Step 6: Identify An Action Plan
What Is An Action
Plan?
Developing
an action plan is the next step in the process of turning
your ideas about promoting mental health in your community
into reality. An action plan describes the ways that you will
use your strategies to meet your objectives. An action plan
consists of a number of action steps or changes to be brought
about in your community.
Why Develop An
Action Plan?
Developing
an action plan is a crucial stage in the overall planning
of your mental health promotion initiative. There are many
good reasons to work through the details by creating an action
plan before you actually take action.
Builds
credibility
Having
an action plan lends credibility to your initiative; it
shows members of the community (including funders) that
you are well organized and dedicated to getting things
done.
Keeps
you grounded
Going
through the process of developing your action plan helps
to ensure that you have a realistic
understanding of what is and isn’t possible for your project
to accomplish, and also that you don’t overlook any important
details.
Saves
time, energy and resources
Although
developing an action plan takes some time, in the long
run it will save you time,energy
and resources.
Ensures
greater accountability
Having
a detailed list of action steps that provides explicit
information about the who, what, when and how, will ensure
greater accountability in your project. It will increase
the chances that people will do what needs to be done.
How Do You Develop
An Action Plan?
Your action
plan will be an invaluable tool if it provides a complete
list of the steps that need to take place, is written in a
clear and straightforward manner, and reflects the larger
context in which you are operating (e.g. emerging opportunities
and barriers).
Much like
creating your mission, goals and objectives, developing your
action plan is an activity best done with the group of people
who will steer your initiative. This may be a fairly small
group at first, but will grow as you move from defining and
analyzing the issue to taking action on that issue.
With your
planning group, think about the steps you need to take to
carry out your objectives:
- What
actions or changes will occur?
- Who
will carry out these changes?
- By
when will they take place, and for how long?
- What
resources are needed to carry out these changes (funding,
time, etc.)?
- Who
should know about these changes?
Your initial
discussions will probably be about the issue and the contemplation
of action than they are about any particular action. It can
be difficult to move from analysis and information gathering
and into action for several reasons -- the potential risk
of failure, and the fear of tackling a complex mental health
issue before you have much experience working as a group.
There
is a delicate balance between taking immediate action and
acting without a clear sense of the overall direction of the
effort. When your group is thinking about what kind of action
to take, it’s a good idea to consider the following questions:
- What
is likely to happen if we take this particular action?
- Whom
might we unintentionally harm?
- Whom
might we unintentionally provoke?
By thinking
through these questions with your group and developing a clear
action plan, you may head off some of the unintended, perhaps
unpleasant consequences of acting without a careful plan.
When Should You
Develop An Action Plan?
Ideally,
you should develop your action plan near the beginning of
the life of your project, after you have determined the mission,
goals, objectives and strategies of your group. This way,
it will provide you with a blueprint for running your project.
Once you’ve
developed your action plan, don’t shelve it. Display it prominently
so that you can refer to it often, and update and revise it
to fit the changing needs of your project and community.
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Step 7: Implement
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