Sample Action Plan

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Sample Action Planning Guide

Have you ever wanted to change something in your school or neighborhood, but you didn’t know where to start? Are there problems you see, but they seem too big to take on by yourself? This project map will get you stepping toward positive change in your community.

This step-by-step action planning guide is adapted from Search Institute’s book, Step-by-Step! Through real life examples, this book teaches you a process toward change in your community. Use this action-planning guide for planning large community events or small school activities.

Step 1 - Pick Your Purpose
Step 2 - Take on a Team
Step 3 - Put Together a Plan
Step 4 - Get Things Going
Step 5 - Reflect on your Work
Step 6 - Celebrate!

Step One
Pick Your Purpose	We must be the change we wish to see. --Ghandi

You have the power to make a difference. The first step to making positive change is knowing your strengths, knowing your team, and knowing what you want to do.

Name:	Date:
Things We are Good At Doing
Things We Are Not Good At Doing

What do you care about? It takes a lot of courage to know who you are and what you want. Take time to figure out what really matters to you because whatever you decide to do is going to take some energy.

List three things that matter to you and what you can do about it (for example, preventing tobacco, alcohol, or other drug use through educational resources or alternative activities, signing petitions for smoke-free restaurants, putting together a leadership training with youth, doing a community program, starting a school club).

What do you care about?

What can you do about it?

Step Two
Take on a Team	Take on a Team – No one does it alone. -- Oprah Winfrey

Don’t be fooled by stories of people who do really dramatic things all by themselves. There are always other people helping each other to get the work done. For example, Martha Stewart has 441 assistants!

A team builds on each member’s strengths and interests to get the work done. Discuss your team’s strengths and interests. Determine a topic that matters to your team.

Project Commitment Statement

Because we/I care about:

We/I plan to change the community by:

Date:

Signed:

Allies are people you want on your team. Allies help you – remember no one does it alone! Think about other youth and adults you want on your team. For example, teachers, local businesses, media, police, CDSSAPS, local or school government.

Potential Allies
Name	Why we want to work with him/her	What would he/she get out of it	Who will contact him/her

Step Three
Put Together a Plan		Put Together a Plan. All great achievements require time.
	-- David Schwartz

Now the team must talk about some specific steps you need to make to help move you toward positive change. By writing down what needs done, who agrees to do it, and by when it will be done, the team can move forward.

To Do – Action Register
Project:
Priority #	Task	Assigned to	Due Date

Step Four
Get Things Going		Get Things Going – You have to make things happen.
	-- Florence Joyner

Now you know your strengths, your team’s interests, and what you are going to do. It is time to think about resources needed to get the work done. Resources include money, supplies, time, etc. Fill out the table below with the resources needed and their costs.

Resources	Cost



Total Costs

Team members can raise resources through special events (raffle, car wash, walk-a-thon) and in-kind donations. Also, allies can help secure resources.

Step Five
Reflect on your work		What you see depends on what you are looking for.
	-- anon

Evaluation is thinking about an event and figuring out what went well and what didn’t and reflecting on how much you’ve done so far. It is an ongoing process. Evaluation is helpful because then you can tell funders/media about your accomplishments and you can continue to make things better.

Following is a description of 3 types of evaluation. First, listing major accomplishments. Marking all major milestones is useful for the team, funders, and others. Second, recording numbers. Counting the number of people involved & impacted is useful for media, donors, and others. Third, writing stories. Retelling personal accounts can attract other supports to your project. What kind of evaluation does your team want to do? Don’t forget to list evaluation on your team’s to do list.

Type of evaluation to be used by the team for this project:
(must have at least 1 type of evaluation)

Team Evaluation (ongoing)

What was our goal?	What did we do really well?
What did I learn?	What do we still need to do?

Step Six
Celebrate	– To observe a notable occasion with festivities.

Get your community together to honor all the great work everyone is doing. Enjoy your progress along the way. Have a party, take pictures, write a press release, eat cake, send flowers, give special awards. Put celebrate on your to do list. Don’t forget to support each other along the way. Know you are making a difference by working together as a team. By supporting each other along the way you will keep moving in a positive direction. Listen and be respectful. You can also support your team by taking breaks, saying thank-you often, or having food available. Most of all – don’t give up!

Adapted with permission from The Mosaic Youth Center Board of Directors with Jennifer Griffin-Wiesner, Step by Step: A Young Person’s Guide to Positive Community Change (Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute). © Search Institute, 2001

www.search-institute.org

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