Phase 5: Developing Goals, Strategies, and an Action Plan

During the Formulate Goals and Strategies phase of the CHA/CHIP, participants take the strategic issues identified in the previous phase and formulate goal statements related to those issues. They, then, identify broad strategies for addressing issues and achieving goals related to the community's vision. The result is the development and adoption of an interrelated set of strategy statements.

Recommended Participants

Steering Committee— identifies and develops goals and strategies; adopts final strategy statements.

Core Support Team or Subcommittees— explores specific issues or strategies on an "as needed" basis.

Overview of the Steps for the Goals/Strategies Phase

1. Develop goals related to the vision and the identified strategic issues.
2. Generate a range of strategy alternatives to address the goals and help the community achieve its vision. Take current strategies and activities into consideration when developing new and innovative approaches.
3. Consider barriers to implementation, such as insufficient resources, lack of community support, legal or policy impediments, or technological difficulties.
4. Explore implementation details by considering concrete actions that need to be taken, the organizations and individuals that need to be involved, the resources required, and the proposed timeline for implementation.
5. Select strategies by choosing among the alternatives. Once selected, adopt the strategies through formal or informal processes.
6. Draft and adopt the planning report. Written documentation ensures consensus, provides a source of reference, and helps to set the stage for action planning and implementation.

Developing a Strategy

• Strategy Development Matrix: Designed as a matrix, this worksheet provides a framework for approaching the strategy development process.

• Strategy Development Worksheet: This worksheet poses questions aimed to assist the MAPP team in formulating goals and developing a strategic approach.

• Example Invitation Letter: The San Antonio Director of Health sent out this letter to invite individuals, who were either part of or interested in the MAPP process, to attend a community update meeting.

Sample Reports

• Example Rationale for Discussing Strategic Issues: This six-page report outlines San Antonio's strategic issues and walks the reader through the rationale behind each issue based on the assessments results.

• Goals and Strategies Report Summary: This 19-page report was generated by the consultants who assisted in Northern Kentucky's Identifying Strategic Issues and Developing Goals and Strategies phases. The report includes an evaluation of these two phases of the MAPP process.

• Delaware County Health Status Report: Formulating Goals and Strategies: This document details how Delaware County, Ohio formulated goals and strategies for one of its three health priorities— "linkage and access to services." This document can be used as a process template to Formulate Goals and Strategies for each issue.

• Goals and Strategies for Delaware County Community Priorities, One-Pager: A one-page summary report of the goals and strategies for community priorities developed by Partnership for Health Delaware County.

• Goals and Strategies for Delaware County Community Priorities, Visual Version: A visual display of goals and strategies for community priorities developed by Partnership for Health Delaware County.

Developing a Health Improvement Plan

• Example Improvement Plan Draft: The Alliance for Community Health in San Antonio drafted this comprehensive Improvement Plan. The plan is organized by strategic issue and describes the rationale behind each issue, lists the committee chairperson and members, and states the short- and long-term goals and objectives for each issue.

• Example Community Health Improvement Plan: Mendocino County's Five-Year Strategic Plan focuses on access to care, aging, alcohol and other drugs, and healthy lifestyles as priority areas.

• Example Community Health Improvement Plan: Various local agencies and organizations in Madison County came together and used the MAPP process to develop a health improvement plan for their community. Their effort is documented in this 68-page health improvement plan report.

Trainings

• Presentation: Developing Goals, Objectives, and Performance Indicators for CHIPs - This presentation describes the difference between a goal, objective and performance indicator, discusses how national guidance can be used to guide development, provides information on how to write realistic, measurable and time-framed objectives, a description of one LHDs work in this area, and more. Watch the free archived recording of this webinar.
• Presentation: Choosing Strategies and Tactics for Health Improvement - This presentation describes evidence and/or practice based strategies for consideration in addressing priority issues, describes considerations for adoption a model or promising practice, describes a multi-intervention approach or strategy ''bundling'' to maximize effectiveness, and more. Watch the free archived recording of this webinar.
  
  
• Presentation: Identifying Effective Strategies to Address the Social Determinants of Health - This presentation describes the project and PHAB documentation requirements for strategy selection and implementation, discusses what types of actions will best address the root causes of health inequities or social determinants of health, discusses the role of policy change in addressing the social determinants of health, and more. Watch the free archived recording of this webinar.