Presenting a Program Implementation Plan and Budget    

As per the week four discussion and assignment, imagine that you have  been appointed to serve as the health department liaison to a community  group mobilizing to make change. You have been working with the  community for a few months and your supervisor is very happy with your  efforts so far.
 

You have made some progress gaining access to  and the trust of the community, but some people in the community are  still wary of the health department’s involvement. In the past, the  health department has come into the community and implemented health  promotion programs without taking the community’s needs or wants into  account. Many of the programs were perceived of by the community as  being offensive and hurtful. For example, many older members of the  community remember programs run by the health department that coerced  low-income women of color to be sterilized as a way to decrease  unplanned pregnancy. (See Krase, 2014 (Links to an external site.)  for a review of some of these programs.) Thus, they remain suspicious  about why you and the health department want to work with them.
 

 Unaware of some of the complexities of the health department and  community’s relationship, your supervisor has decided to reward your  work by granting the community program $5,000. However, the money comes  with a stipulation that you may not use it to pay people (i.e. for  salaries; you are the staff person who will need to implement the chosen  intervention, and your salary is already budgeted) and it must be used  to address alcohol and drug abuse, which your supervisor perceives to be  an issue in the community with which you are working. In addition, the  money must be used within the next two months, prior to the end of the  fiscal year. The money is “use it or lose it”. If not used within the  next two months, the money will be gone and your supervisor may think  you and the community do not want or need funding to do your work.
 

 Your supervisor has requested you submit by Thursday a one-page  overview of the intervention you plan to implement and an associated  budget that lays out how you will spend the money. This leaves you no  time to talk with community leaders about what they think about the  offer for program funding or what should be done with the money. You  have a meeting with community leaders scheduled for Thursday night and  will need to present them with the proposal you develop this week.
 

 The textbook outlines several intervention strategies, including health  communication, health education, health policy/enforcement, and  environmental change. Based on the analysis you did of the community in  week four, choose one or more of these strategies that you think would  be most successful given the community’s work to date. In your post: Outline the primary program components that you will spend the money on. Create a budget that explains how the funding will be used. Devise a strategy for how you will present the plan to the community. Consider how you will respond to their potential concerns.