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Overview

• TAKE HOME MESSAGES
• DEFINING THE INTENDED AUDIENCE
  • The Challenge of Selection
  • Iintervention Approaches
  • Life Stage
  • Which Approach is Best?
• Steps of a Strategic Action Plan
• Types of Intervention Strategies
• What is an Action Plan?
• SUMMARY
• QUICK CHECK
• REFERENCES

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TAKE HOME MESSAGES

After completing this tutorial, you will be familiar with:

• How to select an intended audience
• Ways to prioritize your intervention approach
• The steps to developing a strategic action plan

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DEFINING THE INTENDED AUDIENCE

The Challenge of Selection

How do we narrow the focus of our intervention?  What intervention strategies should we choose?

Your coalition will have the challenge of deciding how to best use its limited resources to design diabetes intervention strategies. In selecting an intended audience, use the available relevant data about your community, results from your community survey, available scientific evidence, (i.e. The Guide to Community Preventive Services), and consensus from coalition members to guide you.   

Also consider:

• Intervention approaches
• Specific age groups

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DEFINING THE INTENDED AUDIENCE cont'd

Intervention Approaches

There are 3 intervention approaches to consider when choosing which strategies to implement with an intended audience.

• Preventive Approach
• Prevention focuses on people who have not yet developed a condition or disease and attempts to reduce the number of cases in the future. 

Identify the group that is experiencing a high number of new cases of diabetes.  Intervene here to reduce the number of new cases in this population and you will reduce the number of total cases in the community.

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DEFINING THE INTENDED AUDIENCE cont'd

Intervention Approaches cont'd

• Cost-effective Approach

• This approach examines readily available resources and compares available resources with populations that are likely to benefit.

  Choose the one or two populations that will likely benefit most from the intervention based on evidence in the literature or previous experience in your community.

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DEFINING THE INTENDED AUDIENCE cont'd

Intervention Approaches cont'd

• Greatest Need Approach

• This approach targets your intervention to those in greatest need.  Although costly in some cases, these interventions may give you the greatest improvement in health outcomes.

  This is the approach that tackles social disparities or inequities.

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DEFINING THE INTENDED AUDIENCE cont'd

Life Stage

In selecting your specific intervention strategies, it is sometimes helpful to identify a specific age group. This will help you to design your intervention so it's appropriate for your audience's life stage, and to select appropriate partners to in order to work with your population.

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DEFINING THE INTENDED AUDIENCE cont'd

Which Approach is Best?

The best approach depends on your community.  It is important to consult with members of the community and representatives from local organizations about previous experiences with community interventions and strategies in order to avoid previous mistakes or to learn from them.

Learn about:

• Previous experiences in developing and implementing interventions
• Why did the intervention strategy work or not work?
• The health beliefs and behaviors of community members
• Do men get help for their health or send their wives?
• Community norms
• Will members actually be willing to go to the facility where the training is held?

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STEPS OF A STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN

Now that you have identified your audience and explored ways to prioritize your intervention approach, it's time to put the plan together.  Take a minute to study the follow diagram which show how the steps of a strategic action plan are related.

MISSION		GOALS		OBJECTIVES		STRATEGIES		ACTIONS
Focus on   purpose		Accomplish these to reach Mission		Measure these to reach goals		Implement these to achieve objectives		Act on these to implement strategies

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STEPS OF A STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN cont'd

Step 1

Mission - a statement of the overall purpose of your coalition.

"Our mission is to promote access of diabetes services to high risk citizens in Monroe County. We will accomplish this mission by promoting education, community services, and policy change."

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STEPS OF A STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN cont'd

Step 2

Goals - broad, long term aims that define accomplishment of the mission.Goals are what you accomplish to achieve your Mission. Policy example:

"Provide assistance to community based organizations in getting provider reimbursement for delivery of the National Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Intervention."

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STEPS OF A STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN cont'd

Step 3

Objectives - specific, quantifiable, realistic targets that measure the accomplishment of a goal over a specific period of time. Objectives are what you measure to show progress toward reaching your goals. Each goal should have at least 2 measurable objectives.

"By 2013, the number of community based organizations in Monroe County that seek provider reimbursement for delivery of the National Diabetes Prevention Program will increase from 1 to 50."

Characteristics of Objectives

Objectives should be SMART:

S pectific – details of who, what action, how much, and by when

M easurable – degree or quantity of change (numbers)

A chievable- able to be accomplished; actionable

R ealistic – feasible with the resources available

T imely – defines a timeframe for achieving the objective

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STEPS OF A STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN cont'd

Step 5

Actions - specific steps to be taken, by whom, and by when, in order to implement a strategy.

Begin discussions and set up in-person meeting with Agency on Aging to leverage an existing relationship with a coalition member by 3/15/12."

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STEPS OF A STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN cont'd

What is an Action Plan?

Action plans are created by breaking down each intervention strategy and identifying action steps, resources, who is involved, the timeframe, and barriers to implementing the strategy.

Example:

Strategy: Establish a partnership with Area Agency on Aging (AAA) to promote awareness of ways to seek reimbursement for the Lifestyle Intervention for community based organizations in Monroe County.

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STEPS OF A STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN cont'd

What is an Action Plan? Cont'd

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SUMMARY

Clearly defined mission, goals, objectives, strategies, and actions will guide your coalition in developing an impactful intervention. Keep in mind that you may have more than one goal, multiple objectives measuring attainment of each goal, and multiple strategies to accomplish each objective.

The next tutorial, Designing an Evaluation Plan, you will see how different types of evaluation can be used to show the impact that the intervention has on your community.

But first, a Quick Check...

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QUICK CHECK

Now, let's check your understanding of the material we just covered. Read each question and select the best answer choice.

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REFERENCES

Adapted from:

• Dressler, L (2004) How to Achieve High-Commitment Decisions. Blue Wing Consulting. Boulder, CO.
• Rogow, F., Adelman, L., Poulain, R. and Cheng, J. (2008) UNNATURAL CAUSES Discussion Guide, a project of California Newsreel. ( www.unnaturalcauses.org)
• Nagy, J. and Fawcett, J. (2011).  Developing Successful Strategies: Planning to Win.  The Community Tool Box, Chapter 8, Section 4.  Available at http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1088.aspx. 
• Task Force on Community Preventive Services.  The Guide to Community Preventive Services. New York: Oxford University Press; 2005. Available at http://www.thecommunityguide.org/index.html.  Accessed September 1, 2011.

Well done!

You have completed Tutorial 4: Designing a Strategic Action Plan.  Click on Tutorial 5: Designing an Evaluation Plan on the left menu to go on to the next tutorial.

Want to learn more about working with your coalition and creating strategic action plans? Contact the Diabetes Training and Technical Assistance Center (DTTAC) at dttac.emory.edu for more information on designer workshops, trainings and services offered.