The Community Guide Toolkit

Step 5:

Plan to Adapt and Implement the Strategy

Moving forward with evidence-based public health prevention requires sound action planning to move from a broad-based strategy to effective strategic action for implementing the intervention.

Developing a formal action plan is a good way to ensure stakeholders are on the same page about the way a program should be implemented and provides a blueprint for implementing and monitoring your progress. A sound action plan includes a description of your community health priorities, measurable objectives, improvement strategies and performance measures with measurable and time-framed targets; changes needed to accomplish health objectives; roles of project team members and partners, and a plan for monitoring and sustaining success. A logic model can be useful in helping you formulate your action plan, by painting a clear picture of the connections between resources, activities, and outcomes.

Another factor to consider when planning to implement an evidence-based strategy is how you will adapt it to make it relevant for your target audience.

Ensuring impact when implementing evidence-based strategies, means implementing the strategy as it originally was, when it was piloted.

To learn, what can and what cannot be changed when adapting an evidence-based intervention, review the CDC’s Red Light/Yellow Light/Green Light guidelines.