HMSV 8216 CTU Strategic Plan for Program Implementation Report Paper

Strategic Plan for Program Implementation

For this assignment, complete the following, based on the issue you identified in the Riverbend City: Examining the Ruby Lake Community media piece for the Unit 3 assignment:

1. To address the need you identified, create the mission and vision statements for the potential program. Explain how you arrived at this mission and vision.
2. Develop the strategic goals and objectives of the program you are designing.
3. Evaluate strategies for staffing, budgeting, and building information systems for the program you are designing.
4. Create an organizational chart, explain what kind of culture you want to create, and explain how information will flow in your program.
5. Design a project-specific budget for your program (using the example on page 272 of your Program Development in the 21st Century textbook).
6. Based on the strategic plan you have developed, analyze critical ethical and cultural considerations that will guide your program design.

Review the scoring guide for the assignment carefully to determine what is required to achieve a distinguished level of performance.

Assignment Requirements

• Written Communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA Formatting: The paper, including resources and citations, should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting guidelines.
• Length of Paper: 4–6 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and references.
• Font and Font Size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

PG 272

Project-Specific Budget

Project-specific budgets are typically created for mental health or human service projects that are time-specific. I use the term project-specific to denote that these are contained and finite with a clear start-and-stop funding cycle. For instance, funding may be provided to develop and implement a prevention program to address depression in adolescents. As such, a specific amount of funding has been made available; specific performance objectives have been established; and specific time frames for development, implementation, and evaluation of the project have been identified. These types of funding opportunities are project-based since there are clear stop-and-start time frames and it is understood that there is no plan for continuation of funding. As such, project-based budgeting is based on completing the agreed-to project and achieving the established outcomes. Table 9.3 provides an illustration of a project-based budget for a depression prevention project.

The project budget illustrates several items worth further discussion, first of which is staffing and salaries. As you can see, the budget provides for one full-time employee (FTE) who will be fully dedicated to the program. Because this particular project consists of a prevention program that involves individual assessment, a group-based psychoeducational curriculum, and 6-month follow-up telephone contact, only one primary staff person is needed. However, in addition to the full-time clinician, two other core components of the program require additional staffing: data collection activities and evaluation. Both of these jobs require limited time and will result in tangible outcomes. It should be noted here that in this project, the data collection is being conducted by someone other than the clinician to ensure objectivity in the data collection process—an important ethical consideration in research. Because the organization has an employee in another program who can perform the duty of data collection, the project funding will be used to support the amount of the employee’s salary dedicated to the project, which in this case is 10%. This type of schema has benefits to both the project and the organization. The project benefits from someone already engaged in the organization’s larger mission and, thus, someone who is likely competent and committed to the work. At the same time, the organization benefits from being able to offer a different type of work to an employee—most of whom are strongly attracted to a work life full of variety and, thus, have chosen a career in the mental health profession. On the other hand, the organization does not currently employ a clinician with the degree of statistical knowledge needed to evaluate the project. To provide this service, a set dollar amount is dedicated to supporting specific data analyses and report development (based on market research). By budgeting in this manner, the program developer is able to identify the specific deliverables required for payment to which both s/he and the statistician can agree. This type of work is particularly suited for contractual hiring because it is specialized and is associated with concrete outcomes.

The supplies needed to operate the program include assessment instruments, paper, and binding, for which specific costs have been identified. In addition to supplies, the budget includes funding for client transportation to and from the prevention workshops. To determine this projected cost, an analysis of the distance between the majority of clients and the office site was calculated and an average was computed. Telephone calls were also included in the budget, which account primarily for the follow-up data collection process. Finally, because the organization has existing office space that can be used for this project, the organization is providing use of this space as an in-kind donation. Whereas some funding opportunities specifically require a match from the applicant, others do not. This particular project did not require a match, but because space was needed for the project and was provided at no cost by the organization, this was reflected in the budget without a specified cost.

The total budget is $43,036.30, which also is the total request of funding (i.e., revenue). This is typical of project-based funding in that the requested revenue is often for a lump sum, and then the lump sum total is used to calculate the expenditures. Finally, because of the relatively small financial costs associated with the project and the need for resources from an existing program/organization (e.g., data collection staff, building), this project budget also illustrates why projects often complement an organization’s core business, rather than constituting the primary operations.