COMMUNITY HEALTH INITIATIVE
STRATEGIC PLAN
2012-2014
Prepared by the CHI Steering Committee
February 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary 3
Why a Strategic and Action Plan? 4
The Planning Process 4
Strategic Priorities & Goals 5
Priority #1
Priority #2
Priority #3
Priority #4
Proposed Action Plan 8
Next Steps 10
Appendices
A. Timeline and Description of Past and Current Projects
B. Draft of Program Logic Model
C. Relevant information on Sooke Region
D. CHI’s Terms of Reference, Founding Objectives,
and 2006 CHIP Recommendations
Executive Summary
In 2011, the Steering Committee of the Community Health Initiative (CHI) embarked on a strategic planning process that was intended to provide direction to CHI for the coming three years. The process was comprehensive and produced a program logic model and an inventory of past and current projects that reflect CHI’s responsiveness to community need. Information about the Sooke Region was sourced from various government departments and local agencies in an effort to update data gathered by CHI in 2006 during the Community Health Information Project. Input and direction was also sought from local “experts” and from CHI’s broad membership base.
Four strategic priorities were identified by CHI: (1) collect, translate and disseminate knowledge: (2) engage decision makers; (3) stimulate and support new initiatives; and (4) build internal capacity. Corresponding goals were developed for each of these four priorities. In addition, an action plan was put forward to support implementation of the strategic plan from 2012 – 2014.
CHI has already begun to address its strategic priorities. This report will build on its efforts to date. The report is intended to support CHI’s pivotal role in the design and delivery of health related initiatives in the Sooke Region, building on CHI’s history, its strengths and its desire to improve the lives of local residents.
Why a Strategic and Action Plan?
The Community Health Initiative (CHI) is a partnership of residents and service providers living and working in an area that extends from Beecher Bay to Port Renfrew. This area will be referred to as Sooke Region in this report. Since 2003, CHI has assumed a leadership role in the design and delivery of health, social and recreational programs that are of direct benefit to the almost 15,000 residents who call the Sooke Region “home”. CHI has also contributed to the knowledge base that is available for planning purposes. Specifically, CHI has built a rich inventory of local health and social services; documented health needs; and added to our understanding of how children and youth are coping at home and in the community. CHI has also promoted community involvement and priority setting, facilitating community forums on topics of concern to the region. It has used this information to support the development of new services in collaboration with other local agencies and the Vancouver Island Health Authority. This collaboration, in turn, has created a more rich and unified approach to the provision of health and social services in Sooke Region.
CHI is known for its responsiveness to local needs and over the years has contributed to or initiated a number of new projects like the Sooke Navigator Project, Food CHI, the Regional Transportation Review, the Integrated Health Network, the Volunteer Bureau, and the Sooke Region Resource Inventory. A detailed timeline and description of past and current projects is included in Appendix A. Although CHI’s responsiveness has been one of its primary strengths, it has also presented challenges for CHI’s membership when the need for information and opportunities for innovation outstrip the availability of resources that can be dedicated to these enterprises. To maximize its resource base and provide guidance to CHI in the coming years, CHI embarked on a review and planning exercise that will set its course of action for 2012 – 2014. This report summarizes the results of this exercise and presents CHI’s Strategic and Action Plan for this three year period. The Strategic component of the Plan builds on the success that CHI has achieved to date, and incorporates available information on the health, socio-economic status, needs and characteristics of the region’s residents. Relevant data on existing services, trends and emerging issues were also examined. The Action component identifies work priorities for each of the three years, and provides a blueprint for CHI’s members.
The Planning Process
The Plan was developed over the course of an eleven month period by the CHI Steering Committee, with input from the larger membership. The process is described in point form below:
· Develop program model (refer to Appendix B): February - March 2011
· Review CHI’s history (refer to Appendix C) and performance: March 2011
· Brainstorm CHI’s vision for Sooke Region: March – April 2011
· Review and update available demographic, health, social, and economic information: April 2011 (refer to Appendix D)
· Strategic Planning Workshop: April 11, 2011
· Draft Strategic Plan: May, 2011
· Develop Action Plan: October – November, 2011
· Draft Action Plan: September – December, 2011
· Draft Report: February 2012
Invitations to the Strategic Planning Workshop were widely circulated and the session was well attended. Those who were unable to attend were provided with opportunities to contribute to the Plan, and input was invited at all stages of the process.
Strategic Priorities & Goals
Strategic priorities are means to achieve a group’s broad aims, in the context of the current environment and given the group’s actual and prospective resources.
Strategic priorities focus on the “big picture” and address who CHI wants to serve, what CHI aims to do in terms of its major objectives, and what CHI hopes to achieve in the future. The choices CHI members had before them were complex and addressed the services and activities of CHI, delivery system options, geographic scope, and the various target populations.
Strategic goals are general statements of intent that reflect major steps in the overall strategy. Strategic goals have many measurable outcomes that can be used as indicators of success. From January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014, CHI aims to focus on four specific priorities. The activities that flow from these priorities should assist CHI and its partner organizations to foster healthy communities throughout the region.
Strategic Priority #1Collect, Translate & Disseminate Knowledge
CHI has played a major role in providing relevant, comprehensive local information for service planning. This has been particularly useful because federal, provincial and municipal information agencies group the communities from Beecher Bay to Port Renfrew into various sub-groupings for their own purposes. This, in turn, makes it difficult to examine the determinants of health and address the needs of the Sooke Region as a whole.
CHI aims to collect, translate and disseminate knowledge about the health and well-being of citizens in the region. It plans to use this information to identify needs, set priorities, and share statistics and stories to benefit local people, service organizations and communities.
The goals that will be achieved in order to attain Priority #1 are as follows:
1. Collate extant data on an ongoing basis that tells us who we are and what is happening in our region.
2. In conjunction with Goal #1, identify gaps in information where possible, and advocate for increased availability of relevant information.
3. Engage individuals and organizations in the process of securing relevant and timely information. Communicate and disseminate information that is understandable and accessible to community members and organizations.
Strategic Priority #2Engage Decision Makers
CHI represents over 75 organizations and individuals in the region. Through its membership and the information it gathers, CHI is kept abreast of current and emerging needs and trends. It is now time to deepen and expand its partnerships to include local, municipal and provincial decision makers who are willing to work with CHI on community health priorities.
CHI aims to work more closely with decision makers in the next 3 years to address important health determinants. The following goals were designed to engage decision makers:
1. Inform decision makers about CHI and community health issues, engaging them in discussions about the social determinants of health.
2. Collaborate and partner with decision makers to address the determinants of health, securing funding for prioritized projects and issues.
3. Engage decision makers in informing, communicating and networking with others to consolidate partnerships and foster new initiatives.
Strategic Priority #3Stimulate and Support New Initiatives
CHI has sponsored or helped foster service and research projects such as Sooke Navigator Project, FOOD CHI, Sooke Region Resource Inventory, and the Youth Council, bringing over $750,000 to the Sooke Region. CHI will continue to reach out to local citizens and groups to identify and meet needs, and will continue to support new initiatives during their formative stage. The goals that will be achieved in order to attain Priority #3 are as follows:
1. Learn about new initiatives and circulate information to others, sharing news that might advance community initiatives.
2. Act as a sounding board for new initiatives, giving advice when needed; to help witness and acknowledge projects as they unfold; to support organizations working for sustainable social and physical health.
3. Build relationships with people and groups in the region to bring together ideas and information.
4. Bring together community organizations to identify needs, solve problems, and identify areas in which there is mutual interest and the potential for collaborative action.
5. Facilitate linkages and resource sharing among agencies, organizations, and local and regional governments.
Strategic Priority #4Build Internal Capacity
CHI completed an internal review in March 2011 that identified several areas for development. At the present time CHI needs to diversify its membership and recruit members with specific skills. CHI also needs to address the fundamental question of its own sustainability in view of its reliance on core volunteers to perform its basic functions. CHI aims to build its internal capacity until such time as the functions it provides are no longer required. It will do so by attaining the following goals:
1. Identify skill, diversity and operational requirements for CHI to function at an optimal level.
2. Identify CHI’s current staff and volunteer resources.
3. Identify gaps between the ideal resource requirements and the real resources that are currently available.
4. Develop a recruitment plan and initiate recruitment. Develop a plan that will support the acquisition of other [required] resources.
Proposed Action Plan
The Action Plan was originally intended to include the specific steps that must be followed to achieve the goals that were identified in the previous section. However, the level of detail required to complete this process was beyond the scope of the Steering Committee, and will require the activation of working groups that will be established over the next 3 years. Instead, each goal was rated by Steering Committee members on two essential criteria: the importance of each goal to the achievement of the overall Plan; and the urgency with which each goal needed to be addressed. Goals that were viewed as very important and that needed to be urgently addressed were brought forward to 2012, with one exception. The need to collate extant data on an ongoing basis was viewed as of moderate importance but of high urgency. It was thought that work on this goal needed to be initiated at some level in 2012. The goals that were of moderate importance and moderate urgency are listed as goals for 2013. The least important and less urgent goals are listed in the 2014 column, but it would be reasonable to review these goals in 2013 to see if they are still relevant given their low rating, compared to the other goals.
The Action Plan is presented below as an three year calendar that lists the goals the CHI Steering Committee will focus on in the coming three years. It is anticipated that work on some of these goals will involve other individuals and organizations as well as resources that are derived from CHI’s partnerships. Reference is made to the relevant Strategic Priority and Goal number in the calendar. For example, P2 G1 refers to Priority 2, Goal 1. Goals corresponding to each of the 4 Strategic Priorities are shaded in different colours.
CHI CALENDAR
2012 / 2013 / 2014Collate extant data on an ongoing basis that tells us who we are and what is happening in our Region (P1G1) / Engage individuals and organizations in the process of securing information, disseminating it to the community (P1G3) / Identify gaps in information where possible, and advocate for increased availability of relevant information (P1G2)
Inform decision makers about CHI and community health issues, engaging them in discussions about the social determinants of health (P2G1) / Learn about new initiatives and circulate information to others, sharing news that might advance community initiatives. (P3G1) / Act as a sounding board for new initiatives, giving advice when needed; witness new projects as they unfold; support organizations with similar priorities (P3G2)
Collaborate and partner with decision makers to address the determinants of health, securing funding for prioritized projects and issues (P2G2) / Build relationships with people and groups in the region to bring together ideas and information (P3G3)
Facilitate linkages and resource sharing between agencies (P3G5) / Bring together community organizations to identify need, solve problems and identify areas in which there is mutual interest and the potential for collaborative action (P3G4)
Engage decision makers in informing, communicating and networking with others to consolidate partnerships and foster new initiatives (P2G3)
Identify CHI’s current staff and volunteer resources (P4G2) / Identify skill, diversity and operational requirements for CHI to function at an optimal level (P4G1) / Identify gaps between the ideal and real resource requirements (P4G3)
Develop recruitment plan and initiate recruitment. Develop plan that will support the acquisition of other resources (P4G4)
Next Steps
Work has begun already on some of the goals for 2012. One example includes the efforts that have been made to improve and expand the Sooke Region Resource Inventory. In addition, the District of Sooke Council recently responded to a CHI request to have a Council member assigned to work with CHI and attend CHI meetings. The ongoing support for the Integrated Health Network and the support for the newly funded Volunteer Centre Coordinator exemplify the work CHI has done to build linkages and facilitate resource sharing.