1.

FormalGroup
Structure

5.Socio -
economic
Profile
2. Need
Input Assessme

The Process
Output
Community 4.Asset 3.Community
Mapping

Action Plan ActionPlan

COMMUNITY ACTION PLANNINGIN CONTEXT

Planning is essential in our personal lives; we plan our days, we plan our future, we plan
our finances. If planning is essential to manage life on a personal level why would it not be a
prominent part of the municipal operations environment?

A Community Action Plan is one of the many tools available to assist municipalities take
control of future growth and development within their communities, providing a preliminary
strategic framework to begin formal planning. This guide outlines what community action planning
is, the process and the means to creating a better, sustainable future for municipalities.

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What is a Community Action Plan?

Community Action Planning is a unique form of strategic planning focused on developing a

framework for a group of municipalities to meet the needs of the present and the future. It is the
process by which guiding members of the organization (municipality) look to its future and develop
the procedures and operations necessary to achieve that future. Like any type of strategic planning, it
is not meant to be relief for short term issues but a way to create long term management and
solutions to lessen the impact of future challenges.

The Process

The community action planning process is a journey with a destination in mind. How you reach
your end goal is indicative of the road you take. Without a roadmap it can be impossible to know
where you need to go, nor will you recognize when you have reached your destination. The process
of creating a community action plan helps to organize your thoughts and ideas into a comprehensive
and efficient way to approach and implement them. The process involves:

• Discussing the external environment including global, national and provincial issues that have
and may affect the local economy in the future
• Identifying commonalities, shared needs, goals and priorities between the communities
involved
• Creating a common vision for the future and strategies to turn challenges into opportunities
• Discussing and implementing share practices and tools to support each other in planning for
the area
• Monitoring the progress made, evaluating the success achieve and adapting the process and
the plan for the future based on your evaluations

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Benefits of Community Action Planning

Cost Effective - Proactive planning is cheaper than reactive planning. When developing a plan for
your region, you outline areas of interest, both pressing and future, to work on. This allows you to
budget for the future and provide more and better services to your residents.

Efficiency - The planning process helps to uncover human, financial and partnering resources in you
may have not known about or thought of in the region. By creating an action plan you are able to use
these resources more efficiently.

What about succession? - By planning for the future of the community or region, you are setting a
foundation for future leaders. It provides new decision-makers a starting point to continue to tend the
fruits of seeds already planted. Think about your own experience: Would it have been easier for you
to do your job now if your previous councils had established a plan?

Coordination - When a group of municipalities work together to plan for their region, the discussion
process will assist in communicating and coordinating development (i.e. an intensive livestock
operation would not be placed next to a residential development in the neighboring municipality).

Consistency - Coordinating your efforts and priorities will provide consistency for administrators,
current and futures residents, and potential developers. Each municipality is unique but a community
action plan can create consistency in the priorities that are similar or regional by nature.

Better decisions - The planning process involves unearthing and collecting as much information as
possible about your community and region. More information will allow for more informed decision.

Section 1 : Defining Your Focus

Defining your focus is done through the development of a vision, mission and values. The vision is
the overarching picture for the region; the mission explains what you are doing as a group and why;
and the values reflect the core ideology of the group.

Vision

A vision statement is the guiding light of any organization. Essentially,

a vision statement takes into account the current status of the organization,
and serves to point to the direction of where the organization wishes to go. As
a means of setting a central goal that the organization will aspire to reach, the
vision statement helps to provide a focus for the mission.

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 The vision statement is not about what the community currently is, but what it hopes to
become. It answers the question, “Who are we and what do we strive for?” “What would the ideal
future look like?” It defines who and what the region is when operating at its’ most effective level.
What does your “Emerald City” look like? The tricky thing about a vision is that it should be something
you continually strive for. If the vision is reached then it was not set high enough or it needs to be
revisited and restructured; sustainability is ever evolving. Your vision and mission statement can
and will change over time, as you strive to perfect your community and achieve your goals.

1. How do you see your community/region/organization in 5 to

10 years?
2. Who are you after 5 or 10 years?

Mission

While vision statements and mission statements are very similar in nature, there is a fine point
of difference. A mission statement describes the overall aim of the group, a simple statement of
your group’s reason for existing. Often the statement is a pledge to deliver a superior product or
service to customers on a consistent basis. A mission statement complements a vision statement by
explaining what the organization does to reach its vision and why it does it.

3. What are you doing as a group/community/region?

4. For whom you are doing it?

Values

Value statements are created to ensure there is no animosity,

disagreements, or questions about the way people should act, or how the work
should be carried out. It is very similar to the golden rules or playground rules
set out by teachers in the classroom. Values reflect the core ideology of the
group and describe how the group carries out its mission. They are meaningful
sentences and more than single words.

5. What values will help make a group effective in working

together
6. What values will guide our activities and intentions?

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 Section 2: Assessing Your Situation
Once you have a perfect picture of your Emerald City in mind, now it is time to come back to
the starting point and map out your yellow brick road.

Assess your current circumstances by recognizing where it is in

relation to your vision, and what you have now that is of value or could
increase your success later. This also requires identifying any
challenges and turning them into opportunities that will help you to
reach for your vision. In addition, you will need to prioritize these
challenges and opportunities in order to develop goals, objectives and
key activities moving forward.

Envisioning Assets and Attributes

Starting with the best, positive characteristics and features of your community will enable you
to see the potential in reaching the vision you have created for the region. Envisioning the assets and
attributes of the area includes looking at everything you see as a benefit to the region and want to
see remain in the community. This could be anything from social, cultural, educational, or
environmental aspects, as well as physical and emotional aspects.

• List any and all assets and attributes you wish to see remain
in the community over the next 15 to 20 years.
• What brought you to the community?
• Why do you stay?
• What do you enjoy most about your community?
• What would you miss?
• What are the best features of your area?

Identifying
Challenges and Opportunities

When municipalities start to identify and discuss the challenges and opportunities in the region
they will begin to recognize the commonalities between neighboring municipalities. Ultimately,
this is the first step in building a strong relationship for sustainable success. Identifying challenges is
easier at first than seeing opportunities; most inter-municipal relationships start because there is a
problem they would like to resolve together.

The challenges you identify can be current issues or something that may arise in the future. A
group should not focus solely on challenges relating to their vision; they should also list and discuss
potential opportunities in the region that have not been capitalized on. Listing your combined assets
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and attributes before identifying your challenges and opportunities, you are able to see what you have
in common to better leverage an opportunity or help alleviate an issue.

TIP: If there are more than 8 participants, create small groups to discuss
challenges and opportunities. Allow 15 to 20 minutes for discussion will
provide participants a chance to “vent” about their issues without drawing
too much time away from IDENTIFYING issues. Come together as one
group and combine the lists.

Prioritization

The list of challenges and opportunities can seem daunting for a single municipality let alone a
group, especially starting out. Prioritizing your challenges and opportunities will create a more
manageable list of key areas to begin to build your plan. A shorter, more manageable list will help
participants feel like they are better able to accomplish something sooner and achieve tangible results
in the short term. For those who prefer to talk than act, prioritizing will minimize tangent discussion
and channel the discussion into clearer focus. The group must decide the number of priorities they
feel is a manageable to work on. Issues can be grouped into categories to help narrow down the list.

1. How much time and manpower can we dedicate to priorities?

2. Which priorities are short term (less than one year), midterm (one to three
years), and long term (three to ten years)?

Section 3: Planning for the Future

Your starting point and future destination have been outlined, but without a clear path to
follow its very difficult to move forward effectively. A common problem in strategic planning is
that the implementation plan for the vision and priorities is overlooked.

Once the direction of a strategic plan has been written, a group often
dusts off their fingers and pretends to have accomplished what was set out to
do. Without an implementation plan the group loses focus and motivation.
Without set goals, objectives, timelines and measures, the road to building
opportunities and breaking down barriers will be confusing stagnant, and
lacking in accountability.

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Goal Development

Defining your goals is the first step in taking your priorities into the implementation phase. A
goal allows you to focus on the reason you made that specific issue or opportunity a priority. It is
the overall reason for a solution. Take the ‘why’ and create an action to go along with it. Different
municipal groups may have different visions but similar priorities and goals. Each municipal group
is unique, so decide what is right for you. Continue to ask ‘why’ until you uncover the basic reason
for your priority.

Objective Development

An objective identifies the solution to your goal. If your priorities are specific, tangible
issues then they may actually be the objective or solution you need. For example, if you listed
bylaw enforcement as a priority you would first need to determine the goal or overall reason for
bylaw enforcement. Then list bylaw enforcement as an objective, but be specific.

If someone from outside the group were to read your community action plan would they
understand what you meant by ‘bylaw enforcement?’ For example, do you want to enhance
existing services, create a bylaw enforcement unit, increase the number of enforcement officers?
Explaining the solution in terms of specific accomplishments will assist in creating a very defined
objective.

• Does our priority reflect a goal or objective?

• What is the solution(s) to reaching our goal?

Action Plan Worksheet

The action plan worksheet encompasses the detailed implementation plan of your
objectives. The key elements include activities, timelines, resources and leads.

Activities are the list of actions that need to be undertaken to complete your objective. The
timelines outline the deadlines to complete activities. The resources include the human
resources you have or need to complete the objective; financial resources required or already
obtained; and any other existing assets you have that may assist in completion. The leads refer to
the person(s) responsible for completing an activity as well as the person responsible for
overseeing the completion of the objective. Outlining the details of implementation will help build
agendas for meetings, maintain accountability and ensure efficient completion of objectives. A
sample action plan worksheet can be found in Appendix A to assist you in building your own
implementation plan.

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 Section 3: Measuring Success and Progress
Measures allow you to track the progress so you stay on track and on time. Consistently
monitoring your progress will help you to recognize when and where your plan goes off course.

Many times, municipal achievements can be hard to measure due to the intangible factors
involved. How can you measure how people view your community? How will you know if putting
a plan in place actually did what it was supposed to do?

Indicators

The first step in measuring the success of your goals is to create indicators. Indicators are
the tangible means used to measure the progress of achievement; it is the physical “thing” you
keep track of. If you don’t have a tangible way to measure intangibles, you may not know if your
return on investment is worth it. For example, you have a goal of creating growth in your
community; how do you measure growth? You may use the number of houses built, the number of
new businesses in the community; whatever you feel can be used to measure “successful” growth
in the eyes of the members.

TIP: Your Objectives can be seen as the tangible way of meeting your goals and may provide
some assistance in determining your indicators of reaching your goal.

• What will you use to measure success your goal?

Measures

There are three measures used in monitoring your success:

1. The baseline or starting point is the current situation of your indicator when you begin. For
example, if your indicator is number of houses built, your baseline would be the number of
current houses before the plan is implemented.
2. The benchmarks are checkpoints in your timeline. For example, you have benchmarked 5
houses to be built in six months, 15 houses in one year and 25 hours in two years.
3. The target is the end result you are aiming for. For example, you would like to have 40 houses
built in three years.

1. What is the current situation of the indicator before beginning?

2. At what specific points in the project’s timeline do you want to assess your
progress? What should be completed with regards to your indicators by 8
those timelines?
3. What is your overall timeframe for completion? Based on your indicators,
what will the end result be??
 USING COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN

Regular Meetings
Many groups will have completed the group structure step before developing a community action
plan. One of the steps in creating a group structure is determining the frequency of committee
meetings. Regular scheduled meetings can maintain a high level of motivation to complete
actions from the action plan. It will also create deadlines for certain tasks to be completed by.
Regular Meetings are a time for the group to discuss what has been completed, provide
clarification, and deal with any complications.

Reporting
Whether the group chooses to have sub-committees to accomplish tasks or meet as a full
group, a structure should be developed and used to report on the progress of the community
action plan. You could choose to have a written report for the sub committees, create the
agenda for a meeting based on the objectives or discuss certain objectives at certain meetings.
Whatever works best for your group to make sure the plan is continually at the forefront of the
work you do.

Review
Sustainability does not always mean keeping things the same. Each action you complete
can have a ripple effect of changes in your community. Set aside time at an annual meeting
to review your situation and the progress made on the action plan and adjust your
community action plan to remain current and applicable.

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 EXAMPLE ACTION PLAN WORKSHEET
Priority: Growth

Goal: To grow the community for a sustainable future

ACTION PLAN WORKSHEET

Priority:

Goal:

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