Planning Tool Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation Maintenance/Sustainability Phone Please fill out the tool at your own pace. You can stop at anytime and download a PDF file of your answers by skipping to the end (click on Maintenance/Sustainability) and click “Complete” at the bottom. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can continue to edit the PDF on your local drive. Reach Dimension or Issue: Who will take part? Be sure to track reach on an ongoing basis and adjust your approaches as needed, especially if you are not reaching key groups. Who will the initiative appeal to? (End-users of the initiative – e.g. patients, students, employees, kids, parents, community members) Whom do you plan to reach in your initiative? Define the intended beneficiaries – target population(s). How and where will you reach them? How will you advertise and promote the program? Who needs to approve these methods? How will know if you reached them and who participated? How will you know if those who participated are representative of the intended beneficiaries (target population)? What methods will you use to attract underserved populations and focus on health inequities? What information is available to determine that the sample is representative of the target audience? Effectiveness Dimension or Issue: What Results? Periodically evaluate your outcomes to date, especially for who is benefitting and who is not. What are the most important outcomes you expect to see? (e.g., more physical activity, weight loss, better quality of life, less bullying, less absenteeism, less drug use; better medication adherence; improved quality of life) What is the targeted individual-level change? How will you measure these changes? Who will care about the outcomes? How will you share these outcomes? How likely is it that your initiative will achieve its key outcomes? What are the biggest threats to seeing the outcomes you want? Will your program or policy be effective for those most in need? How will your program or policy need to be adapted to benefit these individuals? What unintended consequences or outcomes might there be? What has gone wrong in other similar initiatives? Adoption Dimension or Issue: Where will initiative be conducted? Wherever possible, work initiative delivery activities into existing roles and workflow, rather than create new tasks. What settings or organizational types are you targeting (e.g., schools, workplaces, clinics, community settings or organizations)? What are key characteristics of the settings you want to participate? Who might be interested in this initiative and why? How will settings hear about this? What were characteristics of settings that did not participate (e.g., location, facilities, finances, personnel) *How many of these settings and organizations do you estimate will use the program or participate in your policy? What external or environmental supports or threats are there? How will you know if organizations used the initiative? Who can help gather information about this? Who will deliver the program or policy (actually do the work) and do they have the skills and time? (e.g., teachers, human resource staff, clinicians, lay health educators, volunteers)? What are the expertise or characteristics of those (e.g., staff, volunteers) you are wanting to deliver the intervention? Implementation Dimension or Issue: How consistently will you deliver the program or policy? Anticipate needing to make changes to fine tune your initial plans. This is normal and to be expected. Look for ways to make program delivery more efficient. How will the initiative be delivered, including adjustments and adaptations? What are the key elements of the initiative that must be delivered to be successful? To what extent will the key aspects of the program or policy be delivered as intended? How will you assess program delivery (self-report, audit, checklists)? Describe the feasibility of these methods. What adaptations or modifications do you think will be necessary to help implement the initiative to fit your different settings? What are likely implementation challenges you will need to overcome? How will you know what adaptations or modifications were made during the program? Who can help you keep track of modifications or adjustments made? What are some of the possible obstacles to consistent implementation? Are there competing projects or programs to consider? What costs and resources (including time and burden, not just money) need to be considered? Are these costs and resources available and reasonable to ask for (high enough priority?) What costs and resources (including time and burden, not just money) need to be considered? Maintenance/Sustainability Dimension or Issue: When will your initiative need to be renewed? What will happen over the long-term? Consider for both Individual beneficiaries and Settings (e.g., support longer term benefits to children, employees, patients, students; ongoing infrastructure and policy) What are likely implementation challenges you will need to overcome? Can ORGANIZATIONS sustain the initiative over time and are there plans to leave trained staff in place? What infrastructure supports will be needed to sustain the initiative? Is there an infrastructure and funding that will remain? How will this initiative align with current and future policies and reimbursement; revenue streams? How likely is your initiative to produce lasting effects for INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS? How will individuals be delivered key program components over time? Will they stay in contact? How will you be able to follow your initiative for an extended period of time? How will you continue to track success and provide ongoing feedback? “How’s it working for you?” How will you get the word out about your product and lessons learned? What easy to understand materials can you produce to tell others about your lessons learned? What are likely modifications or adaptations that will need to be made to sustain the initiative over time (e.g. lower cost, different staff, reduced intensity, different settings)? How can you track the major changes made over time?
