Chapter 8. Developing a Strategic Plan | Community Tool Box

 

VMOSA (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans) is a practical planning process used to help community groups define a vision and develop practical ways to enact change. VMOSA helps your organization set and achieve short-term goals while keeping sight of your long-term vision. Incorporating this planning process into your group's efforts can support development of a clear mission, shared understanding, coordinated action, and practical ways to turn community aspirations into results. This section explores how and when to implement VMOSA in your organization's planning process.

What is VMOSA?

One way to make that journey is through strategic planning, the process by which a group defines its own "VMOSA;" that is, its Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans. VMOSA is a practical planning process that can be used by community organizations and initiatives. This comprehensive planning tool can help your organization by providing a blueprint for moving from aspirations to actions to positive outcomes for your community.

In this section, we will give a general overview of the process and touch briefly on each of the individual parts. In Examples, we'll show you how an initiative to prevent adolescent pregnancy used the VMOSA process. Then, in Tools, we offer a possible agenda for a planning retreat, should your organization decide to use this process. Finally, the remaining sections in this chapter will walk you through the steps needed to fully develop each portion of the process.

Why should your organization use VMOSA?

Why should your organization use this planning process? There are many good reasons, including all of the following:

• The VMOSA process grounds your aspirations. It makes good ideas more actionable by laying out what needs to happen in order to achieve your vision.
• By developing the process collaboratively -- including people most affected by the issue as well as people and organizations with relevant responsibilities, resources, authority, knowledge, and other capacity to contribute -- your organization can build shared understanding and, when possible, consensus around its focus and the steps it should take.
• The process gives you an opportunity to develop your vision and mission together with people in the community who will be affected by what you do. That makes your work more likely to reflect the community's actual needs, priorities, strengths, and aspirations rather than assumptions about them. Meaningful participation can also strengthen community ownership of the vision and mission and increase the likelihood that the effort will be relevant and sustainable.
• VMOSA allows your organization to focus on short-term goals while keeping sight of its long-term vision and mission.

When should you use VMOSA?

So, when should you use this strategic planning process? It generally makes sense for your organization to have the direction and coordination that strategic planning can provide, but there are some times when it makes particularly good sense to use this process. These times include:

• When you are starting a new organization.
• When your organization is starting a new initiative or large project, or is going to begin work in a new direction.
• When your group is moving into a new phase of an ongoing effort.
• When you are trying to reinvigorate an older initiative that has lost its focus or momentum.
• When you're applying for new funding or to a new funder. It's important under these circumstances to clarify your vision and mission so that funding opportunities support what your organization actually stands for. Otherwise, you may accept requirements or priorities that pull the organization away from its purpose or community commitments.

Let's look briefly at each of the individual ingredients important in this process. Then, in the next few sections we'll look at each of these in more depth and explain how to develop each step of the planning process.

Vision (the dream)

Your vision communicates the ideal conditions your organization and community hope to create -- how things would look if the issue important to you were addressed as fully as possible. This aspirational picture is generally described by one or more brief vision statements that communicate the community's hopes for the future. By developing a vision statement, your organization can make its aspirations and guiding principles clear to the broader community as well as to staff, participants, partners, and volunteers.

There are certain characteristics that many effective vision statements have in common. In general, vision statements should be:

• Understood and shared by the people involved in the effort
• Broad enough to encompass a variety of community perspectives
• Inspiring and meaningful to the people involved in your effort
• Easy to communicate -- brief, memorable, and clear enough that people can readily explain it to others

Here are a few vision statements that illustrate these characteristics:

• Healthy children
• Safe streets, safe neighborhoods
• Every house a home
• Education for all
• Peace on earth

Mission (the what and why)

Developing mission statements is the next step in the action planning process. An organization's mission statement describes what the group is going to do and why it's going to do it. Mission statements are similar to vision statements, but they're more concrete and more action-oriented. The mission might refer to a problem, such as inadequate access to housing, or a goal, such as providing access to health care for everyone. While mission statements don't go into a great deal of detail, they may begin to indicate broadly how your organization intends to address the issues it has identified. Some general guiding principles about mission statements are that they are:

• Concise. Although not as short as a vision statement, a mission statement should communicate its main point clearly and efficiently.
• Outcome-oriented. Mission statements explain the overarching outcomes your organization is working to achieve.
• Inclusive. While mission statements describe your group's overarching purpose, they should usually be broad enough to allow different strategies, partners, and sectors of the community to contribute to the work.

The following mission statements are examples that meet the above criteria.

• "To promote child health and development through a comprehensive family and community initiative."
• "To create a thriving African American community through development of jobs, education, housing, and cultural pride."
• "To develop a safe and healthy neighborhood through collaborative planning, community action, and policy advocacy."

While vision and mission statements themselves should be short, it often makes sense for an organization to include its deeply held beliefs or philosophy, which may help define both its work and the organization itself. One way to do this without sacrificing the directness of the vision and mission statements is to include guiding principles as an addition to the statements. These can explain the organization's values while keeping its vision and mission statements short and focused.

Objectives (how much of what will be accomplished by when)

Once an organization has developed its mission statement, its next step is to develop specific objectives focused on achieving that mission. Objectives refer to measurable results connected with the initiative's broader goals. An organization's objectives generally describe how much of what will be accomplished by when and, when appropriate, compared with what baseline. For example, one objective for a community initiative to promote care and connection among older adults might be: "By 2030, increase by 20% from baseline the percentage of older adults who report daily contact with someone they can rely on for social support."

There are three basic types of objectives. They are:

• Behavioral or practice objectives. These objectives look at changes in what people, organizations, or institutions do and the results associated with those practices. For example, a neighborhood improvement group might develop an objective around increasing the number of homes receiving needed repairs or increasing use of an existing repair-assistance program.
• Community-level outcome objectives. These focus on changes at the community or population level rather than only on individual behavior. For example, the same group might seek to increase the percentage of housing in the community that is safe, affordable, and in good condition.
• Process objectives. These refer to activities, systems, policies, or other implementation steps necessary to achieve broader objectives. For example, the group might adopt and begin implementing a comprehensive neighborhood housing-improvement plan.

It's important to understand that these different types of objectives aren't mutually exclusive. Most groups will develop objectives in more than one category. Examples of objectives include:

• By December 2030, increase by 30% from baseline the percentage of parents and caregivers of children under age 2 who report regularly talking, playing, or reading with their children. (Behavioral or practice objective)
• By 2030, increase by 40% from baseline the percentage of young people in the community who graduate from high school. (Community-level outcome objective)
• By 2031, increase by 30% from baseline the percentage of families who own their home. (Community-level outcome objective)
• By December 2027, implement the volunteer training program for all volunteers. (Process objective)

Strategies (the how)

The next step in the VMOSA process is developing your strategies. Strategies explain how the initiative intends to reach its objectives. Organizations will often use a variety of strategies involving different parts, or sectors, of the community. Strategies can range from broad approaches that involve people and resources across several sectors to more specific approaches focused on particular systems, settings, populations, or barriers.

Examples of broad strategies include:

• A child health program might use social marketing and community outreach to encourage positive involvement by parents, caregivers, and other supportive adults
• An adolescent pregnancy prevention initiative might decide to improve access to accurate sexual health information and contraceptive services
• An urban revitalization project might strengthen the artistic and cultural life of the community by supporting performances, public art, and other creative activities in the area

Five broad types of specific strategies can help guide many interventions. They are:

• Providing information and enhancing skills (e.g., offer skills training in conflict management)
• Enhancing services and support (e.g., start a mentoring program for youth facing barriers or increased risk)
• Modifying access, barriers, and opportunities (such as offering scholarships to students who would otherwise be unable to afford college)
• Modifying incentives and consequences (e.g., recognize or otherwise support community members who volunteer)
• Modifying policies (e.g., change workplace policies to make it easier for parents, caregivers, and volunteers to spend time supporting young children)

Action plan (what change will happen; who will do what by when to make it happen)

Finally, an organization's action plan describes in detail how strategies will be implemented to accomplish the objectives developed earlier in the process. The plan refers to: a) specific community and systems changes to be sought, and b) the specific action steps necessary to bring about those changes across relevant sectors, organizations, or parts of the community.

The key aspects of the intervention or community and systems changes to be sought are outlined in the action plan. For example, in a program whose mission is to increase youth understanding of and participation in civic life, one strategy might be to teach students about elections and other forms of civic participation. Some action steps might be to develop age-appropriate materials, hold mock elections or other civic-learning activities in local schools, and include relevant learning opportunities in the curriculum.

Action steps are developed for each component of the intervention or community and systems changes to be sought. These include:

• Action step(s): What will happen
• Person(s) responsible: Who will do what
• Date to be completed: Timing of each action step
• Resources required: Resources and support, both what is needed and what's available
• Potential barriers, risks, or concerns, and how they will be addressed
• Collaborators: Who else should be involved or informed about this action

Here are two examples of action steps, graphed out so you can easily follow the flow:

 

Action Step	Person(s) Responsible	Date to be Completed	Resources Required	Potential Barriers, Risks, or Concerns	Collaborators
Draft a social marketing plan	Terry McNeil (from marketing firm)	April 2027	$15,000 (remaining services donated)	None anticipated at this stage; review with community partners before implementation	Members of the business action group and relevant community partners
Ask local employers to consider flexible scheduling for parents, caregivers, and mentors	Maria Suarez (from business action group)	September 2027	5 hours; 2 hours for proposal preparation; 3 hours for meetings and transportation	Employers may have concerns about cost, staffing, scheduling, or implementation; discuss potential benefits, feasibility, and possible approaches	Members of the business action group and the school action group

 

Of course, once you have finished designing the strategic plan, or "VMOSA," for your organization, you are just beginning the work. Your action plan will need to be implemented, tested, reviewed, and revised as circumstances change and you learn what works. Obtain feedback from community members and other people involved or affected, and add, remove, or revise elements of the plan based on evidence, experience, and that feedback.

In Summary

Community organizations often begin with an aspiration for what could be different or better. VMOSA helps groups translate that aspiration into coordinated action. This strategic planning process helps community groups define their vision, clarify their mission, establish measurable objectives, choose strategies, and develop practical action steps for bringing about needed changes.

In this section, you've gained a general understanding of the strategic planning process. If you believe your organization might benefit from using this process, we invite you to move on to the next sections of this chapter, which explain in more depth how to design and develop your own strategic plan.

You have defined your group's:

___Vision (the dream)

___Mission (what and why)

___Objectives (how much of what by whom)

___Strategies (how)

___Action plans (who will do what by when)

___You understand when to use VMOSA, the strategic planning process

Example 1: Live Well Boone County

 

In early 2013, the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services embarked on a comprehensive process to identify the health needs of the Boone County, Missouri community. The process included both an extensive review of community data, as well as a gathering of input from a variety of stakeholders, community members, and public health partners through the six-phase Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) model, created by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Public Health Program Practice Office.

The quantitative and qualitative data led to the development of the department’s Community Health Assessment (CHA) and the subsequent Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) Live Well Boone County, taking information from the CHA and turning it into actionable steps to improve the health of Boone County.

Read more from Community Commons here.

Example 2: Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan

The six-year Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan represents a critical opportunity for King County to do ground-breaking work:

• Applying a theory of change that fundamentally shifts the county away from policies and practices that react to problems and crises toward investments that address the root causes of inequities, ultimately leading to better quality of life and greater prosperity in all of their communities.
• Balancing a bold vision with actionable and measurable objectives.
• Allowing for innovation and adaptability across King County government to help them be dynamic and culturally responsive, moving towards the goal of being racially justice internally and in the community.

Their Equity and Social Justice strategies as One King County are to invest upstream and where needs are greatest, in employees and in community partnerships. And they will do this with accountable and transparent leadership.

Read more about the plan here.

Download a full copy of the plan here.

Tool 1: Action Planning Template

This is a downloadable, editable template you are welcome to adapt and use for your group’s purposes. There is a space for noting the overall goal area, SMART+C objectives, strategies, and related action steps for implementation. 

Keep the updated action plan accessible to the group, with regular reviews during coalition meetings to keep action items moving forward. 

 

Action Planning Template

Download the Action Planning Template (docx)

Goal:
Overall goal statement:
Overall objective(s):  Note: Use SMART+C formatting
Priority focus areas:

 

Focus Area 1:
Objective(s):
Strategy 1:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 2:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 3:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:

 

Focus Area 2:
Objective(s):
Strategy 1:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 2:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 3:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:

 

Focus Area 3:
Objective(s):
Strategy 1:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 2:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 3:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:

 

Tool 2: Action Planning Guides from the KU Center for Community Health and Development

Community and Public Health Action Planning Guides

• Reducing Risk for Chronic Disease
• Promoting Health for All: Improving Access and Eliminating Disparities in Community Health
• Promoting Healthy Living and Preventing Chronic Disease
• Your Action Planning Guide for Promoting Full Community Participation Among People with Disabilities

Child and Youth Health and Development Action Planning Guides

• Preventing Adolescent Substance Abuse
• Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy
• Preventing Youth Violence
• Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
• Youth Development
• Promoting Child Well-Being

Community Development and Capacity Building Action Planning Guides

• Promoting Urban Neighborhood Development: Improving Housing, Jobs, Education, Safety and Health, and Human Development
• Work Group Evaluation Handbook
• Concerns Report Handbook: Planning for Community Health

 

An Example Outline Using Two Half-Day Working Sessions

Action Planning Workshop Outline: Two Half-Day Working Sessions

Overall Process: An effective action planning session allows a diverse group of participants to:

• Clarify common purpose - Through listening, gathering and reviewing data, and building a shared vision and mission.
• Generate and critique options - Through consideration of risk and protective factors, broad and specific strategies, and the community's framework for action, it identifies particular changes in communities and systems (i.e., new or modified programs, policies, and practices) to be sought to achieve the mission.
• Obtain consensus about community and systems changes to be sought - Through ballot voting about the importance and feasibility of proposed changes, or by having participants use "dots" to register preferences for changes to be sought.
• Decide how to proceed as a group - Through open discussion, the group identifies action steps (i.e., who will do what by when) to bring about the identified changes.

Background Work Before the Session/Workshop:

• Those developing the workshop should review the VMOSA process
• Hold listening sessions with a variety of people including those most affected
• Document the issues or problems, including data on the challenges of the issue your organization is facing

Session/Day One (1/2 Day)

8:30: Continental Breakfast
9:00: Welcome and Introductions
9:20: Overview of the Action Planning Process
9:30: VMOSA: What is VMOSA (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, Action Plans)?
9:45: Vision: Promoting Neighborhood Development (Creating your own community's vision)
10:15: Mission: What are we trying to accomplish and why? (Stating your mission).
10:45: Objectives: How much of what will we accomplish by when? (Creating your objectives).
11:15: Strategies: How will we get there? (Identifying a set of broad and specific strategies).
12:15: Questions/ Wrap Up:Group Summarizes Accomplishments of Session/Day One
12:30: Adjourn

Product of Session/Day One:

A new (or renewed) statement of the group's Vision, Mission, Objectives, and Strategies. (These may require review or approval by a broader group.)

Homework Before Session/Day Two:

Review the "Inventory of Potential Community and Systems Changes for Promoting Neighborhood Development." Bring recommended changes to be sought: a) by specific strategy (i.e., providing information and enhancing skills, modifying access, barriers, and opportunities, enhancing services and support, changing consequences, and modifying policies) and b) by community sector (e.g., Community Organizations, Faith Communities, Government).

Day/Session Two (1/2 Day)

9:00: Review of Session/Day One and Overview of Session/Day Two
9:15: Identifying Targets and Agents of Changes: Who should benefit? Who can contribute?
9:30: Identifying Community and Systems Changes: By Strategy (work in small groups of 6-8 organized by strategy)
10:15: Small Group Reports
10:45: Identifying Community and Systems Changes: By Sector (work in small groups of 6-8 organized by sector)
11:15: Small Group Reports
11:45: Building consensus on community and systems changes to be sought (e.g., using dots, voting)
12:15: Next Steps:

• Building Consensus/Seeking Approval from the larger group (if appropriate)
• Identifying Action Steps for each change to be sought (who will do what by when)
• Plan for Documenting Progress and Promoting Celebration and Renewal

12:45: Questions/ Wrap Up - Group Summarizes Accomplishments of Session/Day Two
1:00: Adjourn

Product of Session/Day Two:

A set of community and systems changes (i.e., new or modified programs, policies and practices to be sought in each relevant sector of the community (e.g., Community Organizations, Faith Communities, Government).

Tool 3: The GTE Toolkit (Getting To Equity In Obesity Prevention)

This toolkit from the Council on Black Health addresses the need to include an equity component in the planning and implementation of policy, systems, and environmental change approaches (PSE) undertaken to curb adverse trends in obesity and related health consequences.

PSE approaches focus on circumstances that make it possible or easier for people in a given set of circumstances to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors. PSE approaches can work together with approaches that work directly with individuals. 

The toolkit is based on the Getting to Equity in Obesity Prevention Framework (GTE) for planning and evaluating equity-focused PSE change approaches that support:

• Food acquisition and healthy eating
• Active living and meeting physical activity guidelines
• Prevention and management of obesity and related health risks

To learn more about this amazing set of tools, click this link to go to the GTE Toolkit website.

Tool 4: Responding to Threats and Challenges Planning Tool

Responding to Threats and Challenges Planning Tool is a resource developed by the Collective Impact Forum to help organizations equip themselves to face rising threats. The tool provides a structured approach to identifying risks, addressing their impact, and developing strategies for mitigation.

Tool 5: The Scenario Planning Toolkit

The Scenario Planning Toolkit is a resource created by The Bridgespan Group to help nonprofit organizations navigate periods of uncertainty. Whether it's a global pandemic or an election year, scenario planning helps guide strategic decision-making while keeping the organization's mission at the forefront. 

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

Creating your organization's vision and mission statements are the first two steps in the VMOSA action planning process. Developing clear vision and mission statements can provide an important foundation for community initiatives. These statements explain your group's aspirations and purpose in a concise manner, help your organization focus on what is most important, and provide a basis for developing other aspects of your strategic plan. This section provides a guide for developing and using your organization's vision and mission statements.

What is a vision statement?

Your vision describes the conditions your organization and community hope to create in the future. It is an aspirational picture of how things could look if the issue important to you were addressed as fully as possible. It might describe a world without war, a community where everyone has access to safe housing, or a community in which people are treated equitably and with dignity.

Your organization's vision may be expressed through one or more vision statements, which are brief phrases or sentences that communicate hopes for the future. By developing a vision statement or statements, your organization can clarify its aspirations and guiding principles for members of the organization and for the broader community.

There are certain characteristics that many effective vision statements have in common. In general, vision statements should be:

• Understood and shared by the people involved in the effort
• Broad enough to include a variety of community perspectives
• Inspiring and meaningful to the people involved in your effort
• Easy to communicate -- brief, memorable, and clear enough that people can readily explain it to others

Here are some examples of vision statements that illustrate these characteristics:

• A community where all individuals and families achieve their human potential.
• ValorUS envisions a world free from violence where the dignity of every person is valued and respected.
• A future free from lifelong nicotine addiction. (Truth Initiative)
• A world without Alzheimer's and all other dementia. (Alzheimer's Association)
• The United States is a humane community in which all animals are treated with respect and kindness. (ASPCA)
• A world where everyone has a decent place to live. (Habitat for Humanity)

What is a mission statement?

The next step of the action planning process is to ground your vision in practical terms. This is where developing a mission statement comes in. An organization's mission statement describes what the group is going to do and why it is going to do it. An example is "Promoting care and caring at the end of life through coalitions and advocacy."

Mission statements are similar to vision statements in that they also look at the big picture. However, they are more concrete and action-oriented. Your vision statement describes the future you hope to help create; your mission statement describes your organization's overall purpose and contribution toward that future.

The mission statement might refer to a problem, such as inadequate access to safe, affordable housing, or a goal, such as providing equitable access to health care. While mission statements don't go into a great deal of detail, they may begin to indicate broadly how your organization intends to address the issues or goals it has identified. Some general guiding principles are that mission statements are:

• Concise. While not necessarily as short as vision statements, mission statements should communicate their main point clearly and efficiently.
• Outcome-oriented. Mission statements explain the fundamental outcomes your organization is working to achieve.
• Inclusive. While mission statements describe your group's key purpose, they should usually be broad enough to allow different strategies, partners, and sectors of the community to contribute to the work.

The following examples should help you understand what we mean by effective mission statements.

• Promoting community health and development by connecting people, ideas and resources. (Community Tool Box)
• ValorUS works to prevent and end sexual violence by advancing equity and eradicating oppression.
• The Alzheimer's Association leads the way to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support.
• The mission of the ASPCA, as stated by Henry Bergh in 1866, is "to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States."
• Seeking to put God's love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.

Why should you create vision and mission statements?

Why is it useful for your organization to develop vision and mission statements like those above? First, these statements can help your organization remain focused on what is most important. Even when an organization has a clear sense of purpose, day-to-day responsibilities, new opportunities, emergencies, and competing priorities can make it easy to lose sight of the larger goal. Vision and mission statements provide a continuing point of reference.

Second, your vision and mission statements give other individuals and organizations a concise view of what your group is and what it hopes to accomplish. When the statements are easy to find -- for example, on your website, organizational materials, presentations, reports, or other communications -- potential participants, partners, funders, and community members can quickly understand whether your work connects with their interests or responsibilities.

Finally, vision and mission statements can help focus participants on a shared purpose. The process of developing the statements can be as important as the final wording. When people have meaningful opportunities to contribute, discuss differences, and understand how the statements were developed, the process can strengthen shared understanding, commitment, and ownership.

Having a clear and compelling vision statement has other advantages, such as:

• Drawing people to common work
• Giving people a clear picture of the better future the effort hopes to help create
• Inspiring community members to take positive and effective action toward shared aspirations
• Providing a basis for developing other aspects of your action planning process: your mission, objectives, strategies, and action plans

Having a clear and compelling mission statement also has advantages, such as:

• Translating the broad aspirations of your vision into more specific, action-oriented terms
• Explaining your organization's purpose to community members, partners, potential participants, and others in a clear and concise manner
• Helping funders and partners understand your organization's purpose, intended outcomes, and alignment with potential funding or collaboration

How do you create vision and mission statements?

With a better understanding of vision and mission statements, your organization can begin developing its own. If your group already has vision and mission statements, you may wish to review them in light of the criteria discussed above. If participants believe the current statements could be improved, the same process can be used to revise them. Let's begin.

Learn what is important to people in your community

Because developing your vision and mission statements is an early step in creating your action plan, it is especially important that these statements be grounded in community priorities, strengths, experiences, and values. Understanding what matters to the community can help your organization develop a vision and mission that remain relevant over time.

One of the first steps you should take when developing the vision and mission of your organization is to learn which issues, strengths, aspirations, and concerns matter to people in your community. How do you go about doing so?

There are many different ways you can gather this information, including:

Conducting public forums or listening sessions with community members to gather ideas, experiences, priorities, and hopes for how they would like to see the community change.

In public forums or listening sessions, people gather to discuss what is important to them. Facilitators can help create opportunities for people to describe community strengths, concerns, priorities, and aspirations. Document what participants say through notes, summaries, or recordings when participants have agreed to recording, and explain how the information will be used in later planning.

Holding focus groups with people who have different relationships to the issue, including people most affected, community leaders, service providers, businesses, faith communities, educators, advocates, and others whose experiences are relevant.

Focus groups are smaller guided discussions that allow participants to explore a particular issue in more depth. In some circumstances, organizing a group around a shared experience, role, language, or community connection may help people speak openly. In other cases, a mix of perspectives may be more useful. Design the groups according to the questions you are trying to answer rather than assuming that people of the same age, ethnicity, profession, or other characteristic necessarily share the same views.

Your organization may hold several focus groups to understand different perspectives on the issue. For example, if your organization is involved in child health, you might speak separately or together with health care providers, parents and caregivers, young people, teachers, community health workers, or other groups. Once you have a draft vision or mission statement, you might hold additional discussions to learn how people interpret it and what they believe is missing.

Conducting interviews with people who bring different forms of knowledge and experience. These might include people directly affected by the issue, neighborhood and community leaders, organizers, elected officials, school administrators, health professionals, faith leaders, business and labor representatives, and staff from public or nonprofit organizations.

Different people will bring different kinds of knowledge. Some may have research, administrative data, professional experience, or knowledge of policies and systems. Others may have lived experience, community history, or practical knowledge about barriers and strengths that institutions have overlooked. These perspectives can inform planning, funding proposals, advocacy, implementation, and evaluation.

These methods are not mutually exclusive, but there is no requirement to use every method in every planning process. Choose the combination that fits your purpose, resources, accessibility needs, timeline, and community. What matters most is that the process provides meaningful ways to hear from people who are directly affected as well as people with other relevant knowledge, responsibilities, or perspectives.

Decide what to ask

Whether you are talking to one person or a large group, your purpose is the same: to learn what matters in your community and what people hope the effort will accomplish. Here's a list of questions you might use to focus your discussions with community members. These questions may be used for individual interviews, focus groups, public forums, surveys, workshops, or other ways of gathering information.

• What is your vision for our community?
• What would you like to see change?
• What kind of community, program, policy, school, neighborhood, or other setting do we want to create?
• What do you see as the community's major issues or challenges?
• What do you see as the community's major strengths and assets?
• What do you think should be the purpose of this organization or effort?
• Why do these issues matter?
• What would success look like?
• Whose perspectives or experiences are missing from this conversation?
• What barriers could keep people from benefiting from or participating in this effort?

When your organization is gathering ideas for a vision, encourage participants to think broadly and aspirationally. This is the stage for imagining what a better future could look like rather than immediately rejecting ideas because they seem difficult. Practical choices, tradeoffs, and resource constraints can be addressed as the planning process continues.

Decide on the general focus of your organization

Once your organization has listened to community perspectives, it is time to decide the general focus of the organization or initiative. What issue or opportunity is most important to the work? For example, will you focus on housing, public health, racism, economic opportunity, education, environmental conditions, or another community priority?

A second question is the level at which your organization will work. Will your effort begin in one school, one neighborhood, or one city? Will it work across a region, state, nation, or several countries? The appropriate scope will depend on the issue, the people affected, your organization's mission, available resources, and where meaningful change can occur.

These questions rarely have simple answers. Use what you learned from community engagement, relevant evidence, organizational responsibilities, and practical constraints to determine the best direction. Open the discussion to the people who will carry out and be affected by the work so that different perspectives can inform the decision.

Funding may also affect the scope of an initiative. If your organization accepts a grant to address child hunger, for example, the funded work will necessarily be connected to that purpose. Be transparent about requirements that have already been established by funders or other authorities and identify which decisions remain open to community influence. Within those boundaries, community perspectives should meaningfully shape how the work is understood, designed, and carried out.

Develop your vision and mission statements

Now that your organization has a clearer understanding of what the group will do and why, you are in a strong position to develop statements that capture those ideas.

As you consider possible statements, keep them broad and enduring enough to remain useful over time. Vision and mission statements that are appropriately wide in scope can provide continuity with a community's history, values, and long-term aspirations while still guiding current decisions.

Vision Statements

Remind participants that an organization may use one vision statement or several complementary statements to capture its aspirations. The goal is not to find a clever "perfect" phrase, but to communicate clearly the future the effort hopes to help create. Encourage participants to suggest possibilities and make the ideas visible to the group, whether on poster paper, a whiteboard, shared document, or another accessible format.

As you do this, remind the group of:

• What you have learned from discussions with community members
• What your organization has decided will be its general focus
• What you learned about effective vision statements at the beginning of this section

If you have a hard time getting started, you might wish to review some of the vision statements in this section's Examples and ask how well they reflect the principles discussed above.

After brainstorming a list of possibilities, your group can discuss the ideas critically. Sometimes one statement will quickly seem to capture what people have been trying to express. At other times, the group will need to combine, revise, or compare several ideas.

If the choice is more complicated, ask yourselves:

• Does it help bring people together around meaningful work?
• Does it communicate a hopeful and credible picture of the future?
• Can people affected by the issue see their aspirations and dignity reflected in it?
• Does it provide a useful foundation for the other parts of your action planning process?

Don't become overly concerned with having a particular number of vision statements. Whether your organization ultimately uses one statement or several, what matters is that they provide a clear and coherent picture of the future your organization and community hope to help create.

Mission Statements

The process of writing your mission statement is similar to developing your vision statement or statements. Brainstorm several possibilities, discuss them, and revise them until the group has a statement that communicates the organization's purpose clearly. Unlike a set of complementary vision statements, an organization will usually benefit from having a single primary mission statement.

Ask:

• Does it describe what your organization will do and why it will do it?
• Is it concise and easy to understand?
• Is it outcome-oriented?
• Is it broad enough to include the goals, communities, partners, and strategies that may reasonably become part of the work?
• Is it consistent with what you learned from people affected by and involved in the issue?

Together, your organization can decide which statement best meets these criteria and reflects the purpose of the work.

Seek broad agreement on your vision and mission statements

Once members of your organization have developed draft vision and mission statements, it may be useful to learn what other community members think before adopting or using them widely.

You can return to people and groups who participated earlier or invite additional perspectives. Ask whether the statements are clear, respectful, inclusive, accurate, and consistent with what people said mattered to them. Also ask what seems to be missing or unclear.

For example, an adolescent pregnancy prevention initiative that wants young men to participate more fully might consider a statement such as "Young men in Asheville have the information and support they need to make healthy decisions." Community feedback could help determine whether the statement communicates the intended goal clearly, whether it unintentionally excludes or diminishes anyone else, and whether another wording would better reflect the initiative's broader vision.

You will also want to know whether community members believe the statements capture the overall spirit of the aspirations and purpose they discussed. Your organization may discover that something important was omitted or that different groups interpret the same wording in different ways.

Broad agreement is useful, but unanimity may not always be possible. If meaningful disagreements remain, understand and document them rather than forcing consensus simply to finish the process. The final statements should reflect a thoughtful and transparent process and should not imply a level of community agreement that does not actually exist.

Decide how you will use your vision and mission statements

Developing the statements is an important step, but their value comes from how they guide and communicate your work. Use them when making strategic decisions, evaluating new opportunities, explaining the organization to others, orienting new staff or volunteers, and deciding whether activities remain aligned with your purpose.

There are many ways your organization may choose to communicate its vision and mission statements. For example, you might:

• Include them in organizational letterhead, stationery, or other formal materials when useful
• Use them on your website and relevant digital profiles
• Include them in presentations, orientation materials, newsletters, social media, or other communications
• Include them in media materials or background information for journalists
• Refer to them when giving interviews or speaking publicly about the organization
• Include them in annual reports, strategic plans, grant proposals, partnership materials, and other organizational documents
• Use them when considering whether a new program, partnership, funding opportunity, or policy direction fits your organization's purpose

Review the statements periodically. An enduring vision and mission should not change every time a new project begins, but major changes in the community, the organization, or the issue may eventually make revision appropriate.

In Summary

Developing effective vision and mission statements is an important part of strategic planning because these statements influence many of the decisions that follow. A strong vision describes the future your organization and community hope to help create, while a strong mission explains the organization's purpose and contribution toward that future.

The most useful statements are grounded in meaningful community input, clear about the organization's purpose, broad enough to guide work over time, and concise enough to communicate easily. The process should make room for multiple perspectives and genuine disagreement rather than treating consensus as something that must be forced.

Think broadly and aspirationally, listen carefully to the people affected by the work, and then translate those aspirations into statements that can guide practical action.

___You have shared your understanding of vision and mission statements with members of your organization

___You understand what is important to people in your community

___You have decided on the general focus (topic and scope) of your organization

___You have developed your vision and mission statements

___You have obtained consensus on your vision and mission statements

___You have decided how to use your vision and mission statements

Example: A coalition identifies new members

A community coalition has formed a new task force on transportation to respond to the needs of a rural community to get clients to appointments, parents to schools, employees to their jobs and to generally help isolated individuals and families get around more.

At the first meeting of the task force, the coalition coordinator, the head of the council on aging, two interested parents and someone from the literacy center show up. For a while they ponder how they are going to get more people to the task force and then they brainstorm a list. They think of all the individuals who are concerned about the problem and in so doing add the VNA, the school counselors, free meals programs, and others. They begin to think about who could help solve the problem and they think about all the people in the community who actually have vehicles. This includes the mental health center, the council on aging, the programs for the developmentally disabledand the schools in the public sector and the private sector, the local taxi and bus companies.

All the names are placed up on the list. Then they turn to the coalition coordinator and say, "Why don't you give them a call?" She in turn says, "No, let's go though the list and see which one of us knows any of these people or who else knows them and let's invite them to the next meeting."

Following that strategy, they double their membership by the next meeting.

Tool: Developing a Vision and Mission Statement

Download a worksheet in MS Word here.

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

To obtain results, we need to articulate the outcomes and changes we hope to achieve.

This section focuses on developing specific objectives that can help make your vision and mission a reality.

What are objectives?

Objectives are specific, measurable results that an initiative intends to achieve. Objectives specify how much of what will be accomplished by when and, when appropriate, compared with what starting point or baseline. For example, one of several objectives for a community initiative promoting connection and support among older adults might be: "By 2030 (by when), increase by 20% from baseline (how much) the percentage of older adults who report daily contact with someone they can rely on for social support (of what)."

There are three broad types of objectives. They are:

• Process objectives. These describe important planning, implementation, policy, partnership, or organizational steps needed to support the initiative's broader goals. For example, a neighborhood improvement group might adopt and begin implementing a comprehensive plan for improving housing conditions.
• Behavioral or practice objectives. These describe measurable changes in what people, organizations, institutions, or systems do. For example, a neighborhood improvement initiative might seek to increase the number of homes receiving needed repairs or increase the use of an existing home-repair assistance program.
• Community-level outcome objectives. These focus on measurable changes in conditions or outcomes across a community or population rather than only on individual behavior. For example, the same neighborhood group might aim to increase the percentage of housing in the community that is safe, affordable, and in good condition.

These types of objectives aren't mutually exclusive. Many initiatives will benefit from objectives that describe implementation, changes in practices or systems, and community-level outcomes. The mix you need will depend on your mission and the work required to achieve it.

Objectives should be S.M.A.R.T. + C.:

• Specific. They clearly identify how much of what is expected to change and by when. When appropriate, they also identify the population, setting, or baseline against which change will be measured.
• Measurable. Information about progress toward the objective can be collected, observed, detected, or otherwise assessed.
• Achievable. The objective is feasible given available resources, evidence, community conditions, organizational capacity, and the timeframe involved.
• Relevant to the mission. Your organization understands how the objective contributes to its broader vision and mission.
• Timed. The objective includes a timeframe for achieving or assessing the intended change.
• Challenging. The objective is ambitious enough to represent meaningful improvement while remaining credible and attainable.

Why should you create objectives?

There are many good reasons to develop objectives for your initiative. They include:

• Establishing benchmarks that can be used to assess progress.
• Giving members of your organization, community members, partners, funders, and others a clear way to understand what the initiative is trying to accomplish and what progress has occurred.
• Helping your organization focus on activities and strategies that contribute to meaningful results.
• Helping participants and partners coordinate their work toward shared long-term goals.

When should you create objectives?

Your community organization should create or revise objectives when:

• Your organization has developed or revised its vision and mission statements and is ready to take the next step in the planning process.
• Your organization's focus has changed or expanded. For example, perhaps your organization's mission relates to care and support at the end of life. You have recently identified new resources that could also strengthen support for people grieving the death of someone close to them. Expanding into this work would require objectives describing what the organization intends to accomplish.
• The organization wants to address a community issue, create a service, change a system or policy, or pursue another goal that requires:
  • Several years to complete. For example, a child and youth initiative might seek to increase the percentage of students who complete high school, a change that may require sustained work over several years.
  • Changes in practices, opportunities, environments, or behavior among many people or organizations. For example, an initiative addressing cardiovascular health might work to increase opportunities for physical activity and the percentage of adults who are physically active.
  • A multifaceted approach. For example, addressing substance use may involve prevention, harm reduction, treatment access, recovery support, community conditions, policy, health care, public safety, and other related systems rather than focusing on only one behavior or service.

How do you create objectives?

Once your organization has decided to develop objectives, how do you go about doing so? Let's look at a process that can help you define and refine objectives for your organization.

Define or reaffirm your vision and mission statements

The first thing you will need to do is review the vision and mission statements your organization has developed. Before determining specific objectives, you should have a clear understanding of the broader vision and mission they are intended to support.

Determine the changes to be made

A central part of writing useful objectives is determining what changes need to occur in order to move toward your mission.

There are many ways to do this, including:

• Review current evidence and promising practices related to the issue. Research may help identify strategies, policies, programs, environmental changes, and other approaches associated with better outcomes. Information may be available through peer-reviewed research, government agencies, professional organizations, universities, libraries, national and local nonprofit organizations, and other credible sources. Evidence should be considered alongside community knowledge, local conditions, implementation experience, and the priorities of people affected by the issue.
• Discuss with community members, practitioners, and others with relevant knowledge what needs to occur. People you may wish to involve include:
  • Members of your organization
  • People and organizations with experience addressing similar issues
  • People and organizations with relevant responsibilities, authority, resources, expertise, relationships, or other capacity to contribute. Depending on the issue, these might include educators, employers, faith communities, government officials, health professionals, community organizations, residents, media professionals, or others.
  • People and communities directly affected by the issue, including people with lived experience and people whose opportunities, environments, services, policies, or everyday circumstances may be affected by the changes being considered.
• Discuss the organizational and logistical requirements needed to address community priorities successfully. While identifying what needs to change in the community or broader system, also consider what your organization needs in order to contribute effectively. Do you need an action plan? Additional funding? Staff? Training? Data systems? New partnerships? Accessibility improvements? Community outreach? These considerations can help you develop useful process objectives.

At this stage, you don't need final answers to every question. The purpose is to develop a broad picture of the changes, conditions, resources, and activities that may be necessary to move toward the desired results.

For example, perhaps your group has decided upon the following mission: "To reduce risk for cardiovascular disease through a community-wide initiative." At this point in your research and community discussions, your organization might identify broad goals such as:

• Increase access to evidence-based tobacco-use prevention and cessation support
• Reduce exposure to tobacco and nicotine products, particularly among young people
• Increase opportunities for safe and accessible physical activity
• Support healthy weight and reduce weight-related health risks using respectful, non-stigmatizing approaches
• Improve access to affordable, nutritious foods and support healthy eating patterns
• Increase access to and use of appropriate preventive care, screening, treatment, and information about cardiovascular risk
• Strengthen the organization's understanding of current cardiovascular-health evidence, community conditions, and health disparities
• Strengthen partnerships with local, state, and national organizations working toward related goals

Collect baseline data on the issues to be addressed

Once your organization has a general idea of what it wants to accomplish, the next step is to identify appropriate baseline data. Baseline data describe the starting conditions against which future change can be compared. Depending on your objectives, baseline measures might describe needs, strengths, behaviors, practices, services, systems, resources, policies, access, attitudes, or community-level outcomes.

Baseline data may include incidence, or the number or rate of new events or cases occurring over a defined period. They may also include prevalence, which describes how common a condition or characteristic is within a population at a particular time or during a defined period.

Baseline information can also measure access, participation, community conditions, service use, organizational practices, policy implementation, perceptions, experiences, strengths, or other factors relevant to the objective. For example, an initiative might measure the percentage of community members who report knowing where to obtain a particular service or the percentage who believe that service is accessible to them.

Why collect baseline data?

Baseline data establish a starting point. Without a credible starting measure, it can be difficult to determine whether the condition you are monitoring changed, by how much, or in what direction. Baseline information can also help an organization understand the scale and distribution of an issue, identify disparities or gaps, set realistic objectives, allocate resources, and explain why action may be warranted.

Later, baseline measures can be compared with follow-up data. For example, an initiative might report that a community pregnancy rate declined by 35% from the baseline period. That finding documents an important change, but the fact that the change occurred after an initiative began does not by itself establish that the initiative caused the decline. Stronger evaluation methods may be needed to understand the initiative's contribution and the role of other community, policy, economic, demographic, or social changes.

How do you collect this information?

There are two broad ways to obtain baseline data:

• You can collect data specifically for your initiative. Depending on the question, methods may include surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, assessments, administrative records, community mapping, service data, or other appropriate approaches.
• You can use existing information. Government agencies, public datasets, schools, health departments, health systems, social service organizations, universities, libraries, community organizations, and other sources may already have relevant data. Check when and how the information was collected, which population it represents, and whether it is current and appropriate for your objective.

Decide what is realistic for your organization to accomplish

Once you know what changes you hope to contribute to and understand the starting conditions, determine what your organization can reasonably seek to accomplish. Do you have the resources, partnerships, authority, time, and capacity needed to address all of the goals you identified? What scale of change is supported by the evidence and community context?

These questions can be difficult, especially for a new initiative. For example, if you are trying to increase childhood immunization coverage, what amount of improvement is realistic within one year, three years, or five years? The answer will depend on the current baseline, barriers to vaccination, available services, community trust, policies, resources, and the strategies you plan to use.

There are rarely simple answers. Examine available research and prior experience, talk with people directly affected by the issue, and consult practitioners, evaluators, community partners, and others who have experience with similar work. Use this information to estimate what level of change is ambitious but credible.

Remember, you are attempting to set objectives that are both achievable and challenging. You may not estimate the ideal target perfectly at first. Monitoring progress and reviewing new evidence can help you revise objectives when circumstances or assumptions change.

Set the objectives for your organization or initiative

With this information in mind, your organization is ready to establish specific measurable objectives. Objectives should describe results that can be tracked over time and should connect clearly with the initiative's mission, baseline conditions, strategies, and intended outcomes.

A caution: Funding agencies, laws, regulations, contracts, or other outside requirements may shape some objectives. Be transparent about those requirements. At the same time, your organization and community partners should consider whether the objectives remain consistent with the mission, community priorities, evidence, and ethical responsibilities of the initiative rather than pursuing a measure simply because funding is attached to it.

Your organization's objectives should:

• Include the types of objectives needed to describe important implementation steps, changes in behaviors or practices, and community-level outcomes. Many initiatives will benefit from objectives in all three areas.
• State specifically how much of what is expected to change by when and, where appropriate, compared with what baseline. For example: "By 2030, reduce the adolescent pregnancy rate by 30% from the 2027 baseline."
• Meet the "SMART + C" criteria. As discussed earlier, objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timed, and Challenging.

Let's look at another example. An adolescent substance-use prevention initiative might develop objectives such as the following after reviewing its baseline data, community priorities, research evidence, and available resources:

Illustrative objectives developed by an adolescent substance-use prevention initiative

By 2030, reduce current tobacco and nicotine-product use among youth ages 12-17 by an amount determined from the initiative's baseline data and evidence-informed target.
By 2030, reduce current alcohol use among youth ages 12-17 by an amount determined from baseline data and the initiative's strategies.
By 2030, reduce current cannabis use among youth ages 12-17 by an amount supported by baseline data, community priorities, and available evidence.
By 2030, increase the percentage of youth who report access to trusted prevention, treatment, mental health, and recovery-support resources.

The point is not to choose the largest percentage possible. Targets should be based on credible baseline information, evidence, community conditions, available resources, and the scale of change the initiative can reasonably influence.

Review the objectives your organization has created

Before finalizing your objectives, review them carefully and consider asking people outside the group that drafted them to provide feedback. Reviewers might include people directly affected by the issue, community partners, implementation staff, relevant subject-matter experts, evaluators, funders when appropriate, and people doing similar work in other communities.

Ask reviewers to consider:

• Does each objective meet the criteria of "SMART + C"?
• Is the list complete? Are important process, practice, systems, access, or outcome objectives missing?
• Are the objectives appropriate, ethical, evidence-informed, and consistent with the organization's mission and community priorities? Could any objective have unintended consequences or generate substantial community concern that should be addressed during planning?

Significant disagreement does not automatically mean an objective should be abandoned. For example, an HIV-prevention initiative might include expanding access to comprehensive syringe services programs for people who use or inject drugs. Such an objective may generate public or political disagreement in some communities, but the organization should assess the evidence, legal and policy context, likely health effects, community concerns, implementation requirements, and communication needs rather than judging the objective solely by whether it is controversial.

Use your objectives to define your organization's strategies

Once your objectives are clear, measurable, and aligned with your mission, you are ready for the next step: developing strategies for achieving them. Objectives identify the changes you are seeking; strategies describe the broad approaches you will use to help bring those changes about.

In Summary

Developing objectives is an important step in strategic planning. Strong objectives translate a broad vision and mission into specific results that can be monitored and evaluated. They should be grounded in community priorities, credible baseline data, available evidence, organizational capacity, and a realistic understanding of the changes the initiative can influence.

Objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timed, and challenging. They may address implementation processes, behaviors or practices, systems and environments, and community-level outcomes. They should also be reviewed over time and revised when new evidence, community feedback, changing conditions, or evaluation findings show that an adjustment is needed.

The next section covers how to develop strategies to achieve the objectives you have set.

___Your organization understands what objectives are, and when you should develop them

___Your organization understands that objectives should be "SMART +C"

___You have defined and reaffirmed your vision and mission statements

___You have determined the changes to be made

___You have collected baseline data on the issues to be addressed

___You have decided what is realistic for your organization to accomplish

___You have set objectives for the organization or initiative

___You have reviewed the objectives your organization has created

Example: The Reducing the Risks (RTR) Coalition's development of objectives to reduce teen pregnancy

The RTR Coalition decided that its main targets of change would be young people (girls and boys), parents and guardians, and members of the community at large.

Some of the agents of change who could assist with the project included:

• Peers
• Teachers at the local junior high and high schools
• Church leaders and youth group directors
• The mayor
• The directors of local youth groups, such as the Boys and Girls Club and the city youth center

Members of the RTR Coalition reviewed their vision and mission statements, discussed changes they wanted to see made, baseline data, and what they felt was realistic for their group to achieve. After working through all of these steps, they sat down to write a list of objectives.

A partial listing of their ideas included:

• By the year 2010, 90% of our community will agree with the statement, "It is very important that our community effectively address the problem of teen pregnancy."
• By the year 2012, the reported level of sexual abstinence and postponement of initial sexual intercourse among 12-17 year olds will be increased by 20%.
• By the year 2012, the reported use of contraceptives among adolescents 12-17 years old who choose to be sexually active will increase by 33%.
• By the year 2014, the estimated rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) among 12-17 year olds will be reduced by 40%.
• By the year 2015, the estimated pregnancy rate among 12-17 year olds will be reduced by 25%.

Things to note about the RTR objectives:

• They include what specific changes in whose behavior (and which community-level outcomes) should occur.
• They include by when the objective should be met.
• They include how much of the desired change should occur.
• They are relevant to the mission; that is, they refer to the issues that are directly related to teen pregnancy (contraceptive use, STD rate, etc.).
• They are challenging; they will stretch the community to go beyond what it is doing.

Tool: Developing Objectives and Strategies

Download a worksheet in MS Word here.

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

• What is a strategy?

• What are the criteria for developing a good strategy?

• Why develop strategies?

• When should you develop strategies for your initiative?

• How do you develop strategies?

What is a strategy?

A strategy is a way of describing how you are going to get things done. It is less specific than an action plan, which tells the who-what-when; instead, it broadly answers the question, "How do we get there from here?" Different strategies represent different possible routes toward the same goal.

A good strategy takes into account existing barriers, assets, resources, opportunities, and community conditions. Resources may include people, money, relationships, knowledge, authority, materials, facilities, and other forms of support. Strategies should also remain consistent with the overall vision, mission, and objectives of the initiative. Often, an initiative will use several different strategies -- providing information, strengthening support, changing policies or systems, removing barriers, increasing access to resources, building partnerships, and others -- to achieve its goals.

Objectives outline the aims of an initiative -- what success would look like in achieving the vision and mission. By contrast, strategies suggest the broad paths the initiative will take to reach those objectives. Strategies help you connect your vision and objectives with the practical work required to create change.

What are the criteria for developing a good strategy?

Strategies for your community initiative should meet several criteria.

Does the strategy:

• Give overall direction? A strategy, such as strengthening skills and knowledge or increasing resources and opportunities, should identify the overall path without dictating one narrow program or activity.
• Fit available resources, evidence, and opportunities? A good strategy builds on existing community strengths and assets, such as people's willingness to act, trusted relationships, existing programs, local knowledge, or a tradition of community involvement. It should also respond to new opportunities, such as emerging public concern, new partnerships, funding, policy changes, or related work already underway.
• Address barriers, risks, and concerns? Important community efforts often encounter practical barriers, conflicting interests, or disagreement. A good strategy anticipates these issues, seeks to understand legitimate concerns, reduces avoidable barriers, and identifies ways to address disagreement responsibly rather than simply treating opposition as something to overcome.
• Reach and involve people affected by the issue? Strategies should connect the initiative with the people and communities whose circumstances, opportunities, services, or environments the effort is intended to improve. For example, if the mission is to improve access to stable employment, do the strategies address barriers faced by people seeking work as well as the availability and quality of jobs?
• Advance the mission? Taken together, are the strategies likely to contribute meaningfully to the mission and objectives? If the aim is to improve employment, do the strategies address enough of the important factors affecting employment opportunities? If the aim is to prevent substance-related harm, do the strategies address relevant protective factors, risk factors, access to support and treatment, community conditions, and other contributors to the issue?

Why develop strategies?

Developing strategies is a way to focus your efforts and determine how your organization will move from objectives to action. Doing so can provide several advantages:

• Taking advantage of community assets, resources, evidence, and emerging opportunities
• Responding effectively to barriers, changing conditions, concerns, and significant disagreement
• Making more efficient and coordinated use of time, energy, relationships, and resources

When should you develop strategies for your initiative?

Developing strategies is the fourth step in the VMOSA (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans) process outlined at the beginning of this chapter. Strategies provide the connection between identifying your objectives and developing the specific actions needed to reach them. It is usually helpful to develop an initial strategy before beginning major activities so that your actions are coordinated and connected to your objectives. At the same time, strategies should not be treated as fixed. Review and revise them as community conditions, evidence, resources, partnerships, opportunities, barriers, and concerns change and as you learn from implementation.

How do you develop strategies?

Once again, let's refer back to our friends at the fictional Reducing the Risk (RTR) Coalition, which hopes to reduce unintended adolescent pregnancy and support adolescent sexual and reproductive health in its community. We'll walk through the process of developing strategies with this group to better explain the who, what, and why of strategies.

As with the processes you used to write your vision and mission statements and set your objectives, developing strategies involves reviewing evidence, brainstorming, and listening to community members -- especially young people and others directly affected by the issue.

Organize a brainstorming meeting with members of your organization and members of the community

People are more likely to participate fully when meetings are welcoming, accessible, and well facilitated. You can help create that environment by:

• Making meetings a place where participants feel that their ideas are heard and respected and where constructive disagreement can be expressed. Shared meeting agreements may help. They might include:
  • Give people reasonable opportunities to speak and avoid talking over one another
  • Listen before responding and avoid unnecessary interruptions
  • Treat different ideas and experiences with respect, even when participants disagree
• Choosing a physically comfortable and accessible meeting space and providing remote participation or other accommodations when appropriate.
• Considering transportation, meeting times, lighting, parking, public transit, personal safety, and other practical issues that can affect whether people are able to participate.
• Providing refreshments when possible and considering participants' dietary needs and preferences.

The RTR Coalition held brainstorming sessions with organization members and invited adolescents, parents and caregivers, teachers, counselors, health professionals, faith communities, youth-serving organizations, and other community members to participate in listening sessions. These conversations helped the coalition identify strategies for reducing unintended adolescent pregnancy and improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Providing food and creating a welcoming setting helped support participation.

Review who is affected by the issue and who can help create change

• People and communities affected by the issue include those who experience the issue directly or whose opportunities, health, services, relationships, or environments may be affected by the initiative. For the RTR Coalition, adolescents themselves are essential participants in understanding the issue and developing strategies. Parents and caregivers, partners, families, and others may also be affected. Avoid treating people simply as "targets" whose behavior must change; consider the social, economic, environmental, institutional, and policy conditions that shape choices and outcomes.
• People and organizations that can help create change include those with relevant responsibilities, knowledge, relationships, authority, services, resources, or other capacity to contribute. For the RTR Coalition, this might include adolescents, parents and caregivers, teachers, counselors, health professionals, schools, youth-serving organizations, faith communities, policymakers, and other community partners.

Review your vision, mission, and objectives to keep you on the right track

Review your vision, mission, and objectives to make sure the strategies you are considering remain aligned with the goals expressed in your previous planning work.

Work together to brainstorm the best strategies for your initiative

The following questions can help guide discussion about which strategies may be most useful:

• What resources, assets, relationships, knowledge, and existing programs can help achieve the vision and mission? How can they be used effectively?
• What practical barriers, risks, concerns, or significant disagreements could affect the initiative? Which can be addressed through changes in design, communication, access, partnerships, policy, or other strategies?
• What can relevant people, organizations, and institutions realistically contribute to the mission, and what information or support would help them participate effectively?
• Which strategies should prevent problems before they occur, and which should address needs that already exist? For example, an adolescent sexual and reproductive health initiative might combine developmentally appropriate education and healthy relationship skills with access to appropriate health information and services for adolescents who need them.
• How will potential strategies reduce factors associated with poor outcomes and strengthen protective factors? For example, strategies might address sexual coercion and unhealthy power differences while strengthening supportive relationships, accurate information, communication skills, access to health services, and young people's ability to make informed decisions.
• What strategies address broader community conditions as well as individual needs? Connecting young people with supportive adults, strengthening schools and youth organizations, improving access to services, and creating safe opportunities for learning and development may benefit many young people. Complex issues usually require more than one strategy or setting.
• What strategies provide additional support where needs or barriers are greater? Appropriate screening, service data, community assessment, and input from affected people may help identify where additional resources are needed. Use this information to increase support and access without defining people by past difficulties or stigmatizing them as inherently "high risk."

Let's look at the strategies proposed by the members of the RTR Coalition to prevent unintended adolescent pregnancy and support adolescent sexual and reproductive health.

Example: The strategies of the RTR Coalition

We will pursue the following strategies to reach each of our objectives:

• Support parents and caregivers in having age-appropriate, accurate, and respectful conversations with young people about relationships, sexual health, values, and healthy decision-making, working with faith communities and other trusted community partners when appropriate;
• Support medically accurate, developmentally appropriate, evidence-informed sexual health education that helps students build knowledge and skills related to healthy relationships, abstinence and other risk-reduction choices, contraception, STI prevention, communication, and informed decision-making at appropriate ages;
• Strengthen training and support for educators and youth-serving adults and develop appropriate peer-support or peer-education opportunities;
• Assess and report on student knowledge, experiences, access to information and services, and relevant health behaviors using appropriate privacy, consent or assent, confidentiality, and data-protection practices;
• Improve access to appropriate, youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health information and services, including contraception where appropriate;
• Organize a school and community partnership to strengthen mentoring, positive youth development, supervised after-school activities, supportive relationships, and other opportunities for young people.

Things to note about the RTR strategies:

• They give overall direction without dictating a single specific program or curriculum.
• They build on local resources and relationships, including young people, parents and caregivers, educators, health professionals, faith communities, youth-serving organizations, and other community partners.
• Some strategies focus on preventing unintended pregnancy and related risks before they occur, while others improve access to information, support, and services for young people who need them now.
• The strategies involve different parts of the community, including groups that may hold different perspectives on sexual health education and services. Involving these groups early can help clarify concerns, identify genuine areas of agreement or disagreement, and improve implementation without allowing any one group to speak for the entire community.
• The strategies address both risk and protective factors, including access to accurate information and appropriate health services, supportive relationships with parents, caregivers and other trusted adults, healthy decision-making skills, protection from coercion, and opportunities for positive youth development.

Check your proposed strategies for completeness, accuracy, and whether they contribute to the vision, mission, and objectives

Develop successful strategies:

___You can form a planning group to develop strategies

Find potential members:

___Community leaders

___Members of other local organizations

___Those affected by the issue or problem

___Representatives of local ethnic and cultural groups

Create a supportive environment:

___A safe and comfortable building, neighborhood site

___Create an open forum for all to participate

Determine/review targets and agents of change:

___Be inclusive of those experiences, at risk for, and contributing to the issue

___Determine risk and protective factors affecting the issue

___Review vision, mission, and objectives

Brainstorm the best strategies:

___Determine potential obstacles

___Strategize to get around obstacles

___Identify how agents of change will help

___Decide when strategies will affect targets of change

___Determine if you will work on repairing or preventing problems

___Ensure strategies decrease risk factors, and increase protective factors

___Make sure strategies will address entire problem or issue

Do the strategies meet the criteria?

___Give overall direction

___Fit resources and opportunities

___Minimize resistance and barriers

___Reach those affected

___Advance the mission

Example 1: Promoting healthy diets and physical activity among children and youth

Here are selected strategies for changes in elementary, middle, and high schools to reduce dietary risk for chronic disease (from the Center for Community Health and Development's Reducing Risk for Chronic Disease: An Action Planning Guide):

• Integrate health and nutrition activities into existing student organizations
• Enact and enforce state nutritional guidelines for school lunch programs and daycare services
• Monitor and provide feedback on nutritional quality of foods available in cafeterias, concession stands, and vending machines
• Place point-of-purchase information about healthy choices in cafeterias and vending machines
• Make available healthy snacks in vending machines, concession stands, and cafeterias
• Implement age-appropriate health and nutrition curricula

Example 2: Preventing youth violence

Here are selected strategies for changes in the criminal justice system to reduce youth violence (from the Center for Community Health and Development's Preventing Youth Violence: An Action Planning Guide):

• Communicate information about levels of violence and gang-related activity through the media
• Establish reward programs for tips leading to arrests for illegal weapons sales
• Establish a "silent witness hotline" for reporting incidents of violence
• Establish neighborhood watch programs
• Provide awards to police and citizens who contribute to the prevention of youth violence
• Establish crisis intervention teams to deal with domestic disputes
• Community education in monitoring violence and gang-related activity
• Remove "crack" houses in affected neighborhoods

Example 3: Promoting highway safety

Selected strategies for encouraging states and communities to promote adherence to traffic laws follow (from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Strategic Execution Plan):

• Award demonstration grants to states and communities for traffic safety initiatives, particularly involving alcohol, speed and safety belts.
• Promote and distribute Campaign Safe and Sober materials. Collaborate with national organizations to implement traffic safety and enforcement programs.
• Provide technical assistance, training and educational materials to law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and community activities.

Example 4: Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan

The six-year Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan represents a critical opportunity for King County to do ground-breaking work:

• Applying a theory of change that fundamentally shifts the county away from policies and practices that react to problems and crises toward investments that address the root causes of inequities, ultimately leading to better quality of life and greater prosperity in all of their communities.
• Balancing a bold vision with actionable and measurable objectives.
• Allowing for innovation and adaptability across King County government to help them be dynamic and culturally responsive, moving towards the goal of being racially justice internally and in the community.

Their Equity and Social Justice strategies as One King County are to invest upstream and where needs are greatest, in employees and in community partnerships. And they will do this with accountable and transparent leadership.

Read more about the plan here.

Download a full copy of the plan here.

Tool 1: Developing Objectives and Strategies

Download a worksheet in MS Word here.

 

Tool 2: Co-Impact's Worksheet: Crafting Your Strategy for Change

The Co-Impact's Worksheet: Crafting Your Strategy for Change is a practical toolkit that helps organizations and initiatives build a clear, actionable plan for systems change. It walks users through a step-by-step process that covers:

• Defining the problem
• Identifying people-level outcomes
• Mapping system components
• Conducting a political economy analysis
• Setting system-level outcomes
• Developing a strategy for change
• Testing critical assumptions
• Aligning organizational practices
• Creating a dashboard

The PDF version of this worksheet

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

 

Developing an action plan can help changemakers turn their visions into coordinated action and increase clarity, efficiency, and accountability within an organization. An action plan describes how your organization will carry out its strategies and meet its objectives through specific steps, responsibilities, timelines, resources, and follow-up. This section provides a guide for developing and using your group's action plan.

What is an action plan?

An action plan translates your organization's strategies and objectives into specific work. It helps make the organization's vision more concrete by describing what needs to happen, who will be responsible, when the work will occur, what resources and support are needed, and how progress will be monitored. An action plan consists of a number of action steps or community and systems changes to be pursued.

Each action step or change to be sought should include the following information:

• What actions or changes will occur
• Who will carry them out or coordinate them
• By when they will take place, and for how long when duration matters
• What resources and support -- such as funding, staff time, volunteers, expertise, equipment, partnerships, or facilities -- are needed
• Potential barriers, risks, or dependencies that could affect the work and how they will be addressed
• How progress will be assessed, when a measure or milestone is useful
• Communication -- who needs to be informed, consulted, involved, or updated

What are the criteria for a good action plan?

The action plan for your initiative should meet several criteria.

Is the action plan:

• Complete? Does it include the important action steps and changes needed across relevant parts of the community or system, such as schools, businesses, government, faith communities, health organizations, service organizations, neighborhoods, or other settings?
• Clear? Is it apparent who will do what, by when, with what resources, and what the next step will be?
• Current? Does the action plan reflect the work actually underway? Does it account for new evidence, opportunities, barriers, resources, community feedback, or changing conditions?
• Realistic? Are responsibilities, timelines, and resource expectations reasonable for the people and organizations involved?
• Connected to the mission? Can each major action be linked to an objective, strategy, or intended community or systems change?

Why should you develop an action plan?

Strategic goals are difficult to carry out if no one has clarified the practical work required to achieve them. An action plan helps turn broad strategies into coordinated responsibilities and provides a shared reference for what the organization intends to do.

There are many good reasons to work out the details of your organization's work in an action plan, including:

• To demonstrate that your organization has thought carefully about implementation and has a practical approach to carrying out its commitments
• To reduce the chance that important details, responsibilities, or dependencies will be overlooked
• To understand what is and isn't realistic for your organization to do with the time, staff, partnerships, authority, and resources available
• For efficiency: to coordinate work and make better use of time, energy, relationships, and resources
• For accountability: to make responsibilities and commitments clear and help participants follow through on agreed-upon work
• To identify where additional support, resources, or partnerships are needed before delays occur
• To create milestones that make it easier to monitor progress and adjust when conditions change

When should you create an action plan?

An action plan is generally developed after your organization has clarified its vision, mission, objectives, and strategies and is ready to move into implementation. The exact timing depends on the initiative. A new organization may need an initial action plan early, while a long-term initiative may develop separate action plans for different phases, projects, or strategies.

Remember that an action plan is a work in progress. It is not something you write, put away, and forget. Keep it available to the people responsible for the work and review it at intervals appropriate to the pace and complexity of the initiative. Update it when responsibilities, timelines, resources, evidence, community conditions, or priorities change significantly.

How to write an action plan

Determine which people, communities, organizations, systems, and sectors are affected by the work or should be involved in developing solutions

If you have been using the VMOSA (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, Action Plans) model, you may already have begun this process while developing your objectives and strategies. Continue to be inclusive. Many health and community-development issues involve multiple causes and systems and therefore require work across several parts of the community. Relevant sectors might include media and communication networks, businesses and employers, faith communities, schools, youth organizations, social service organizations, health organizations, local government, neighborhood groups, and others.

People you might consider inviting into the action-planning process include:

• People and communities directly affected by the issue
• People who will participate in, use, deliver, or otherwise experience the programs, policies, services, or changes being planned
• Members of grassroots and community-based organizations
• People and organizations from cultural, racial, ethnic, immigrant, disability, faith, neighborhood, or other communities relevant to the effort. Involve multiple perspectives rather than assuming one person can speak for an entire community.
• People with relevant knowledge, expertise, responsibilities, relationships, or decision-making authority
• Young people, newcomers, emerging leaders, or others whose perspectives may not already be represented in established organizations
• The staff, volunteers, partners, and institutions that will actually be responsible for carrying out parts of the plan

Let's consider some of the people who might be involved with the planning group for the fictional Reducing the Risk (RTR) Coalition, which hopes to reduce unintended adolescent pregnancy and strengthen adolescent sexual and reproductive health. The group might include adolescents, parents and caregivers, teachers, counselors, school nurses, health professionals, youth-serving organizations, faith communities, public-health staff, service organizations, and others whose knowledge or responsibilities are relevant to the work.

Convene a planning group in your community to design your action plan. This might be the same group that helped develop your strategies and objectives. If you are organizing a new planning group, make it broad and inclusive enough to reflect the people directly affected by the issue while also including people and organizations needed to carry out the work. People most affected should have meaningful influence over decisions rather than being present only to provide feedback after major choices have already been made.

Once everyone is present, review your organization's:

• Vision
• Mission
• Objectives
• Strategies
• People and communities affected by the issue and people or organizations able to contribute to change
• Proposed changes for each relevant part of the community or system, such as schools, faith communities, service organizations, health organizations, businesses, neighborhoods, or government

Develop an action plan composed of action steps that address the proposed changes. The plan should be complete, clear, current, and realistic. It should also draw on the information and ideas you have already gathered while developing your objectives and strategies. What specific steps must occur to carry out your strategies while remaining consistent with your vision and mission? This is where the different elements of VMOSA come together.

Members of the community initiative will want to determine:

• What action or change will occur
• Who will carry it out or coordinate it
• When it will take place, and for how long
• What resources and support -- money, staff, volunteers, expertise, facilities, technology, partnerships, or other resources -- are needed
• What barriers, risks, or dependencies could affect completion and how they will be addressed
• How progress or completion will be assessed
• Communication -- who should know what, who should be consulted, and who should be involved in decisions

Example: RTR Coalition's Action Step (a sample)

One community change sought by this coalition to prevent unintended adolescent pregnancy and strengthen adolescent sexual and reproductive health was to make accurate, age-appropriate health information and information about available services easier for high school students to access.

• What action or change will occur: Develop and maintain accessible student information about healthy relationships, pregnancy prevention, STI prevention, contraception, consent, and available school and community health services. Information may be provided through posters, digital resources, school webpages, QR codes, health classes, student-support offices, or other appropriate channels. Materials will be reviewed periodically for accuracy, accessibility, and relevance.
• Who will carry it out: A working group that includes students, parents or caregivers, educators, school health staff, coalition members, and appropriate health professionals will review and maintain the information. Designated members of the schools action group will coordinate materials, approvals, and purchasing.
• By when will it take place, and for how long: Initial materials and digital resources will be available within eight weeks of approval of the action step, with a first review scheduled six months later and additional reviews at appropriate intervals.
• What resources are needed to carry out the step: Staff or volunteer time, student input, health-education expertise, design and translation or accessibility support when needed, printing or digital-production costs, and funding from appropriate school, coalition, grant, foundation, or community sources.
• Potential barriers, risks, or dependencies: School approval requirements, differing community perspectives, accessibility needs, privacy concerns, and the need to keep health and service information current. The working group will review these issues before implementation and update materials when necessary.
• How progress will be assessed: Confirm that materials are available through the planned channels and periodically ask students whether they know where to find reliable sexual-health information and appropriate services.
• Communication about the action step: School administrators, relevant educators and health staff, students, parents and caregivers, and other appropriate partners should receive information about the plan and have opportunities to provide input consistent with their roles.

Things to note about this portion of the RTR action plan:

• It appears complete. Although this action step is well developed, we would need to review the entire action plan to determine whether all important community and systems changes are included.
• It is clear. We know what will happen, who is responsible, when it will occur, what resources and support are needed, and how progress will be assessed.
• It can remain current if the coalition continues reviewing the materials, community conditions, evidence, opportunities, barriers, and feedback that affect the action.

Review your completed action plan carefully to check for completeness. Make sure each proposed action contributes to an objective or strategy and supports your group's mission. Also review the plan as a whole to make sure important activities, communities, systems, resources, risks, and responsibilities have not been overlooked.

Follow through. Planning is useful only when it leads to action. Begin implementation, monitor what happens, and adjust when evidence, community feedback, resource changes, or new circumstances show that the plan needs revision.

Keep everyone informed about what's going on. Communicate with participants, partners, and affected community members about progress and explain how their input influenced the plan. When recommendations were not adopted, explain why when appropriate.

Keep track of what you've done and how well it is working. Monitor whether action steps are being completed and whether they are producing the expected changes. Significant community, policy, program, or systems changes may warrant formal evaluation in addition to ongoing monitoring.

Keep several questions in mind:

• Are we doing what we said we'd do?
• Are we doing it well?
• Is what we are doing advancing the mission and objectives?
• Are people and communities affected by the work experiencing it as intended?
• What are we learning that should change the plan?

You can address these questions through regular reflection with staff, volunteers, partners, and community members as well as through surveys, administrative data, interviews, observations, formal evaluation, and other appropriate methods.

Celebrate progress and accomplishments. Recognizing what people have achieved can help sustain motivation and reinforce the value of the work. Ask participants how they prefer accomplishments and contributions to be recognized.

After you've written your action plan: Supporting follow-through and shared accountability

Nearly every community organization has experienced this problem: tasks are assigned, everyone leaves the meeting intending to complete them, and then progress stalls. This doesn't always mean people are unwilling to help. Responsibilities may have been unclear, timelines unrealistic, circumstances may have changed, or participants may need additional information, resources, authority, or support.

Accountability matters, but it should be paired with realistic expectations and support, especially when volunteers are contributing their time. The goal is to make responsibilities clear and manageable and to identify barriers early rather than simply increasing pressure.

Helpful approaches include:

• Use agreed-upon check-ins by email, phone, text, shared project tools, meetings, or another appropriate channel. Ask whether the person is on track, whether circumstances have changed, and whether additional information, resources, coordination, or help are needed.
• Share the action plan with everyone involved and make responsibilities visible. Before finalizing assignments, confirm that each person understands and agrees to the task and timeline.
• Keep timelines, deadlines, milestones, and dependencies complete, clear, and current.
• Review progress regularly at committee, board, staff, or project meetings. Focus not only on whether a task is complete, but also on barriers, decisions needed, changing conditions, and the next step.
• Reassign, divide, postpone, or revise tasks when workloads or circumstances change rather than allowing unrealistic commitments to remain on the plan indefinitely.
• Recognize completed work and important milestones. Make sure people know that their effort and follow-through matter to the larger initiative.

Follow up on the action plan regularly. Accountability should be shared: participants are responsible for the commitments they accept, and the organization is responsible for making expectations clear, providing reasonable support, addressing barriers, keeping the plan current, and changing course when circumstances require it.

Getting started:

___You can determine what people and sectors of the community should be involved in finding solutions

___You have convened a planning group in your community to design the action plan

Invite these people to help prepare an action plan:

___Influential people from all groups affected

___People directly involved in the problem or issue

___Members of grassroots organizations

___Members of ethnic and cultural groups of the community

___Different sectors of the community: media/business community/religious groups/schools/youth organizations/social service organizations/health organizations

Be sure you are able to:

___Review vision, mission, objectives, strategies, targets and agents of change, community sectors to be involved

___Develop action plan with steps for all changes to be sought

___Review action plan: Is it complete, clear, current?

___Follow through

___Keep members informed about progress

___Keep track of what (and how well) you've done

___Celebrate accomplishments

Tips for successful planning meetings:

___Be inclusive

___Create a safe, comfortable environment

___Prepare for possible conflict

___Be efficient

___Record what happens

___Communicate the products of planning (distribute the plan after review by the group)

___Support and encourage group members

For each action or change to be accomplished, list:

___What action or change will occur?

___Who will carry it out?

___By when (for how long)?

___What resources are needed?

___Communication: who should know what?

Does the action plan meet the criteria?

___Complete

___Clear

___Current

To finish up:

___Review your completed action plan carefully

___Follow through!

___Keep everyone informed about what's going on

___Keep track of what (and how well) we've done

Keep members accountable:

___Regular phone call check-ins

___Reports on progress at meetings

___Celebrate accomplishments

Example: Forward through Ferguson Action Plan

Forward through Ferguson's Action Plan lays out the three Action Strategies that guide the organization’s work for the next three years as it works to achieve a racially equitable St. Louis by the year 2039, which will mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Michael Brown.

When the Ferguson Commission delivered their report to the region they named it “Forward Through Ferguson: A Path to Racial Equity.” The Commission wove together data and resident experiences into a sweeping community policy document that linked a specific traumatic event to regional racial inequity. They urged them to face inequitable reality. Only through confronting their trauma would they have the opportunity to move forward.

The Commission also endowed them with a compass aligned to their true north: Racial Equity—a future St. Louis where race no longer predicts life outcomes.

Read more about the action plan.

Download the action plan.

Tool 1: Action Planning Template

This is a downloadable, editable template you are welcome to adapt and use for your group’s purposes. There is a space for noting the overall goal area, SMART+C objectives, strategies, and related action steps for implementation. 

Keep the updated action plan accessible to the group, with regular reviews during coalition meetings to keep action items moving forward. 

 

Action Planning Template

Download the Action Planning Template (docx)

Goal:
Overall goal statement:
Overall objective(s):  Note: Use SMART+C formatting
Priority focus areas:

 

Focus Area 1:
Objective(s):
Strategy 1:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 2:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 3:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:

 

Focus Area 2:
Objective(s):
Strategy 1:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 2:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 3:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:

 

Focus Area 3:
Objective(s):
Strategy 1:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 2:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:
Strategy 3:
Action to be taken:	Person(s) responsible:	By when:	Resources needed:

 

Tool 2: Tips for Action Planning

What is an action plan?

An action plan is an opportunity to turn your dreams for your community or initiative into a reality. It is also an opportunity to make your organization's vision concrete. An action plan outlines the strategies and action steps your organization will use to meet its goals and objectives.

Why develop an action plan?

Developing an action plan is a critical first step toward ensuring project success. An action plan may lend credibility to your organization and its initiative, increase efficiency, and provide accountability. In addition, the action plan provides a tool for mobilizing the community or group and encouraging members to share responsibility for solving the problems and improving the situation you have decided to change.

Who develops the action plan?

You can invite these people to help prepare an action plan:

• Influential people from all groups affected
• People directly involved in the problem or issue
• Members of grassroots organizations
• Members of ethnic and cultural groups of the community
• Different sectors of the community: media/business community/religious groups/schools/youth organizations/social service organizations/health organizations

How do I develop an action plan?

First, clarify your charge. Is it to work to reduce adolescent pregnancy in your community? Or are you working to increase the rate of home ownership? Your goal will provide the backbone of your action plan.

Your action plan should include the strategies you plan to use and the action steps you will take to achieve your goals and objectives. It should also identify a role for each sector of the community or group involved in your effort.

For each action step or change to be accomplished, list the following, with a due date for each:

• What actions or changes will occur-by when?
• Who will carry it out-by when (or for how long)?
• What resources are needed-by when?
• Communication (who should know what)-and when?

Tool 3: A Successful Planning Process

Adapted from an Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives, the University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development

Be inclusive

Good planning is active and inclusive. Seek out key players with diverse viewpoints on the problem or issue. Once a diverse group of important players is at the table, it is important to get them to communicate with each other. Effective leaders often call on silent members during pauses in the discussion. They convey the value of each person's voice on the issues. Occasionally, it may be necessary to discourage an overly enthusiastic member from talking too much or dominating meetings. Leaders may do so by thanking them for their comments and indicating the importance of hearing from other members of the group.

Manage conflict

If the group is effective in attracting diverse views, conflict among members may result. Group facilitators can recognize differences, perhaps noting the diverse experiences that give rise to divergent views. To resolve conflicts, leaders may attempt to elevate the discussion to a higher level on which there may be a basis for agreement. By reminding the group that we all share the vision of a healthy community, leaders can help members find common ground.

Use brainstorming rules

Group facilitators must avoid making judgments about ideas and suggestions. Brainstorming rules apply. All ideas must be heard and noted without criticism.

Be efficient

Planning meetings must be efficient, starting and ending on time. It is helpful to have an agenda or to build a consensus at the beginning of the meeting about what will be accomplished and in what time frame.

Communicate products of planning

Planning will result in a useful product. Try to structure every planning session so that it results in a product, such as a list of issues or ideas. Show off the product at the end of planning meetings, distributing copies of the products of planning to all members.

Provide support and encouragement

Finally, it is important to provide support and encouragement throughout the process of planning. Good planning takes time; it usually requires months to produce a detailed plan of action. Acknowledge the contributions of all participants, especially key leaders. Let the group know when it is doing a good job. Positive feedback feels good, particularly to those who are used to being criticized for their work.

 

Tool 4: Action Planning Guides from the KU Center for Community Health and Development

Community and Public Health Action Planning Guides

• Reducing Risk for Chronic Disease
• Promoting Health for All: Improving Access and Eliminating Disparities in Community Health
• Promoting Healthy Living and Preventing Chronic Disease

Child and Youth Health and Development Action Planning Guides

• Preventing Adolescent Substance Abuse
• Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy
• Preventing Youth Violence
• Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
• Youth Development
• Promoting Child Well-Being

Community Development and Capacity Building Action Planning Guides

• Promoting Urban Neighborhood Development: Improving Housing, Jobs, Education, Safety and Health, and Human Development
• Work Group Evaluation Handbook
• Concerns Report Handbook: Planning for Community Health

 

Tool 5: Action Planning Guide

Download Your Action Planning Guide for Promoting Full Community Participation Among People with Disabilities (pdf), a resource for independent living centers and other community-based initiatives, developed by the Research and Training Center for Indiependent Living and the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas.

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

• What does it mean to obtain feedback from your constituents?

• Why should you obtain feedback from constituents?

• When should you obtain feedback from constituents?

• How to ask yourself the right questions

• Obtaining formal feedback: conducting a survey

 

 

Obtaining feedback from your community can help you understand people's needs, priorities, strengths, experiences, and perceptions of your organization. It can also help you identify barriers, evaluate programs, recognize unintended effects, and improve future work. This section explores ways to obtain formal and informal feedback from community members, participants, partners, and other stakeholders so that your group can learn and improve.

What does it mean to obtain feedback from constituents?

Obtaining feedback means asking questions or gathering information to better understand something you need to know. You might want to learn how people experience your services, whether your organization is accessible and trusted, what community priorities should receive greater attention, whether a program is working as intended, or what changes people believe would make the work more useful.

Feedback can be obtained in many ways, from informal conversations and observations to structured interviews, surveys, focus groups, listening sessions, and evaluation activities. Informal feedback can alert you to issues worth exploring further. Formal feedback uses a more systematic process so that responses can be documented, analyzed, and interpreted consistently.

Common methods include:

• Individual interviews
• Phone or video interviews and surveys
• Paper questionnaires
• Online surveys
• Focus groups and listening sessions
• Mixed-mode surveys that allow people to respond in more than one way

The term constituents, as we use it here, may refer to a variety of people, including people directly or indirectly affected by your organization's work, program participants, community members, coalition members, partners, elected officials, organizational leaders, journalists, service providers, funders, and others with a relevant connection to the effort. In many situations, more specific terms such as community members, participants, partners, or people affected by the work may be clearer.

Why should you obtain feedback from constituents?

• To understand how people experience and perceive your organization, program, services, or initiative
• To understand needs, priorities, strengths, barriers, and opportunities identified by community members themselves
• To help prioritize activities and resources
• To identify what is working well and what participants believe should change
• To have useful evidence available for planning, evaluation, grant proposals, reports, community communication, and questions from partners or media
• To identify gaps in awareness, communication, accessibility, participation, or trust
• Overall, to improve your program, organization, or initiative

Feedback is most useful when people know that their time and perspectives matter. Whenever possible, explain how the information will be used and communicate back what you learned and what, if anything, will change as a result.

When should you obtain feedback from constituents?

Informal feedback can be gathered as an ongoing process, while more formal feedback may be useful at particular points in the life of an initiative, including:

• During the planning process when you start an initiative
• Before starting or substantially changing a program
• During or after a particular program, event, workshop, campaign, or service
• Periodically throughout the life of your initiative, at intervals that fit the pace and purpose of the work
• When community conditions, policies, funding, staffing, or participation change significantly
• When earlier feedback or evaluation raises questions that need further investigation

Before collecting information, be clear about how you expect to use it. Repeatedly asking people for feedback without using it, explaining why it was not used, or reporting back what was learned can weaken trust and discourage future participation.

How to obtain feedback from constituents

Ask yourself the right questions

What do you want to know?

Gathering information takes participants' time as well as staff time, so focus on questions that will actually inform a decision, improve a program, evaluate progress, or deepen your understanding of the community.

For example, perhaps you have received funding to reduce unintended adolescent pregnancy in your community. The funding purpose may already establish the broad issue your program will address, but community feedback can still help determine what adolescents, parents and caregivers, educators, health professionals, and others see as priorities; what barriers young people encounter; whether information and services are accessible; how the program should be implemented; and how people believe progress should be assessed.

Who has already done this?

Check whether researchers, government agencies, community organizations, universities, health departments, schools, or others have already collected relevant and sufficiently current information. Existing surveys, administrative data, evaluations, public datasets, or community assessments may answer some of your questions or help you design your own work. Don't collect new information simply because you can; determine what gaps still need to be filled.

Who do you want to ask?

Decide whose perspectives you need in order to answer your questions. Different groups may have different experiences, responsibilities, or knowledge, and one group should not automatically be treated as speaking for another.

Possible respondents might include:

• People whose experiences, behaviors, circumstances, services, or access are relevant to the issue
• People and communities most directly affected by the problem or initiative
• Professionals and practitioners with relevant knowledge
• Administrators and organizational leaders
• Current or potential funders when their perspectives are relevant to the question
• Elected officials and public-agency representatives
• Journalists or community-information providers when relevant
• Researchers and subject-matter experts
• Members of your coalition, staff, volunteers, or organizational partners

Also decide whether you need feedback from a clearly defined group or whether an open invitation for comments is appropriate. An open survey or public comment form can be useful for gathering ideas and identifying concerns, but responses from people who choose to participate should not automatically be assumed to represent the entire community.

Be careful not to ask administrators, professionals, or community leaders to tell you what people most affected need when you can ask those people directly. Different sources of information can complement one another, but they are not interchangeable.

How many people would you like to ask?

The answer depends on your purpose. If you want feedback from every active member of a small coalition, you may be able to invite everyone. If you want estimates that represent a much larger population, you will usually need an appropriate sampling approach rather than simply surveying whoever is easiest to reach.

When representative results or comparisons among groups are important, consider getting help from someone with survey, evaluation, or statistical experience. Sample size alone does not guarantee accurate results; who is included, who responds, how questions are asked, and how the data are analyzed also matter.

How do you want to ask people?

Choose methods that fit your question, population, resources, accessibility needs, privacy considerations, and available contact information. Options include:

• Conversations with community members, participants, researchers, practitioners, partners, and others with relevant knowledge
• Physical or digital suggestion boxes and feedback forms
• Documenting recurring comments, questions, concerns, or suggestions that arise during community interactions
• Feedback forms connected with publications, newsletters, websites, programs, services, or events
• Online forms, QR codes, email, text-based feedback, or other digital channels when appropriate
• Designated feedback or reflection time during meetings
• A structured survey conducted online, on paper, by phone, in person, or through a combination of methods
• Interviews, focus groups, or listening sessions when you need deeper discussion

Good tips:

• Reduce bias and protect privacy. Explain the purpose of the feedback honestly, but don't tell respondents what answer you hope to receive. Avoid leading questions, protect confidential information appropriately, and offer anonymous responses when anonymity is feasible and useful.
• Keep your eyes and ears open. Feedback can appear in many places, including community meetings, public comments, complaints, service requests, protests, social media, evaluation findings, partner conversations, and everyday interactions. Consider whether these sources reflect broad community views or only particular experiences before drawing conclusions.
• Take unexpected feedback seriously. If community members tell you that your program isn't meeting an important need, is difficult to access, or is not viewed as relevant, examine the findings rather than immediately trying to change their opinion. Consider whether the program, strategy, communication, assumptions, or implementation should be revised.
• Close the feedback loop. When possible, tell participants what you learned, what decisions were made, what will change, and what cannot change and why.

Obtaining formal feedback: Conducting a survey

You've decided that a structured survey is an appropriate method for answering your questions. Before writing questions, make sure a survey is the right tool. Some questions are better answered through interviews, focus groups, administrative data, observation, community meetings, or a combination of methods.

Decide how you would like to conduct your survey

Surveys can be conducted online, on paper, by phone, in person, or through a combination of methods. Each approach has advantages and limitations, and the best choice depends on whom you need to reach, what contact information is available, the complexity and sensitivity of the questions, accessibility, cost, time, and the quality of information you need.

• Interviewer-administered surveys, whether in person or by phone, allow respondents to ask for clarification and can be useful when questions are complicated. However, interviewer tone, wording, or presence can influence responses. Interviews are generally not anonymous to the interviewer, although responses can still be kept confidential and identifying information can be separated from survey data when appropriate.
• Self-administered surveys, including online and paper surveys, allow people to respond privately and at a time that works for them. Online surveys can be quick and relatively inexpensive and may handle complex question paths more easily. Paper surveys can be useful when internet access or digital comfort is limited. Both require attention to accessibility, literacy, language, and whether the people you need to hear from can actually access the survey.
• Mixed-mode surveys allow people to respond through more than one method -- for example, online or on paper -- and can help reach people with different access needs and communication preferences. When comparing results over time, remember that changing survey modes can sometimes influence how people answer.

Participation should be voluntary unless there is a clearly explained institutional or legal requirement. Avoid describing a group as a "captive audience." If you distribute a survey during a class, meeting, service, workplace activity, or other setting where people may feel pressure to participate, make it clear whether participation is optional and whether declining will have any consequences.

Decide how to format your questions

Surveys often use both closed-ended and open-ended questions.

• Closed-ended questions ask respondents to choose from defined response options. These may include yes/no questions, multiple-choice options, frequency categories, or rating scales. Response options should fit the question, include the reasonable range of answers, and be written so respondents can understand the differences among them. If you're developing an important survey, test the questions and response scales with people similar to those who will complete it.
• Open-ended questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. They can reveal ideas, explanations, experiences, or concerns that predetermined choices may miss. They can also take more time for respondents to answer and more effort for researchers to review and analyze.
• Combining closed-ended questions with optional opportunities to explain or add comments can provide both structured information and room for perspectives you did not anticipate.

Reduce bias as much as reasonably possible

No survey is entirely free from potential error or bias, but careful design can reduce avoidable problems.

• Collect names or other identifying information only when you actually need them, and explain why they are being collected and how they will be protected.
• Avoid wording introductions or questions in ways that reveal the response you hope to receive.
• Avoid giving information immediately before a question if that information is likely to influence the answer unless providing it is necessary to the question's purpose.
• Avoid leading, loaded, double-barreled, or unnecessarily complicated questions.
• When measuring change over time, keep important question wording and survey methods as consistent as possible so that differences in the survey itself are not mistaken for changes in the community.
• Consider whether people who don't respond may differ in important ways from those who do. A large number of responses does not automatically remove nonresponse or sampling bias.

Protect participants, especially when questions are sensitive

Tell respondents what the survey is about, how long it is expected to take, how the information will be used, whether participation is voluntary, and what privacy protections apply. If questions involve trauma, mental health, substance use, discrimination, sexual health, violence, immigration concerns, or other sensitive topics, consider whether additional safeguards are needed.

When appropriate, allow respondents to skip questions they don't want to answer. Collect only the personal information you actually need, store it securely, and follow relevant organizational, legal, ethical, or research-review requirements.

Don't forget respect and accessibility

Thank people for the time and information they contribute. Use clear, respectful language and make the survey reasonably accessible to the people you hope to reach. Depending on the community, this may include translated versions, plain-language materials, screen-reader-compatible online forms, large print, telephone options, interpretation, or other accommodations.

Explain how results will be used and, when possible, make a summary of findings available to participants or the broader community.

Make it easy

Keep the survey as short as possible while still collecting the information you actually need. Participant burden matters. A useful rule is not to ask for information unless you know why you need it and how you plan to use it.

Make instructions and response options easy to follow, test links and online forms before launch, and make sure the survey works on devices respondents are likely to use.

Make responding convenient

Reduce unnecessary barriers to participation. For an online survey, provide a direct and accessible link or QR code. For a mailed survey, include clear return instructions and, when appropriate, prepaid return postage. For telephone or in-person surveys, offer reasonable scheduling options. If the community includes people with different access needs, consider offering more than one response method.

Interpret response rates carefully

There is no single "normal" response rate that applies to every survey. Response rates vary depending on the population, survey topic, method, length, contact strategy, incentives, trust, accessibility, and many other factors.

Monitor who is and is not responding rather than focusing only on the total percentage completed. A low response rate can raise concern that some perspectives are missing, but even a high response rate does not automatically guarantee representative results. When the findings will inform major decisions, consider sampling, nonresponse, coverage, measurement, and other possible sources of error when interpreting the results.

In Summary

Feedback helps community organizations understand how people experience their work, identify needs and strengths, improve programs and services, and make better-informed decisions. Feedback can be informal or formal and can be gathered through conversations, interviews, listening sessions, focus groups, surveys, digital tools, community meetings, and other approaches.

Good feedback processes begin with clear questions: What do we need to know? Whose perspectives are necessary? How will the information be used? What method will make participation practical, accessible, and respectful? When structured surveys are used, careful attention should be paid to sampling, question wording, privacy, accessibility, respondent burden, survey mode, and potential sources of bias.

Most importantly, feedback should not be collected simply to validate decisions that have already been made or to persuade people to agree with the organization. It should create an opportunity to learn. When community members take the time to share their experiences and perspectives, organizations should take that information seriously, communicate what they learned, and explain how it informed the work.

___You know what it means to obtain feedback from constituents

___You decided whether to use formal or informal feedback

If using formal feedback:

___You have decided whether to use personal interviews, phone surveys, written surveys and questionnaires

___You have determined how to obtain feedback from constituents

___You know what I want to know

___You know who has already done this

___You know who I want to ask

___You decided if you want to obtain information in an open or closed manner

___You know how many people you would like to ask

___You know how you want to ask people

___You have decided how you'd like to conduct your survey: written or oral

___You have decided on the format of your questions: open or closed

___You have removed all possibility of bias from your survey

___You know you should thank respondents ahead of time, let them know how you'll use any information that you gather, and thank them again afterwards

___You understand you shouldn't ask questions you're not going to use

___Remember to enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope

___Don't be frustrated if only a small number of mailed surveys are returned

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

• What is an action step?

• Why should you identify action steps?

• When should you determine action steps?

• How do you identify action steps?

Identifying action steps from your action plan is essential for achieving your organization's goals. Determining action steps helps group members find practical ways to reach objectives, clarify responsibilities, anticipate needed resources and support, and focus on the details necessary to succeed. This section provides a guide for developing action steps in order to increase the coordination and effectiveness of your organization.

What is an action step?

An action step refers to a specific effort undertaken to carry out your organization's strategies and reach its objectives. Action steps are the concrete details of your action plan. They should be clear and comprehensive, and each action step should explain:

• What will occur
• How much, or to what extent, the action will occur
• Who will carry out or coordinate the action
• When the action will take place, and for how long when duration matters
• What resources and support, such as funding, staff time, volunteers, expertise, facilities, equipment, or partnerships, are needed
• What barriers, risks, or dependencies could affect the action and how they will be addressed
• How completion or progress will be assessed when a measure or milestone is useful
• Who needs to be informed, consulted, or involved

Taken together, your defined action steps comprise your group's action plan.

Why should you identify action steps?

Identifying action steps helps an organization prepare for implementation rather than leaving important details to be decided as problems arise. It clarifies what needs to happen next and helps people coordinate their work.

Other reasons are:

• To concentrate on the details that must occur to succeed in your mission
• To decide on workable ways to reach your goals
• To allow people with different roles, knowledge, and experiences to think in a structured way about the future of your coalition or organization
• To save time, energy, and resources in the long run by clarifying responsibilities, dependencies, and needed support before implementation
• To make it easier to monitor progress and recognize when the plan needs to change

When should you determine action steps?

You should determine your action steps after you have decided what changes you want to occur and have identified the strategies you will use to pursue them. You probably do this informally already: you decide what needs to change, then determine the specific work required to help bring that change about. Those specific activities become your action steps.

Ideally, important action steps will be thoughtfully developed early enough to guide implementation. They should then be reviewed at intervals appropriate to the pace and complexity of the work and whenever responsibilities, resources, evidence, community conditions, policies, or other circumstances change significantly. Even if your organization has been operating for some time without clearly defined action steps, it is still useful to develop them.

How do you identify action steps?

Determine the strengths, skills, relationships, resources, authority, knowledge, and experience available within your group and community. Are members experienced in fundraising, communications, organizing, facilitation, research, program delivery, policy, design, evaluation, or other areas? Do partner organizations have useful facilities, services, expertise, or community relationships? Do people directly affected by the issue bring lived experience or practical knowledge that should help shape the work? Brainstorm the resources available to you, including strengths that may not initially seem obvious.

Brainstorm different, specific ways these strengths can be used to carry out the changes you have decided upon.

For example, if your organization is trying to improve adolescents' access to contraceptive and reproductive-health information and services, you might work with young people, schools, health professionals, pharmacies where appropriate, community organizations, and youth-friendly health providers to identify barriers to access. Someone with strong health-system relationships might help connect the coalition with local providers, while someone with communications or design skills could develop an accessible resource guide or webpage explaining where young people can obtain accurate information and appropriate confidential services.

Consider possible barriers, risks, concerns, and dependencies involved in implementing your proposed changes, and identify responsible ways to address them. Some questions you might ask yourselves include:

• Do we have enough funding to carry out the proposed action steps? If not, are there appropriate grants, partnerships, in-kind contributions, or other resources we can pursue?
• Do we have enough staff and volunteer capacity? Can the workload be reduced, divided, or supported through additional partnerships or volunteers?
• Do we have enough time to carry out these changes?
• Are these action steps meaningful, realistic, relevant, and sustainable for the people responsible for them?
• What concerns, differing perspectives, legal or policy requirements, logistical barriers, or unintended effects might arise? Which can be addressed through better information, changes in design, additional support, negotiation, partnership, or another responsible approach?
• Are there accessibility, language, transportation, privacy, technology, scheduling, or other barriers that could prevent people from benefiting from or participating in the action?
• Does completion of this action depend on another person, organization, approval, policy change, or earlier step?

For instance, in the example above, pharmacies, health providers, schools, families, and young people may have different concerns about confidentiality, legal requirements, communication, access, and the accuracy of sexual-health information. Rather than trying simply to get around those concerns, the coalition should understand them and design the action in ways that are medically accurate, developmentally appropriate, respectful, legally appropriate, and practical for young people and community partners.

Brainstorm different ways -- your action steps -- to implement the proposed changes in each sector that you have chosen. Make sure someone documents the discussion and decisions clearly. Again, each action step should include:

• What will occur
• How much, or to what extent, the action will occur
• Who will carry out or coordinate the action
• When the action will take place, and for how long when duration matters
• What resources and support are needed
• What barriers, risks, or dependencies need to be addressed
• How progress or completion will be assessed
• Who needs to be informed, consulted, or involved

Example: The RTR Coalition

One action step might involve improving high school students' access to accurate information about sexual health, healthy relationships, contraception, STI prevention, and appropriate health services.

• What action or change will occur: Develop and maintain medically accurate, developmentally appropriate information about healthy relationships, pregnancy prevention, contraception, STI prevention, and available school and community health services. Information may be provided through school webpages, QR codes, health classes, student-support offices, posters, digital displays, or other accessible formats.
• How much, or to what extent, the action will occur: Information will be available through several communication channels used by students and will be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that service information, links, and health content remain accurate and current.
• Who will carry it out: A working group including students, parents or caregivers, educators, school health staff, coalition members, and appropriate health professionals will help develop and review the information. Designated coalition members will coordinate production, approval, and updates.
• When will it take place, and for how long: Initial information will be available within six months of adopting the action step, with a scheduled review after the first six months and additional reviews at intervals appropriate to the information being provided.
• What resources are needed to carry out the step: Staff or volunteer time, student input, health-education expertise, accessibility and translation support where needed, communications or design support, and funding for digital or printed materials.
• Potential barriers, risks, or dependencies: School approval requirements, privacy and confidentiality concerns, differing community perspectives, accessibility needs, and the need to keep information about local services current.
• How progress will be assessed: Confirm that information is available through the planned channels and periodically assess whether students know where to find reliable information and appropriate services.
• Communication: Keep students, school administrators, appropriate educators and health staff, parents and caregivers, coalition partners, and community health providers informed or involved according to their roles.

Accounting for each part of an action step makes implementation clearer and gives participants a concrete way to monitor what has been completed and what still needs attention.

Determine a final list of action steps for each community sector from the ideas that came from your brainstorming. Select steps that are feasible, evidence-informed, relevant to your goals, and comprehensive enough to address important individual, family, organizational, community, and systems factors.

Example:

Some strategies for preventing child maltreatment and neglect, organized by community sector, might include:

Changes in the schools:

• Connect parents and caregivers with evidence-informed family-support, parenting, mental-health, and stress-management resources when appropriate.
• Provide appropriate training for teachers, school nurses, counselors, and other school staff on recognizing concerns, responding in a trauma-informed manner, following applicable reporting requirements, and connecting children and families with support.
• Provide safe, supervised, accessible after-school, weekend, and vacation activities for children and young people, either on school grounds or through community partnerships.
• Strengthen connections among schools, families, mental-health providers, social services, and community organizations so families can find help before problems become crises.

Changes in health organizations:

• Improve access to health care, behavioral-health care, home-visiting programs, parenting support, and other services that help children and families thrive.
• Train relevant health professionals to recognize possible maltreatment, respond appropriately, communicate with children and caregivers respectfully, and follow applicable reporting requirements.
• Develop clear organizational procedures for child safety, documentation, referrals, reporting, confidentiality, and coordination with other appropriate services.
• Screen for family needs and social conditions when appropriate and connect families with food, housing, childcare, mental-health, financial, or other community resources.

Changes in businesses and work sites:

• Make employee assistance, mental-health, family-support, and community-resource information readily available to workers.
• Offer or connect employees with voluntary evidence-informed parenting, caregiver, prenatal, infant-care, and family-support resources.
• Provide family-friendly workplace policies where feasible, such as paid leave, predictable and flexible scheduling, livable wages, and accommodations that help workers meet caregiving responsibilities.

Changes in government and social services:

• Strengthen economic supports for families through appropriate tax credits, income supports, food assistance, housing support, affordable childcare, and other policies or programs that help families meet basic needs.
• Strengthen prevention, child-safety, reporting, investigation, treatment, and family-support systems consistent with applicable law and evidence-informed practice.
• Increase access to services and protections for people experiencing domestic or family violence, including safe housing, advocacy, legal assistance, health and mental-health services, and other appropriate support.
• Increase access to high-quality, affordable childcare and early childhood education.

Changes in community organizations:

• Maintain accessible community resource information about jobs, childcare, housing, health and mental-health services, food assistance, family activities, and other supports.
• Help families connect with public benefits, legal assistance, housing support, health services, and other appropriate resources.
• Increase access to voluntary evidence-informed parenting, home-visiting, peer-support, family relationship, and caregiver-support programs.
• Build social connection among families through neighborhood activities, mentoring, mutual support, and safe places where children and caregivers can gather.

Changes in faith communities and religious organizations:

• Build networks among faith leaders and community partners to share accurate information about preventing child maltreatment and supporting children and families.
• Train appropriate leaders and volunteers to recognize when someone may need professional or emergency assistance and to connect families with mental-health, domestic-violence, crisis, child-safety, and family-support resources.
• Use newsletters, bulletins, websites, social media, meetings, and other appropriate communication channels to share information about family supports, positive parenting resources, child safety, and community services.
• Provide practical support to families when appropriate, such as meals, transportation, childcare assistance, social connection, or referrals to community resources.

Once your final action steps are clear, begin implementation. Keep the steps visible to the people responsible for the work, monitor progress, follow through on commitments, and revise the action plan when new evidence, community feedback, barriers, resources, or changing circumstances show that an adjustment is needed.

___You know what action steps are

___You understand why you should identify action steps

___You know when you should identify action steps

___You know how to identify action steps

___Determine what your group, as a whole and individually, is really good at

___Brainstorm different, specific ways that these strengths can be used to carry out the changes that you have decided upon

___Consider the possible barriers to implementing your proposed changes

___Consider possible ways to remove these barriers

___With all of the above information in mind, brainstorm different ways to go about implementing the proposed changes in each sector that you have chosen

___Make sure each action step includes:

• What will occur
• How much, or to what extent, these actions will occur
• Who will carry out these changes
• When these changes will take place, and for how long
• What resources (such as money and staff) are needed to carry out these changes

___Determine a final list of action steps for each community sector from the ideas that came from your brainstorming

___Pat yourself on the back for getting all your planning done, take a deep breath, and go do what you've said you are going to!

Tool 1: Action Steps for Identified Changes

Use this form to identify the changes you want to accomplish and which steps you might take to accomplish it.

Community Focus Area: _________________

Community Change to be Sought: ________________________________________________________

Collaborating Organization(s)/Group(s):_______________________ Community Sector: _____________________

Action Steps

Action Steps	By Whom	By When	Resources and Support Available / Needed	Potential Barriers or Resistance	Communication Plan for Implementation
What needs to be done?	Who will take actions?	By what date will the action be done?	What financial, human, political, and other resources are needed? Which are already available?	What individuals and organizations might resist? How?	What individuals and organizations should be informed about these actions?

 

Tool 2: Action Planning Guides from the KU Center for Community Health and Development

Community and Public Health Action Planning Guides

• Reducing Risk for Chronic Disease
• Promoting Health for All: Improving Access and Eliminating Disparities in Community Health
• Promoting Healthy Living and Preventing Chronic Disease
• Your Action Planning Guide for Promoting Full Community Participation Among People with Disabilities

Child and Youth Health and Development Action Planning Guides

• Bridging the Word Gap Community Action Planning Guide
• Preventing Adolescent Substance Use
• Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy
• Preventing Youth Violence
• Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
• Youth Development
• Promoting Child Well-Being

Community Development and Capacity Building Action Planning Guides

• Promoting Urban Neighborhood Development: Improving Housing, Jobs, Education, Safety and Health, and Human Development
• Work Group Evaluation Handbook
• Concerns Report Handbook: Planning for Community Health

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.