Stage 2: Prioritize & Plan

4 Stages to Creating a Successful Program

The next stage in creating a successful community program is identifying the gaps and opportunities for improvement, and deciding priorities and goals. You and your team must engage the community and stakeholders in this decision-making phase. Listening and respecting the community’s priorities creates investment and a positive view of the program. Follow the next 5 stages to help you prioritize and plan your program!

A) Gather the Community

Begin by gathering your community to review your community assessment or asset map. How you reach your community and where you meet depends on how you initially define community. Ensure you advertise the community meeting using multiple sources like:

Local newspapers
Community flyer board
Municipal webpage
Social media
Mailers
Local organizations or interest groups
Word of mouth

Is the meeting hosted during a workday, in the evenings, or on the weekend? When are most people available? Is it possible to host multiple sessions at different times?
Is there childcare available?
Are you serving food and drinks?
Is the meeting hosted in a central location with accessible parking or transit services?
Is there an option to join virtually?

Check out these resources for information and resources to support Community Meeting facilitation and hosting:

Government of Alberta Community Development Unit⁽¹⁾
Edmonton’s Capital Region Interfaith Housing Initiative A Community Conversation Toolkit⁽²⁾
Tamarack Institute Community Engagement⁽³⁾

Key Considerations

Take special care to ensure that marginalized or underserved groups know of the meeting and that steps are taken to remove as many barriers to participation as possible.

B) Determine Community Values & Priorities

Understanding the community’s values and priorities is crucial for informing which programming opportunity will benefit the community most. People are the experts of their own experiences; they best understand gaps and which solutions are likely to work. By capitalizing on that expertise, community programmers can create programs that are successful and meaningfully meet the needs of community members.

Use your asset map or community assessment and the questions below to determine your community’s priorities^(4-6). At the end of this phase, you should identify 1-2 key priorities or focus areas.

What are the underused assets in our community?
What are assets missing in our community?
Where are the gaps in our community?
What gaps need immediate attention?
What solutions could we use to address the gaps?
What does a healthy community look like to you?
Where would we like to go as a community?
Why do we want to go there?
Who else needs to be at the table?

Check out this template from Alberta Health Services to help guide your community prioritization conversations:

Healthier Together: Alberta Healthy Community Approach Community Brainstorming Template⁽⁷⁾

C) Community Goal Setting

Once you’ve collectively decided on your 1-2 priority areas, the next step is creating a vision and goal. A community vision is a collective dream of how things should be. To create a community vision, ask the group⁽⁸⁾:

What are your dreams for the community?
What does success look like in this community?
How should things be in our community?

Write out your SMART Goals

Goals are the actions needed to produce your community vision. Your community goal should focus on and be specific to your identified priorities. When writing your goals, think SMART⁽⁹⁾:

What are you going to do?
What actions will you take?

Specify how you will measure and quantify success (i.e. how much/ many or how well?)

Can you realistically accomplish or complete the task(s) needed?
Do you have the skills, resources or capacity to reasonably take action within a timeframe?

Does this goal align with or help to meet the broader community vision?
Why is the result or anticipated outcome important?

What is the timeframe for completing the tasks or successfully achieving the goal?

Further Your Understanding – Check out the University of California SMART Goals: How to Guide for writing SMART goals⁽⁹⁾.

Key Considertations

It’s important to note that Stages B and C might require multiple meetings to complete. Program planning is a cyclical process, and it’s okay to revisit and hash out your goals, priorities and assets. Trust that the process and the up-front work will result in a more robust and well-rounded community program.

D) Determine your Intervention Strategy

Once your community vision and goals are determined, the next step is to decide on an intervention strategy. Intervention strategies are the specific tools or tasks to help you reach your goal. Gold-standard interventions are ones based on best or promising practices^{(10, 11)}.

Sustainable
Culturally relevant and appropriate
Built on equity, diversity, and inclusion principles
Tailored towards the community’s larger vision of health and wellness
Initiated, developed, implemented, and supported by community members or the target population
Informed by promising or best practices
Respectful of the communities autonomy, dignity and self-determination
Aware of the complexities and environmental factors that contribute to a person’s lived experience
Understanding and reflective of the need for collaboration across organizations, sectors and communities to make large-scale change
Grounded in a strength-based approach

When choosing an intervention strategy, ask what level of intervention would best impact your target population. It may be helpful to refer back to your original definition of “community” for your asset mapping.

Target individuals or families.

Focus on building an individual’s skills, knowledge or capacity around health behaviours.

Target groups of people organized by demographics or geography (i.e. programs aimed at a specific age, gender, ability level or physical location in a city or neighbourhood).
Focus on the environmental factors and systems that people live within and aim to remove barriers to participating in health behaviours.

Looking for ideas of high-quality Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) programs?

Visit Healthy Eating Programs and/or Active Living Programs to find valuable tips and action steps you can take to further your HEAL goals. And don’t forget to read through the Community Spotlights to see what local Alberta communities are doing!

Healthy Eating Programs

Active living programs

E) Create an Action Plan

Once you have identified the strategy you would like to move forward with, begin to plan out your intervention. It may be helpful to ask who from the initial community feedback group would like to be involved, and in what capacity. Community members have a variety of strengths and can help support⁽¹²⁾:

Planning processes
Fundraising or sponsoring the program
Voluntary admin tasks
Research
Writing grant proposals
Serving on program committees
Participating in the leadership of the program delivery
And more!

During the program planning process, plan out and describe^{(8, 13)}:

What level will your intervention target? (Individuals, families, organizations, or communities?)
What specific actions will occur and when?
Who will lead or oversee the program?
What is the timeline for the program?
What resources (money and staff) are needed?
What sources of funding are available to you?
How will you communicate and market your program?
What are the specific objectives of your program? How will your program achieve or contribute to the overall goal? Use a SMART template when writing your objectives.
How will you evaluate the success of your plan?

Check out these resources for additional program planning information and templates:

Community ToolBox Developing an Action Plan⁽¹³⁾
Healthier Together: Alberta Healthy Community Approach Community Action Planning Template⁽¹⁴⁾
Healthier Together: Alberta Healthy Community Approach Evaluation Plan Template⁽¹⁵⁾
Strathcona County Community Program Planning Guide⁽¹⁶⁾

Remember, the more community members are involved in the program planning, delivery and evaluation, the greater the change of program success!

Key Considerations:

While you are thinking through your program plan, keep these key considerations in mind:

What staff training is needed?
Are your proposed activities developmentally appropriate?
What are the barriers to participation?
Will your program intentionally or unintentionally exclude anyone?

Next Steps

4 Stages to Creating a Successful Program

Get ready to take action and implement your program in Stage 3: Take Action!

stage 1: Check-In

Stage 2: Prioritize & Plan

Stage 3: Take Action

Stage 4: Celebrate & Reflect

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Programs – Home

Government of Alberta [Internet]. Community Development Unit. 2022c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://www.alberta.ca/community-development-unit.aspx
Edmonton’s Capital Region Interfaith Housing initiative. A Community Conversation Toolkit. [report on internet]. The government; 2016 [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://efcl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/CRIHI-Community-Conversation-Toolkit.pdf
Tamarack Institute. [Internet]. Community Engagement. 2022c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/community-engagement?gclid=Cj0KCQjwyt-ZBhCNARIsAKH1175VsR2rS77yRwb9ZN8Mb7kLYeX7aksEVtO4ttL-NxoK4WisRRcIdFoaAs8tEALw_wcB
Government of Canada. Planning for Success- a guide to planning your community-based project [report on internet]. Ottawa. The government; 2021 [cited 2022 September 29]. Available from: https://www.canada.ca/en/atlantic-canada-opportunities/services/planning-for-success-community-project.html
Community ToolBox. A Model for Getting Started; How do we begin taking action in the community. [webpage on internet]. The University of Kansas. C2022 [cited 2022 September 30]. Available from: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/get-started
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Asset Mapping [report on internet]. The colaition; 2012c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: http://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/programs/health-data/trainings/documents/tw_cba20.pdf
Alberta Health Services; Healthier Together. [Internet]. Alberta Healthy Communities Approach. 2022c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://albertahealthycommunities.healthiertogether.ca/building-healthy-communities/alberta-healthy-communities-approach/#step-3-block
Community ToolBox. [Internet]. Developing Strtegic and Action Plans. 2022c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/developing-strategic-and-action-plans
University of California. SMART Goals: A How to Guide. [report on internet]. The University; 2017 [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://www.ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/performance-appraisal/How%20to%20write%20SMART%20Goals%20v2.pdf
Government of Canada. Planning for Success- a guide to planning your community-based project [report on internet]. Ottawa. The government; 2021 [cited 2022 September 29]. Available from: https://www.canada.ca/en/atlantic-canada-opportunities/services/planning-for-success-community-project.html
Alberta Health Services. Engaging Individuals and Families to Choose Interventions [report on internet]. Alberta. The Service; 2020 [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/info/amh/if-amh-ecc-engaging-indivs-and-families-to-choose-interv.pdf
Community Toolbox. [Internet]. Section 7. Involving People Most Affected by the Problem. 2022c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/involve-those-affected/main
Community Toolbox. [Internet]. Developing an Action Plan. 2022c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/strategic-planning/develop-action-plans/main
Alberta Health Services: Healthier Together. [Internet]. Community Action Plan Template; 2022c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://albertahealthycommunities.healthiertogether.ca/media/uploads/2021%20AHCA%20GUIDE%20and%20Appendices/ahca_guide_appendix_f.pdf
Alberta Health Services: Healthier Together. [Internet]. Evaluation Plan Template; 2022c [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://albertahealthycommunities.healthiertogether.ca/media/uploads/2021%20AHCA%20GUIDE%20and%20Appendices/ahca_guide_appendix_t.pdf
Strathcona County. Community Program Planning Guide. [report on internet]. The county; n.d. [cited 2022 October 22]. Available from: https://www.strathcona.ca/files/files/rpc-pdf-community_program_planning_guide.pdf

Stage 2: Prioritize & Plan

Stage 2: Prioritize & Plan

4 Stages to Creating a Successful Program