Action Planning Guide

This online step-by-step strategic planning tool is designed to help users develop an action plan* for community change, based on the issues and concerns, barriers and resources, and risk and protective factors, and goals for change in their own community. Using this tool, teams of people in communities can collaboratively develop their action plan for improving the community, online and in real time.

Steps provide guidance and lists of items from which to choose, based on the topic area for that action plan. Topic areas available are:

  • Child Well-Being
  • Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy
  • Preventing Adolescent Substance Abuse
  • Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
  • Preventing Youth Violence
  • Promoting Health and Wellness Among Older Adults
  • Promoting Health for All
  • Promoting Urban Neighborhood Development
  • Reducing Risk for Chronic Disease
  • Youth Development: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives

The final product will be a complete, printable, and revisable strategic plan. It will include vision and mission statements, broad goals and objectives, specific community change objectives, strategies for completing those objectives, and detailed action plans for priority community change objectives that highlight who will do what by when, and who needs to know when each is complete. Your plan will also include a printable survey for community members to prioritize the objectives.

*Action planning of this sort has been demonstrated to be the single most important modifiable variable leading to the success of a community initiative. For more information about this planning approach, see Chapter 8 (Strategic Planning) and Chapter 1, Section 7 (Working Together).