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Program Planning Steps

HLTH 325 DR. LINCOLN GIBBS

Program Planning
To achieve desirable ends
Impact health status
Improve quality of life

Reflective of planning models

Appropriate to the setting
15 general planning steps for consideration

Common Planning Models

Precede-Proceed Model = important to understand!

Precede-Proceed Model
http://www.lgreen.net/precede.htm

Multilevel Approach to Community Health

(MATCH)
Model for Health Education Planning (MHEP)
Comprehensive Health Education Model (CHEM)

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Program Planning Steps

Step 1: Review the needs assessment

A needs assessment is figuring out what the community

needs in terms of the program ( possibly a survey)

Review the resulting recommendations

Consider additional data or a further reexamination of the
data

Step 2: Convene an advisory panel or planning

committee
Engage & involve community members for community
ownership & acceptance
Consider the stakeholders, gate keepers, & local community
agencies
Potential program providers, potential clients or consumers
need to be considered

gate keeper: any community individual that acts

like a barrier or (gate keeper) for you to get into
that community. Anything that prevents you from
accessing that community.

Planning Steps Continued

Step 3: Assess & Establish a Budget for Program
Planning
Resources are needed for conducting research, piloting &
implementing the program
Staff & materials are also needed

Step 4: Write and Review a Mission Statement

The mission should reflect the program intent & philosophy
If written prior, a review of the mission is needed to determine
current relevance & appropriateness

Planning Steps Continued

-Goals come first then objectives

Step 5: Write and Review Program Goals and

Program Objectives
Goals evolve from the mission & objectives from the goal
Goals tend to be more general and long-term
Objectives provide measurable terms for the desired changes &
are more short-term
If developed prior, goals and objectives need to be reviewed
and adjusted to reflect any new information or insights

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Planning Steps Continued

Step 6: Select a theory or theories on which to base
your program

The Health Belief Model works great as a

theoretical base.

A theoretical foundation is needed to guide planners in

developing or selecting the intervention
Help to shape the intervention to achieve desired goals and
objectives
Theoretical foundation should reflect the current research &
professional understandings
Consider a theoretical foundation that has been shown to be
effective with similar programs and/or similar target
populations

Planning Steps Continued

Use what already exists to help build your plan!

Step 7: Review other programs to generate program

strategy alternatives
Review successful programs, evidence-based or science-based
programs & practices
Can be found in the professional literature, on websites, or in
government, agency, & foundation reports
Helps in identifying effective strategies & activities
A possible contact for lessons learned and tips for a successful
program implementation

Planning Steps Continued

Step 8: Assess and establish the budget for program
implementation
Consider if budget will be sufficient to achieve program goal
Identify existing assets and resources
Review sample budgets to determine if the necessary items
have been included
If needed, consider other possible funding sources or activities

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Planning Steps Continued

Step 9: Estimate Time
Needed for organization & assessment
What needs to be done
Who needs to conduct the activities of the intervention &
assessment
When each activity needs to be conducted

Should have a logical flow, be realistic & help to demonstrate

how the goal will be achieved
Review timetables, timelines, Gantt charts, & Logic models for
tools that would be most helpful to the staff

Planning Steps Continued

Step 10: Select strategies & activities
Select those that:
Reflect the theoretical foundation of the program
Are considered the best practices of the profession
Will address the needs or attributes of the target population

Identify through a professional review of strategies & activities

for each objective
Attempt to uncover potential barriers for each selected
strategy & activity

Planning Steps Continued

Step 11: Plan Evaluation
Evaluation should be a continuous process
Process, impact, & outcome evaluation should be addressed in
the evaluation plan
The plan needs to address what data needs to be collected &
how it will be collected
An external or outside evaluator may need to be utilized and
should be brought in as early as possible in the planning
process

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Planning Steps Continued

Step 12: Determine & establish cooperative
agreements and linkages with other appropriate
community agencies
Connect with key local decision makers & community agencies
Review similar programming at the local level
Consider possible collaborations, an advisory board, a task
force, etc., for resource sharing

Planning Steps Continued

Step 13: Write component-specific behavior &
learning objectives
Objectives need to reflect the activities & strategies selected for
the program
A reevaluation of the objectives may be needed
Each program component needs to include objectives targeted
to an action, a behavior, or environmental factors

Planning Steps Continued

Step 14: Pilot-test the intervention
A pilot test helps to identify problems or flaws in program
design or delivery
A process assessment of the pilot test may result in needed
adjustments or fine tuning

Step 15: Implement the program

After the pilot testing adjustments, the program is then phased
in or fully implemented