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Phase Three: Sustaining Your Healthy Cities Project
Step One: Stage media events to celebrate project achievements as goals are accomplished such as the acquisition of new major funding sources or the launching of a new program to meet a specific objective. Media relations, also referred to as public relations, is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. It involves using the news and public affairs programming to present Healthy Cities/Communities information to your target audience. Before coordinating your media relations efforts, review what your organization is trying to accomplish with its communications program. Doing this will help you develop appropriate media activities and messages that are consistent with your Healthy Communities program goals.
It is important to remember that working with the mass media is only one component of a healthy communities communications program and that any media relations efforts should fit within and support your group's overall Healthy Communities program goals and objectives.
Step Two: Convene your task force chairs at least once a month to review the progress of your projects. Review the action plan and hold those with assigned tasks accountable. It is crucial to the success of your project that you constantly monitor your progress. Accountability is critical for Healthy Cities/Communities projects and is the process by which organizations and individuals involved are held responsible for the results of their decisions and actions. Agree up front how you will measure your success. A few things to consider when determining the criteria you will use to evaluate your success are as follows:
- How do your measure success?
- What did you hope to accomplish (Heightened awareness? Media publicity? Changes in a local policy?)?
- If you want to use quantitative indicators, collect data before and after your project to chart measurable change. What are approximate measures for each objective? Your may want to use existing data. You can also compare your local data to the national objectives in "Healthy People 2000" or to any existing State objectives.
- If quantitative measures are not appropriate, collect stories which will relate the goals and accomplishments of your projects.
- Did you follow your action plan?
- If you did not reach certain objectives, what happened? (Was the action plan not followed? Were strategies not successful?)
- What works well in your coalition?
- What could be improved, to make the coalition or the project itself work better?
Step Three: Convene quarterly meetings of the larger planning group to hear progress reports from task force chairs. Make adjustments to the plan as necessary if initial strategies are not working to meet objectives.
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