Community Planning
Planning can be challenging as teams often work to navigate competing needs and resources in dynamic environments. We specialize in collaborating with communities to understand local conditions and implement comprehensive, intentional program planning that is responsive to unique community needs.
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Working alongside clients to gain in-depth understanding of community while uplifting existing resources
We start from the perspective that community members are experts in their own lived experience, and we must first look to see what (and who) has come before us. We are committed to helping our clients achieve their desired goals for community wellness.
We are flexible in our involvement, and can be hired to do an independent standalone assessment, or assist community members to do their own assessment. Approach is often determined by timeline and resources.
Our Community Planning Services
Community Needs and Readiness Assessments
Prevention Capacity Assessments
Prevention Planning
Strategic Planning
Our team is experienced in supporting community leaders to build cross-sector partnerships that allow broad stakeholder collaboration in setting and achieving community goals.
REQUEST A CONSULTATION
Community planning offers many benefits, and we would be happy to talk about your interest in a community planning process at any stage you’re at – forming a committee, facilitating member decision-making, or communicating a mission and working through goal setting collectively. Contact us to request a consultation.
Notable Projects
in Community Planning
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Tags: Strategic Planning; Alaska; Alaska Native-Led Organizations
Alaska Native Womens Resource Center: Safe Housing Assessment
SPS was contracted to conduct a statewide assessment of safe housing options for Alaska Native people who had experienced domestic and/or sexual violence. This two-year project was made possible by funding that was earmarked for Alaska Native Womens Resource Center (AKNWRC) to understand what housing options are available in a state with very limited housing supply or access to safety resources. Three waves of data collection, including key stakeholder interviews and focus groups with domestic violence advocates and survivors, tribal government and organizational representatives, State police, and State government employees were used to develop a regional and statewide assessment of safe housing options. Data collection and analysis combined indigenous methodology with western analysis techniques to center the voice and lived experiences of indigenous communities to determine recommended next steps for policy and practice.
Tags: Safe Housing; Statewide Housing Assessment; Alaska; Alaska Native-Led Organizations
Alaska Native Womens Resource Center: Strategic Planning
SPS facilitated a strategic planning process with the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center (AKNWRC), to improve overall organizational efficiency, support leadership, and optimize development and growth. SPS conducted key informant interviews with leading staff and board members and developed an online survey for a broad network of AKNWRC stakeholders to gather information to inform the strategic planning process. SPS sought to understand the perceived role of the AKNWRC in relationship to state and local interests, understand local priorities/needs related to violence against indigenous women and children, and learn the desired direction of the AKNWRC. SPS produced a final document outlining the overall direction and desired five-year goals and outcomes for the AKNWRC.
Tags: Prevention, Capacity Assessment CDC, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Center for Diease Control and Prevention: Prevention Capacity Assessment, National Development
From 2011-2013, SPS created, administered, and analyzed the Coalition Prevention Capacity Assessment measure to assess the organizational capacity of DELTA PREP-funded state domestic violence coalition agencies (19 states) to engage in the primary prevention of intimate partner violence. Psychometric analyses were conducted to finalize this assessment for future use within the field, and findings from the current administration were summarized for CDC Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s capacity-building efforts with the 19 DELTA PREP-funded states. The Coalition Prevention Capacity Assessment can be found in the DELTA PREP Toolkit located in the VAWnet resource library on gender-based violence
Tags: Capacity Assesment, Alaska
Prevention Capacity Assessments (PCA): Alaska Statewide and Community Specific​
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Since 2016, SPS has led the assessment of statewide and local organizational capacity to support prevention across 18 communities. SPS adapted the PCA we developed nationally for use with Alaska’s nonprofit organizations. In partnership with the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and the Alaska Governor’s Council on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault, SPS coordinates the collection and analysis of semi-structured interview data to assess the organization’s capacity to support prevention in the following five dimensions: organizational structures, resources, programming, evaluation, and partnerships. Capacity summaries are generated for each organization and paired with tailored technical assistance and training to help each organization realistically support prevention initiatives in their community. A statewide report is also generated, and SPS staff presented findings to the State of Alaska Legislature in 2016.
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Tags: Collective Impact, Collaboration, Alaska
Sitkans Against Family Violence: “Pathways to a Safer Sitka” Collective Impact Initiative
Since 2015, SPS has facilitated the transition of the Pathways multistakeholder collaborative in Sitka, AK to using the Collaborative Impact approach. This prevention coalition has been in operation for over twelve years and has broadened their approach to address the entire wellness of Sitka, which demands a more structured and data-driven collaborative approach, such as Collective Impact. Wendi Siebold has worked as the lead consultant on this project and has trained the CI collaborative and staff from the backbone organization in the phases and conditions of CI and has worked with each workgroup/goal areas to develop shared measures. As part of this project, SPS honed a facilitative process by which to walk partners through the identification of their current outcome data and measures while aligning that data with the goals of the Pathways CI Initiative. Materials and training provided by national collective impact technical assistance providers did not address the level of alignment that Pathways needed to do across a multitude of partners with existing measures, so we took the collective through a more advanced conceptual modeling exercise, that ultimately aligned the measures across partners.
Tags: LGBTQ+, Strategic Plan, Survey, Alaska
Southeast Alaska Gay & Lesbian Alliance (SEAGLA)
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SPS is leading a strategic planning process for the Board of Directors of SEAGLA to reframe and define the role and work of SEAGLA within the Southeastern region of Alaska. The Board intended to more inclusively represent the LGBTQ community and provide regional representation and funding opportunities for the LGBTQ community. SPS is administering an online regional survey to assess the needs and wants of the LGBTQ community, which will inform a two-day in-person strategic planning session facilitated by SPS, and culminating in a written five year strategic plan.
Tags: Needs Assessment, Southeast Alaska
Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC): Regional Needs Assessment
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SPS conducted a regional community needs assessment specific to populations experiencing domestic violence in seven separate communities within the SEARHC catchment area of Southeast Alaska. SEARHC serves the health needs of Alaska Native people across the Southeastern region of Alaska. SPS compiled data summaries of demographics, conducted key stakeholder community readiness assessment interviews in each community, and analyzed information to compile a community needs assessment of the access to and efficacy of domestic violence services in the region. SEARHC used this needs assessment to plan its behavioral health services for survivors of domestic violence across the entire region of Southeast Alaska.
