Step 3: Select A Strategy To Achieve
Your Goals
A strategy
describes how you are going to get things done. It is less
specific than an action plan (which tells the who, what and
when); instead, it tries broadly to answer the question, "How
do we want to get there from here?"
A good
strategy will take into account existing barriers and resources
(people, finances, time, and materials). It will also be in
keeping with the overall mission, goals and objectives of
the initiative. Often, a mental health promotion initiative
will use many different strategies - enhancing support, removing
barriers, providing resources, etc. - to achieve its goals.
Objectives
outline the aims of your initiative - what success would look
like in achieving your mission. In contrast, strategies suggest
paths to take (and how to move along) on the road to success.
That is, strategies help you to determine how you will realize
your mission and objectives through the nitty-gritty world
of action.
What Should Your
Strategy Do For Your Initiative?
Strategies
for your mental health promotion initiative should meet several
criteria. Strategies should:
Give overall direction
A strategy,
such as increasing opportunities and resources or enhancing
coping skills, should point out the overall path without
dictating a specific narrow approach.
Fit resources
and opportunities
A good
strategy takes advantage of current resources and assets,
such as people’s willingness to act, or a tradition of self-help
and community pride. It also embraces new opportunities
such as emerging public concern for specific mental health
issues.
Minimize resistance
and barriers
New
initiatives that propose to change attitudes and circumstances
often meet with some degree of resistance from the community.
This can be especially true of initiatives which focus on
mental health. The lingering stigma that surrounds many
mental health and illness-related issues may make mental
health promotion initiatives particularly prone to opposition.
Creative strategies can help to attract allies and deter
opponents.
Reach those affected
To address
the issue or problem, strategies must connect the initiative
with those it’s designed to benefit.
Advance the mission
Taken
together, are the strategies likely to make a difference
in terms of reaching your goals and objectives? Are you
casting your net wide enough by including several different
strategies?
Why Develop Strategies?
Developing
strategies is a way to focus your efforts and figure out how
to get things done. By doing so, you will be able to:
- take
advantage of resources and emerging opportunities;
- respond
effectively to resistance and barriers;
- use
your time, energy and resources more efficiently.
Developing
strategies is the essential step between figuring out your
objectives and making the changes you’ll need to reach them.
How Do You Develop
Strategies?
Similar
to the process that you followed in setting your mission,
goals and objectives, developing your strategy involves brainstorming
and talking to community members. You might want to organize
a brain-storming meeting with members of your group and members
of the community.
Some of
the questions you will want to keep in mind during your brainstorming
process are:
- What
resources and assets can be used to help achieve the mission,
goals and objectives?
- What
obstacles or resistance exist that may make it difficult
to achieve your goals? How can you minimize or get around
them?
- How
can you involve as many different sectors of the community
as possible?
- What
are community members going to contribute to reaching the
goals of the initiative?
- What
kind of strategies have other communities developed to take
action on similar issues?
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In
the case of Helping Skills, the strategies chosen reflected
the goals and objectives of the project. The major strategy
of the project was to draw out and build on the innate
knowledge and skills of participants. To do this, it
was necessary to:
- Connect
with people with the interest and motivation to help
others, who wanted to be able to help more effectively;
- Use
experiential, not academic, approaches to learning;
- Find
partners and facilitators who were strategically positioned
to connect with and bring others on board;
- Address
any concerns about using volunteers as community helper's
- Emphasize
how closely the project fitted with new health policy
directions of partnerships with communities and strengthening
community capacity.
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Step 4: Identify
Resources - Assets And Needs >
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