3.2. Developing an action plan for change
Having agreed your chief concerns as a group and explored the reasons why these exist, you are much better placed to develop a detailed action plan. This aim helps you through three parts of putting a plan in place: working out the forces that can help or hinder you; writing out an action plan and, third, drawing up the resources you need to put your plan into action. While the activities below follow on one from the other, see this as one big planning exercise, perhaps sticking all the information on a large roll of paper, as with the community mapping activity. This will help your planning to be a living, changing process that can be revisited and adapted as circumstances change and new information is gained.
A tale of little planning and effective action
Before we get too carried away about the importance of detailed planning at every step, sometimes the problem requires obvious, direct and immediate action, without getting bogged down and frustrated in endless, mindless, useless planning meetings. Some young people in Derbyshire complained to the Children’s Rights Officer that they got a smaller allowance in foster care than when in residential care, though in both settings, the local authority was the acting parent. Evidently unjust with a simple remedy at hand, the Children’s Rights Officer did not suggest a month’s worth of planning meetings, but rather one meeting of the young people with the head of service who understood their concern, saw the problem and sorted it. Straightaway. Of course, the young people, suitably triumphant, are now taking on tougher more complex problems. So, they had better start planning!
'Sustainability' is back again!
Go back to your Carbon Footprints and group Passport. Did you make any commitments to being sustainable when thinking about how you wanted people to see your group?
Throughout these activities, consider how your choices and decisions impact on the environment and fulfil or don’t fulfil your commitment to sustainability.
How many posters do you really need? Are you using recycled paper? Is your food locally sourced? How are people travelling to the venue? Does the venue recycle its waste?