Our Model for Community Change and Improvement:
Community Action Guide: Framework for Addressing Community Goals and Problems
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WHAT IS ACTION PLANNING?
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HOW DOES ACTION PLANNING HELP A COMMUNITY?
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WHY IS ACTION PLANNING IMPORTANT?
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WHEN SHOULD YOU CREATE AN ACTION PLAN?
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WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF AN ACTION PLAN FRAMEWORK?
Have you had the motivation to mobilize your community to address a problem that affects the local population, but just not known how to begin? You might wonder; “How do I investigate the problem?”, “Whom do I involve in the strategies to address the problem?”, “How do I successfully facilitate a group of diverse representatives from a community to reach consensus about a common vision and the actions that will turn ideas into results?”
This tool has the answers to these and other important questions. It will prepare you to lead your community in action planning.
WHAT IS ACTION PLANNING?
The overall goal of action planning is to increase your community’s ability to work together to affect conditions and outcomes that matter to its residents—and to do so both over time and across issues of interest.
As your community works towards a broad vision of health for all, creating supportive conditions for change requires comprehensive efforts among diverse sectors of the community. These include health organizations, faith communities, schools, and businesses. Representatives of each sector come together to form a community coalition. Your community coalition can strive to influence systems changes—programs, policies, and practices that can enhance the community’s capacity to be a healthy environment.
A community coalition initiates its work by generating an action plan.
An action plan outlines what should happen to achieve the vision for a healthy community. Desirable changes and proposed activities (action steps), timelines, and assignment of accountability provide a detailed road map for collaborators to follow.
HOW DOES ACTION PLANNING HELP A COMMUNITY?
REGARDLESS OF THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEM AT HAND WITHIN YOUR COMMUNITY, ACTION PLANNING HELPS YOU:
- Understand the community’s perception of both the issue at hand and its potential solutions
- Assure inclusive and integrated participation across community sectors in the planning process
- Build consensus on what can and should be done based on the community’s unique assets and needs
- Specify concrete ways in which members of the community coalition can take action
The list above describes how an action plan helps a community’s sectors and residents within those sectors work together to achieve a common vision. This tool will address each item and provide guidance for your action planning work that lies ahead.
WHY IS ACTION PLANNING IMPORTANT?
Proper planning of any initiative is critical for yielding the best results or outcomes possible. An action plan, while a significant investment of time and energy, can be an effective tool that grounds all collaborators with a common purpose. Developing an action plan is a critical first step toward ensuring project success.
An action plan assures that:
- No detail is overlooked
- Proposed action steps are feasible and/or realistic
- Collaborators follow through with their commitments
- Measurable activities are documented and evaluated
Overall, action planning is important because it provides a reference point with a detailed time line and assignment of accountability for accomplishing tasks along the path to making a difference.
Research findings of the Center for Community Health and Development suggest that there are a number of factors that appear to have a positive effect on rates of community and system change—and one of those includes action planning:
- Analyzing Information About the Problem, Goals, and Factors Affecting Them
- Establishing Your Group's Vision and Mission
- Defining Organizational Structure and Operating Mechanisms
- Developing a Framework or Model of Change
- Developing and Using Strategic and Action Plans
- Arranging for Community Mobilizers
- Developing Leadership
- Implementing Effective Interventions
- Assuring Technical Assistance
- Documenting Progress and Using Feedback
- Making Outcomes Matter
- Sustaining the Work
WHEN SHOULD YOU CREATE AN ACTION PLAN?
Ideally, you should develop an action plan within the first six to twelve months of the start of an initiative or organization. Once an action plan is generated, it should be revisited frequently (e.g., as often as monthly but at least annually) so it can be modified to meet the changing needs of your community.
WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF AN ACTION PLAN FRAMEWORK?
While some issues may be universal (for example, mental health issues), each community will have different assets and barriers for improving conditions for its residents. Therefore, each community’s intervention strategy for influencing programs, policies, and practices will be unique. However, a series of steps—a framework—helps guide the process of community action and change within the context of a community’s unique needs.
If you approach the action planning process as a manageable series of steps, you can take charge and help your community coalition work through each one with confidence.
DETERMINE WHAT PEOPLE AND SECTORS OF THE COMMUNITY TO INVOLVE
As you begin your action planning process, you will need to accomplish three things:
- Document the problem or issue with information and statistics
- Learn more about your community
- Involve community members
How do you go about accomplishing these steps?
Listen to the community about issues and options. Conduct focus groups and public forums to obtain information about perceived issues and solutions within the community.
The key pieces of information you should gather in each listening session or focus group include:
- The perceived problem or issue
- Perceived barriers or resistance to addressing the issue
- Resources for change
- Recommend solutions and alternatives
- Current and past initiatives to address the problem or issue
Gather data to document the problem. In addition to hearing the community perspective on problems or goals related to the issue at hand, it is important to document the issue using existing information sources.
- "What are the issues related to the problem/topic in your community?"
- "What are the consequences of these issues?"
- "Who is affected?"
- "How are they affected?"
- "Are these issues of widespread concern?"
While the information that you collect can answer the questions above, remember that it will also play a key role in helping you determine how effective your group was in addressing the problem. You will use these baseline data—data that document the extent of the problem prior to implementation of your initiative—for comparison with data that document the extent of the problem after implementation of your initiative.
Listed below are helpful data sources that you may want to investigate. Keep in mind that not all of them will be relevant to your particular issue or problem.
- State or county health department data
- State social services department data
- Hospital admissions and exit records
- Police records
- Chamber of commerce data
- Nonprofit service agency data
- School district data
- Information from your local reference librarian
- Data from specialized local, statewide, or national organizations
Also see federal websites such as:
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s reportable disease files
- The National Center for Health Statistics’ Statistical Abstract of the United States
- Census data
- Maternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA, Title V Block Grant Information System
Become aware of local resources and past and current efforts: If current efforts targeting your issue exist, think of ways in which they can become more effective via support, advocacy or other means. Consider the following:
- Do current efforts have a parallel vision?
- How many people are they serving?
- Do the services and program meet local needs?
Particularly if pre-existing initiatives had a similiar mission and failed, seek to understand why and apply those lessons learned to your action planning. You might gain valuable insight by talking with the agency or group with the failed initiative.
Involve key officials and grassroots leaders in a planning group: While you may easily identify key officials, service providers, or representatives from relevant agencies, extend the boundaries of your planning coalition to be as inclusive as possible. Remember that your planning group should reflect the diversity of the local community.
Your group might use interviews with both key officials and key grassroots leaders to answer the following questions:
- Who can make things happen on this issue?
- What individuals are in a position to create (or block!) change?
- What contact people within the initiative would be most successful in getting those key officials to become involved?
- What neighborhoods and ethnic and cultural communities are particularly affected by this issue?
- What individuals and groups make things happen in these neighborhoods?
- What contact people within the initiative would be most successful in involving members of these neighborhoods?
CONVENE A PLANNING GROUP
Once you identify and include interested participants for the planning group, publicize planning sessions to assure that they are open to all group members. As facilitator, you should extend additional courtesies to planning group members, such as starting and ending meetings on time, using an agenda, and covering items in as little time as possible. Other responsibilities that you might have as a facilitator include:
Managing conflict. The richness of diverse views represented within your planning group may also lead to conflict among members. group leaders may need to elevate discussions to a higher level on which there may be a basis for agreement. Leaders can also remind group members of the shared vision as a means of fostering discussion on a common gound.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH)documentation includes suggestions for reaching consensus in group meetings:
- Avoid the “one best way” attitude, and opt for that which reflects the best collective judgment of the group
- Avoid “either/or” thinking; often the best solution combines several approaches
- A majority vote may not always be the best solution. When participants give and take, several viewpoints can be combined.
- Healthy conflict may actually help participants reach a consensus; do not end conflict prematurely.
- Problems are best solved when all participants try to communicate and listen.
Conflict resolution is the process of settling disagreements among group members. The CDC recommends trying one of four approaches to resolve conflicts about goals, plans, activities, or procedures:
- Avoidance: While this can be a temporary solution, particularly if a conflict does not seem important enough to discuss, be sure to reassess the problem at a later date.
- Accommodation: Use tact and discretion to ask participants to yield or conform to the positions of others.
- Compromise: When a consensus cannot be reached, compromise may be the only solution. With compromise, everyone both wins and gives up something.
- Collaboration: While this may be the best approach, reserve it for issues of greatest importance. Collaboration requires all group members to acknowledge the conflict, consider many possible solutions and the consequences of each, and select the alternatives that best meet the needs of the group.
Creating a supportive context for planning and action. Several aspects of your community group can influence the element of support in the planning environment. They are: leadership, size and structure, organization, and diversity and integration.
- Leadership – Although a single person may accept overall responsibility, effective organizations usually have a number of leaders who work with constituents to fulfill the group’s mission. Leaders should have a clear vision and the capacity for listening and relating to others in the group.
- Size and Structure – A maximum group size of 15 is recommended. If this seems prohibitive given the number of persons interested in participation, you can also structure smaller groups such as “task forces” for specific functions within the action plan.
- Organization – If your planning group or surrounding community is particularly large, you may want to allocate work to subcommittees for each sector of the community to be involved (e.g., health organizations, businesses, schools). If your planning group or surrounding community is relatively small, the group might work as a whole to accomplish action planning.
- Diversity and Integration – Include all types of participants: persons in positions of authority, grassroots leaders, and local residents with experience.
Offering ongoing encouragement. Throughout the planning process, let group members know when they are doing a good job. Positive feedback is very important—especially when people are volunteering their time and energy.
If you find it challenging or intimidating to facilitate planning sessions in which diverse ideas and opinions are spoken, try applying some of the information below to your situation. Having a “plan” for effective facilitation will help you yield the most positive outcomes and best ideas from your planning meetings.
TIPS FOR GROUP FACILITATION
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH) documentation offers the following suggestions for facilitating meetings:
- Create an environment conducive to communication by seating participants around small tables or in semicircles.
- Make participation an expectation; ask questions frequently and use open-ended questions to encourage thought and participation.
- Create opportunities for participants to work in teams.
- Give small assignments in advance, and ask participants to come to meetings prepared to share their work.
- Encourage participants to evaluate the group’s working dynamic and offer solutions to improving interaction if needed.
- Talk with quiet participants during breaks, and help them express their ideas and share their thoughts with the group.
- Use flip charts or overhead transparencies to record comments, but face participants while writing or ask someone else to do it.
- Suggest the “next step” if a meeting seems to be stagnating.
- Walk around to gain attention, but look directly at participants.
- Expect to make some mistakes! Acknowledge them, correct them, and move on.
Lead brainstorming sessions. Brainstorming is a problem-solving technique that encourages all members of a group to contribute ideas. You may find this technique of idea generation particularly helpful in the early phases of action planning. There are three common approaches to brainstorming:
- Freewheeling: Participants randomly call out suggestions, which are then recorded on a flip chart. Some group members may dominate in this setting.
- Round robin: Each member is called upon for a suggestion in turn, and ideas are recorded on a flip chart. This is a more organized approach and prevents domination of the session by only a few individuals.
- Slip: Each member submits anonymous suggestions on a slip of paper, and ideas are then recorded on a flip chart.
CDC suggests that a group facilitator follow these guidelines for a brainstorming meeting:
- Explain all rules at the beginning of the session. Those are:
- No critical remarks allowed; evaluation comes later
- Give the thought only; explanation comes later
- Give only one idea at a time
- Adding to or improving on someone else’s idea is appropriate
- Give all participants a chance to share ideas.
- Ask one or two people to record ideas.
- Keep a lively tempo to the process.
- Praise the quantity versus quality of ideas.
Convening and facilitating a planning group for a common vision, mission, or purpose can be challenging yet rewarding. Participation of diverse individuals can require skilled facilitation. However, you can successfully facilitate a group meeting by applying the guidelines presented above. The more meetings you lead throughout the action planning process, the more confident you will become!
DEVELOP AN ACTION PLAN TO ADDRESS PROPOSED CHANGES
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