EBDM Starter Kit

1l: Developing an Action Plan for the Policy Team’s Work

Navigating the Roadmap

Activity 1: Build a genuine, collaborative policy team.

Introduction

After developing a vision and mission for your policy team, the team should determine the specific goals and objectives necessary to achieve each target of change in your mission. To recap:

  • Your vision is a statement about the clear and elevating goal your team is striving to achieve—a statement of your preferred future.
  • Your mission is a statement that describes the work your team intends to undertake during a specific period of time to make progress toward achieving your vision.
  • Your goals represent the accomplishments that must be realized to achieve your mission.
  • Your objectives are the steps, or tasks, that must be completed to meet your goals.

While the team should develop an action plan from the outset and include it in the charter, the plan will undoubtedly change as the team makes progress and learns more. As needed, update the work plan to keep it current, to pace work, and to gauge progress.

Purpose

To create an action plan that will outline the specific goals and objectives the team will undertake, the sequence and timing of activities, and the persons responsible for those tasks

Participants
All policy team members should be involved in the development of your action plan. (Individuals or groups of individuals within your policy team or outside of your policy team may be involved in achieving the objectives in your action plan.)

Instructions
The activities identified in this Starter Kit are intended to lay the groundwork for the implementation of the EBDM Framework.1

  • Working together, refer to the activities listed on Getting from Here to There: The Roadmap for Preparing to Implement the EBDM Framework. Discuss each activity and ensure that all team members understand its purpose.
  • Determine whether some of this work has been done before, in whole or in part.2
  • Determine whether the goals listed in the Roadmap are the right goals for your policy team to achieve its mission, whether the goals should be changed somewhat, or whether new goals should be added.
  • Agree upon the appropriate set of goals for your team’s work plan.
  • Once this list is complete, place each goal in an order to reflect the sequencing of how these goals should be tackled.
  • Next, consider each goal and identify the specific action steps (or objectives) that will be taken to achieve it. Determine the person(s) responsible for the task and a deadline for completion.
  • Designate a team member who will create a written action plan for the decisions made during the action planning session. Refer to the action plan template in the Appendix as a guide for developing a formal, written action plan.

Tips

  • It may not be possible to forecast very specific steps for activities that will be accomplished in later months; try to develop in more detail the more immediate tasks (i.e., 3–4 months) that need to be accomplished.
  • Teams should revisit their action plan regularly to make revisions and adjustments as needed.

1 Please note that your policy team may or may not complete these activities in the same sequence as other sites.

2 Work that has been completed before does not need to be redone unless it is dated, incomplete, or not fully encompassing of the EBDM initiative, or if all team members have not been a part of it. In these cases, adjustments may need to be made. Use the pre-existing work as a starting point, rather than starting from scratch.


Example

Ramsey County, Minnesota, Action Plan for the EBDM Planning Process (Abbreviated version of whole document)

Additional Resources/Readings

CEPP. (2005). Collaboration: A training curriculum to enhance the effectiveness of criminal justice teams. Retrieved from www.collaborativejustice.org/docs/2005 Collaboration Curriculum.pdf

———. (2006). Getting it right: collaborative problem solving for criminal justice. Retrieved from http://nicic.org/Downloads/PDF/Library/019834.pdf

CSOM. (2007). Enhancing the management of adult and juvenile sex offenders: A handbook for policymakers and practitioners. Retrieved from http://www.csom.org/pubs/CSOM_handbook.pdf

Appendix

Action Plan Template

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