<home> Fictitious example of social planning approach
The information in this section explains the rationale behind plan activities from the perspective of the staff. This section is not part of the plan and will not be part of your assignment. This section in a continuation of the discussion in the last two pages of the Assessment.
I chose to place the Task Force member names on the cover letter of my plan for several reasons.
To gain credibility with the readers
To acknowledge the hard work of Task Force members
To help Task Force members realize that it is their document and increase their commitment to it
To show that a representative group developed the assessment
To show off the degrees of the members that adds status to the assessment.
The cover letter to the Mayor stresses that this plan is the first of many plans and that is to be used as a baseline for future actions. While the cover letter is addressed to the Mayor, the real audience is the public and service providers since they will be key to any future efforts. Since the public is the major audience, the text is non-technical to the extent possible. The cover letter also allowed me to stress one point that I urged the Mayor’s to make, that the Task Force's was to produce an assessment and plan based on facts and not politics. This was important given the agency politics with any existing service delivery system.
The process of moving from capacities/needs to goals and objectives was straight forward. For example, we could quickly design a new agency for I&R services. However, the politics of implementation come into play here. Many of the activities in this step were designed to create a constituency that could advocate for the proposed changes to occur, for example, the pamphlets and media campaigns to inform residents of services available. Also, a power base that supported the change was being developed through the meetings where citizens and agencies helped move from need statements to objectives. A power base is essential because if community practitioners have no natural power base.
The most controversial need, that for evaluating existing services, was not mentioned in the features of the I&R to be developed. However, by following up on client satisfaction with I&R referrals, evaluative data on agencies will be obtained. There was no reason to highlight this controversial need, although it was consistent with the guiding principle that services delivery is a research-based science.
Again, Objective 3.1 sidestepped a politically sensitive issue by recommending that the School District personnel, agencies and citizens produce a separate plan to handle the problems of Teen Pregnancy. The planning process could be very similar to the one developed here.
Objectives 5.2 and 5.4 capitalized on a dispute between practitioners and the business community. Objective 5.2 combined a public relations and publicity effort on behalf of the Association of Private Practitioners in exchange for the Chamber of Commerce urging businesses to include social service coverage for employees (objective 5.4). The private practitioners hoped to make up the income lost through donated services with new business generated through increased insurance coverage.
A reiteration of values and hopes was an appropriate way to end.