Guide to Planning Your Community-based Project
This guide will help you capture many of the things you will want to consider in planning your project. The objective is to gather data, analyze information, and decide on an implementation plan to help you succeed. Use this as a planning document and add in additional elements as they arise.
Project Name:
Give your project a working title that reflects the spirit of your endeavour.
Vision:
State your vision for your project using four or five descriptive sentences. Be as complete and specific as you can. (Remember also that a Vision statement is a way of “getting there”, and therefore must be responsive to change, especially if “there” changes!)
Time Frame: (estimated)
Estimate the length of development, implementation, and evaluation time.
Action Chart:
On the following chart, answer the questions on the left. Then list on the right specific things to do or check into related to that question. If you don't yet know the answer to a specific question, your action item will be to get more information!
| Questions & Answers |
Your Actions |
| Community Needs | Analyze |
| What do you currently know about your client group and their need for this service? |
e.g., – prioritize the items in the sample Needs Analysis |
| What are some of the characteristics of your client group that you will need to plan for? |
e.g., – review the sample Survey Questions |
| What additional research do you feel you need to do to help define aspects of your project? |
e.g., – determine the shared values of the people who would be involved in and/or affected by the project |
| Community Partners | Network withÖ |
| Who should you be consulting with to help further define your project? | e.g., – colleagues, community organizations, other potential users |
| Who will implement the project and keep it running? | e.g., – other groups that might help support the project on an ongoing basis |
| Project Financing | AssessÖ |
| What will your project cost? | |
| What sources of project funding are available? | |
| What “in-kind” (i.e., volunteer, shared, or equivalent to financing) services and materials can you obtain or make use of? | |
| Project Development | Consult withÖ |
| What kinds of expertise will you need? | |
| What community supports will you need? | |
| What computer hardware will you need? | |
| What computer software will you need? | |
| Are there any other technological requirements? | |
| What physical resources will you need? | |
| What user policies might need to be put in place? (e.g., user fees, access, etc.) | |
| Project Implementation | DetermineÖ |
| What supports will your client group need to make use of your services? | |
| How will you advertise your project? | |
| How will you measure your success? | |
| What are potential barriers to the successful implementation of your project? | e.g., – list strategies to overcome the barriers |
| Now review your Answers and Action items and list: | |
| In what ways can the QLN help you develop and launch your project? | To do: |
