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Now you have a group of volunteers who are better educated on the issue of youth suicide, and you have assessed your own community’s statistics and resources. You may be ready to jump in and do something about it. That’s great! But before you start on a journey, it’s a good idea to plan where you want to go.
To make effective change in a community, planning is an essential ingredient:
- Clear vision and mission — initiatives with a clear and specific focus bring about much higher rates of change than broad efforts that lack a targeted mission and objectives.
- Action planning — Identifying specific community changes may be the single, most important step. The action plan should be precise, specifying for each action step who, what, where and how it should be carried out.
The goal of this section is to:
3.1 Draft a Vision and Mission Statement
- To frame the issue, to keep members focused, and to project a clear message to the community.
3.2 Define Objectives and Activities
View the goals set by national and state agencies, and see recommendations of the GHCF Community Survey. Clarify and prioritize strategies to work toward your mission.
- Define the audience you'd most like to target
- Suggested activities: Review tips and ideas for several activities
- Sample Activity: Ensure that Schools have a Crisis Response Plan
- Brainstorm to identify steps you will take to meet needs in your own community
3.3 Build Action Plans
- Define the activities you will do: who, when, where, how and how much.
3.4 Develop Financial Support and Resources
- Locate or build sources of support, including fundraising
3.5 Evaluate your activities
- Simple methods to track participation and progress