This session is intended to give the participants unstructured time to develop written action plans for the team at the Institute.
One action-planning issue is how members will share the information they learned at the Institute with the community and the group they represent. Another issue is how the participants will present recommendations for changes to the focus, structure, or process of their drug elimination activities based on its experiences at the Institute. A third issue is how the team will reintegrate itself into the community as a whole.
This is the last team session of the Institute. At its end, team members will have a chance to conduct a team closure activity and to complete the posttraining evaluation form. They will also receive their Institute certificates.
This session provides an opportunity for teams to synthesize all they have experienced in previous sessions. They will review what they have learned and how they can present this information to their community in a way that will increase the probability that it will be accurately understood and acted upon. At the end of this session, they will develop a written action plan that will be used in Unit 5C.
Facilitators will need signed copies of the Institute certificates for each participant.
Participants will need their copies of the Prevention Program Action-Planning Worksheet from Unit 2D to use as reference for program/activities adjustments. Have extra copies duplicated in advance in case some participants may need them. In addition, participants will need their copy of the community assessment material to use as a reference.
At the close of this session, remind teams to bring copies of the vision-based action plans, or notes about them, to Session 5C.
B. Review with the team or ask them to review, the questions listed on HO-1 to help them discuss and plan for issues (HO-1: Questions for Action Planning).
Discussion Questions
After you leave today, what issues will keep popping up in your thoughts?
In two sentences or less, how will you explain what happened this week to your family, friends, and colleagues?
How will you transfer what you learned to other members of the community?
What changes will you recommend to the community organization you represent?
Do you think that there will be resistance to any of your recommendations? How will you work with this resistance?
Some community teams have reported conflicts between the individuals who attended the training and those who did not attend. How can you reintegrate your team into the community in such a way as to prevent such conflicts? How will you try to resolve conflict if it occurs?
How will your team from the Institute continue to work together?
What questions did this training raise for you? How will you get them answered?
C. Ask participants to review the drug prevention strategies they have been developing all week.
D. Ask participants to look at HO-2 and HO-3. Review each, using the following (HO-2: Introduction to Action-Planning Tool):
Content Points
The purpose of the action plan is to record the team's plans for returning to the community.
It is important to emphasize that the team at the Institute may not represent all the community sectors, organizations, and decision makers. Institute participants must see that their work is to generate alternatives or recommendations to be considered by the organizations which they represent.
The action plan considers how best to approach all the sectors of the community with the new information and ideas discussed at the Institute.
The new information and ideas are seen as ways to strengthen the work the community team has already begun.
The action plan includes four columns. The first is the "Goal Statement." In this space, team members will list one goal. A goal is a general statement of the direction in which a defined action will move. It need not be measurable, but must be clear and focused.
The next section is labeled "Objectives/Action Steps." It may include one or both of these kinds of statements. An objective is a specific, measurably achievable action that is consistent with the goal and must be accomplished to attain it. An action step is a clearly defined task that assigns responsibility for accomplishing the task, and a deadline for its completion. It is part of a workplan that is consistent with an objective.
The third column is labeled "Who." In this column, team members can list the person or persons who will take primary responsibility for ensuring that the objective or action step is accomplished. Some teams may also list those individuals or organizations who will share responsibility for completing the task.
The final column is labeled "When." Here team members can insert the planned completion date for the objective or action step.
Trainer Note: Please ensure that action plans are very specific and that they list the identified risk factors, relate to curriculum content, use the community assessment as a reference point, and assign specific tasks to a specific person who will be responsible for ensuring the task's completion. Make sure teams identify what, where, when, who, and how for each risk factor identified.
Directions
E. Point out that the plan form includes a place on the top right corner for the name of the community team. Remind the team to fill this in before handing in the original for photocopying. It is also useful to number the pages in sequence.
F. Remind the team that the facilitator will need the last 30 minutes of this session for the evaluation and closing.
G. Note that each team will need a summary of its team action plan for use in the small group sessions in Unit 5C.
Trainer Note: The role of the facilitator during this session depends on the needs of the team. Most teams can structure and lead this time by themselves. The facilitator may want to leave the room and just check in occasionally to see if there are any questions. For teams that face special circumstances, the facilitator may want to take a more active role. If an observer stays in the room during this session, it is advisable that the facilitator also stay.
H. At the end of the session, collect a copy of the team plan.
Trainer Note: The activities below may be done in any order, depending on the preference of the facilitator or team.
Directions
A. Pass out the post-training evaluation forms and ask participants to complete them. Remind participants to include the same date they used on the Pretraining Evaluation Form in the box in the upper left corner. Most people use their birthday (Post-Training Evaluation Form).
B. Collect the evaluation forms. Remember to check the dates when team members return the evaluations.
C. Give out the Institute certificates. Acknowledge each person.
D. Facilitate a team closure activity. The following two activities are effective:
Have the group members complete a sentence stem. Examples are:
One thing I learned this week is . . .
Right now I feel . . .
One thing I intend to do when I return to my community is . . .
People can stand in a circle or sit around the table, depending on their comfort level. Start at one point and go around the group in order.
Give participants an opportunity to express appreciation for one another. Ask team members to state something they have appreciated about each person during the week. Participation is optional and unstructured.
E. Ask your team to join the other teams in the general session room. Ask each member of the team to sit in a different small group for Unit 5C, Action Plan Sharing. Depending on the number of team members and small groups, there may be more than one team member in some or all of the small groups.
F. Remind team members to bring a copy of the team action plan or notes about the plan to the next session.
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