licence for 3 years to reproduce, enlarge, publish or exhibit, on any media, the images for any purpose to further The Union’s aims and objectives. More specifically, you agree that the images can be used:
- At presentation events, including exhibiting the images.
- On The Union website, social media channels and email communications.
- In the press for the purpose of promoting of The Union.
The organisers will make every reasonable effort to ensure that name credits are given to any photograph published in any medium.
This permission can be withdrawn at any time and The Union will use reasonable endeavours to remove the photograph(s) from public use.
We will keep your details on our secure database to enable us to use your images (see usage rights). We value your support and do not pass on information about you to any group or individual outside The Union.
Following the regulations on Data Protection in France and GDPR in Europe, all participants are informed that the personal data collected here are all necessary for their participation in the present competition and will be used in a computer process. You are also informed that you have a right of access, rectification and erasure of your individual personal data.
The Union’s Web Privacy Policy applies to the competition and use of The Union website: theunion.org/privacy-policy.
The information given in these terms and conditions is correct, but The Union reserves the right to change any of it without prior notice. By entering the competition, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these terms and conditions. Any breach of these terms by an entrant will void their entry. If a breach has occurred but is discovered after the award of a prize, then the organisers may require the return of that prize.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, The Union excludes its liability for any loss, damage, injury, cost or expense suffered by you, whether directly or indirectly and howsoever caused, in connection with the competition and use of any prize.
You agree to indemnify The Union and keep The Union indemnified against any loss, damage, injury, cost or expense suffered by The Union as a result of your entry in the competition, including (but not limited to) any claim of infringement of intellectual property rights made by any third party.
These terms and conditions shall be governed and construed in accordance with French Law and will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the French courts.
Art Exhibition at Community Connect 2023
The Theme
Stigma & Voices of Vulnerable Populations
Rules
To enter the Exhibition, you must:
- Submit a minimum of one and maximum of five artworks (painting, drawing, comic and digital art), which closely relates to the theme mentioned above.
- If a series in the form of a story is presented, it must be specifically mentioned in the entry form.
- Due to international and national laws, all identifiable people within the artwork must sign a media release form – please feel free to use The Union’s Art Consent Form.
- Although the artist will retain their international copyright, they do agree that The Union may use selected images in print and digital delivery for 3 years with credit.
- An artwork will be rejected if it appears to have been taken in such a way that health and safety may have been breached, that it has been otherwise taken in an irresponsible way, or that the artwork breaches in any way public order or moral standards.
- The Union and Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) reserves the right to remove or refuse any entries from the exhibition for any reason. Such reasons will include, but not be limited to, fraud or any dysfunction in a participation at any stage of the entry.
- Such decisions from the selection panel to reject, remove or refuse an artwork will be irrevocable and will not have to be justified.
Submissions are open from 13 June to 31 August 2023. All submissions received after this time will not be eligible.
By entering the exhibition, you agree to the provisions of the above-mentioned rules and comply with them fully.
The exhibition is free and open to all, except UCAP members and those directly involved with the organising the exhibition.
Artwork that will be considered are painting, drawing, comic and digital art.
Artwork will have to be submitted digitally (maximum: 5MB each). Each artwork should be submitted in JPEG or PNG format and the associated word document should have the title and/or description regarding the artwork (maximum: 150 words).
The organisers cannot be held responsible for emails that do not arrive due to the entrant’s email security settings or restrictions placed by their Internet service provider.
Your entry must be submitted to communityconnect@theunion.org digitally via WeTransfer along with the entry form.
By submitting artwork to The Union, each entrant confirms and warrants that they:
- are the sole creator of each artwork entered and that it is their original work
- own the copyright and any other intellectual property rights of each artwork, especially the rights for authorship, reproduction and presentation to a public
- have the permission of anyone pictured in the art, and who can be identified, for the usage rights required by The Union. They also consent that, where the art shows any persons under 18, they will collect the consent of the parents or guardians, as many as the national law of the child requires. They will indemnify The Union against any claims made by any third parties in respect of such infringement – please feel free to use The Union’s Art Consent Form to gain consent.
- have not licensed or disposed of any rights in the image that would conflict with uses to be made by The Union.
The Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) will select the artwork that will be displayed in the Exhibition area.
Minor digital adjustments/enhancements are acceptable, but artificial artwork will not be acceptable.
The decision of UCAP is final and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the exhibition’s selection and organisation.
Notification about the status of the submission will be emailed to the submitter by end of September.
By entering the exhibition, you grant The Union a non-exclusive licence for 3 years to reproduce, enlarge, publish or exhibit, on any media, the images for any purpose to further The Union’s aims and objectives. More specifically, you agree that the images can be used:
- At presentation events, including exhibiting the artwork.
- On The Union website, social media channels and email communications.
- In the press for the purpose of promoting of The Union.
The organisers will make every reasonable effort to ensure that name credits are given to any artwork published in any medium.
This permission can be withdrawn at any time and The Union will use reasonable endeavours to remove the artwork(s) from public use.
We will keep your details on our secure database to enable us to use your artwork (see usage rights). We value your support and do not pass on information about you to any group or individual outside The Union.
Following the regulations on Data Protection in France and GDPR in Europe, all participants are informed that the personal data collected here are all necessary for their participation in the present competition and will be used in a computer process. You are also informed that you have a right of access, rectification and erasure of your individual personal data.
The Union’s Web Privacy Policy applies to the competition and use of The Union website: theunion.org/privacy-policy.
The information given in these terms and conditions is correct, but The Union reserves the right to change any of it without prior notice. By entering the competition, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these terms and conditions. Any breach of these terms by an entrant will void their entry. If a breach has occurred but is discovered after the award of a prize, then the organisers may require the return of that prize.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, The Union excludes its liability for any loss, damage, injury, cost or expense suffered by you, whether directly or indirectly and howsoever caused, in connection with the competition and use of any prize.
You agree to indemnify The Union and keep The Union indemnified against any loss, damage, injury, cost or expense suffered by The Union as a result of your entry in the competition, including (but not limited to) any claim of infringement of intellectual property rights made by any third party.
These terms and conditions shall be governed and construed in accordance with French Law and will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the French courts.
Session submissions for Community Connect are closed.
For your information, below are details of the tracks that will be covered in Community Connect this year:
1
Community rights, gender and stigma
This track focuses on innovative civil society and community-based/led interventions that address barriers to accessing quality TB services, lung health and tobacco cessation services with respect to human-rights and gender equity.
2
Community engagement in pandemic preparedness and response: Lessons learnt from COVID-19 and beyond
This track focuses on insights, experiences and best practices in community engagement to fight COVID-19 and how these can be translated to improve the TB response, address lung health issues and encourage submissions of community-led success stories that ensured continued TB service delivery during COVID-19.
3
Political contexts for community-led advocacy and accountability
This track focuses on strategic policy implementation, advocacy initiatives, financial commitments, TB financing and accountability frameworks required to ensure achieving the goal to end TB by 2030. Communities can share an analysis of national-level policies that have advanced or impeded progress with special contextual focus on the 2023 UN HLM on TB and community-led advocacy programs to implement tobacco control policy.
4
Driving equitable access to new tools and technologies
This track will focus on scientific advancements and digital innovations coupled with community empowerment. It addresses barriers e.g., social and structural determinants of health, including but not limited to poverty, discrimination, and unequal distribution of healthcare resources; that hinder adoption and implementation of new technologies for lung health, particularly with respect to lung health and NCDs.
Session Guidelines
15-18 November 2023
Community Connect will take place during core programme hours; dates and time of presentation are allocated by the Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) to accommodate the complexity of the programme and minimise the overlap of tracks.
Duration: 45 Minutes
This year’s conference will be in-person. Technical specifications will be provided at a later stage to help speakers and chairs prepare. Please check the chairs and speakers’ section for more information.
(If there is a preference for a different format – such as panel discussions or other format of presentation), we are happy to accommodate your request upon informing the organisers early on after your session is accepted. If there is a delay in informing us, we may not be able to accommodate your request. Note that sessions cannot be considered if they are presented completely online. Even the duration of the session can be increased upon request)
Please select the most appropriate track. Note this is to assist with programme planning. Track choice has no impact on the selection process. The list of tracks is available here.
Community Connect sessions should have one to two individuals serving as chair/co-chairs. Chair/co-chairs play the role of communicating with speakers and moderating the session. The chair/ co-chairs should attend the conference in-person.
The co-ordinator will be the point of contact and is responsible for providing the necessary information as requested to the Community Connect team. Chairs of the sessions can act as coordinators.
Minimum of two and maximum of five speakers.
Brief outline of your session topic (maximum 500 words). We also invite you to submit sessions in Spanish, Russian and French if that is your preferred language. Please note, however, that English translation will not be available.
A biography of no more than 100 words must be submitted for each proposed speaker and chair. The biography will be considered for publication in the online programme.
Online submission are open 20 April – 12 June. Sessions are editable until then. No further changes are accepted after that deadline.
Community Connect sessions are peer reviewed by experts from the UCAP team and the Track Leads based on the following review criteria.
TOPICS TO BE SCORED | EXPECTED | SCORING |
Relevance | The research question is relevant. The study/intervention addresses current, relevant scientific or public health issues; the study/intervention findings are important and will likely contribute to new knowledge, practice, policies, or programmes. | 0 = not described/irrelevant 1 = minimal relevance 2 = somewhat relevant 3 = relevant 4 = very relevant 5 = extremely relevant (Weight = 1.0 |
Methods /intervention or response | The study design/intervention is appropriate, given the objectives/challenges. | 0 = not described 1 = very poor 2 = poor 3 = average 4 = above average 5 = excellent (Weight = 1.0) |
Results/impact | Results/Impact are in line with the analysis methodology and objectives; scope, generalisability, feasibility, and robustness of findings are satisfactory. | 0 = not described 1 = very poor 2 = poor 3 = average 4 = above average 5 = excellent (Weight = 1.0) |
Clarity of the message | The study’s objectives/challenges or working hypotheses are clearly stated. The text is concise and objective, the conclusions are clear and congruent with the results and the final overall message is clear. | 0 = Unable to understand abstract/no conclusions 1 = very poor (i.e. Abstract is confusing. Conclusions not supported by results) 2 = poor 3 = average 4 = above average 5 = excellent (i.e., Abstract exceptionally well written. Conclusions congruent with results) (Weight = 0.5) |
Originality | The study, methodology/implementation, context and/or findings are new or novel. | 0 = not described 1 = very poor 2 = poor 3 = average 4 = above average 5 = extremely novel (Weight = 0.5) |
Stigmatising language | Please follow the guidelines laid out in the Stop TB Partnership’s publication,Words Matter Language Guides. Key stigmatising words/phrases will be penalised in the review process. | -1 = yes 0 = no (Weight = 1) |
Maximum Marks: 20
The Union is committed to promoting people-centred language in all conference abstracts and presentations. When drafting your submissions, please follow the guidelines laid out in the Stop TB Partnership’s publication, Words Matter Language Guide
Please note, proposals using stigmatising language will be penalised in the review process.
Please make sure you enter the active email address of the chairs and speakers as all communication will be made to these corresponding email addresses.
IMPORTANT: Each chair and speaker must provide one single email address for identification purposes in our submission, registration and all our platforms. Otherwise, the system will not recognise the user.
Notification about the status of the submission will be emailed to the submitter by mid-July.
All the speakers and chairs attending in-person have to be registered for The Union World Conference on Lung Health 2023.
If selected, the chairs and speakers agree to the attached information relating to the release, recording and publication of their presentation and session.
If you wish to contact the Community Connect team, please email us at communityconnect@theunion.org
Track Lead Guidelines
If your organisation/institution is selected as Track Lead, the following roles would be played by them:
- Using your organisation’s networks and resources to increase session applications for the respective track.
- Promote active participation among its members in the Community Connect in-person.
- Reviewing sessions in collaboration with the Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) to select sessions to be featured in the conference broadcast programme.
- Promoting Community Connect 2023 through your organisation’s social media channels by sharing The Union’s Community Connect social media posts on your social media platforms.
- You are also eligible to get free access to a booth dedicated to your organisation/institution in the Community Connect space of the conference. Additional details on the booth shall be shared after confirmation of your organisation/institution as Track Lead.
The coordinator is the representative of the organisation/institution and will be the point of contact. The co-ordinator will be responsible for using their organisation/institution support and resources to collect session applications for the respective track, review them and select relevant sessions to be featured in the conference broadcast programme.
A short description of the interest and expertise of the organisation/institution applying to lead the chosen track and examples of potential sessions you would like to include (up to 500 words). This could include previous experiences in running similar activities at other conferences and examples of events/panels that you’ve organised that are relevant to the theme of the track.
Online submission will be open from 20 April to 15 May
Community Connect Track lead applications would be reviewed by experts from the Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) and assessed based on expertise of the organisation/institution.
The Union is committed to promoting people-centred language in all conference abstracts and presentations. When drafting your submissions, please follow the guidelines laid out in the Stop TB Partnership’s publication, Words Matter Language Guide
Please note, proposals using stigmatising language will be penalised in the review process.
Notification about the status of the application will be emailed to the coordinator/submitter by the end of May.
If you wish to contact the Community Connect team, please email us at communityconnect@theunion.org
Contact Us
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at communityconnect@theunion.org