Assess Community Support, Capacity, & Readiness to Determine if Policy is an Appropriate Strategy

This step in the roadmap aims to achieve three things:

1. determine the amount of community support you have to address your problem and proceed with policy,
2. determine the level of capacity to develop and implement policy that exists within your organization and the broader community, and
3. determine the level of community readiness to embrace policy as a solution to the identified problem.

If you don’t feel you fully understand the problem, head to Step 1.

Working through this step will result in a decision, represented in the Roadmap with the hexagonal shape - should you move forward with a policy approach to your problem? There may be circumstances when there is not enough awareness and support to move forward with policy. It may prove more useful to spend resources in building that support before actually coming forward with a policy.  THCU suggests that there are two distinct forms of support needed to proceed with the policy development process.

Types of Support Needed:

First, you will need to know if the community views your issue as a serious problem. If this is the case, they are more likely to support policy as a way of addressing it. Second, you will need the support of individuals and groups who are both strongly committed to the issue and interested in developing policy as a solution.  Remember that “community” might mean the community of a workplace or school or group if that is the level at which you are working for policy change. It needn’t mean a municipality or other formal jurisdiction.

Assessing the Community

Conduct a well-designed survey (telephone or mailed) with a representative sample of the community who are affected by the problem as you have defined it in Step 1. Gain insight into their attitudes, values and beliefs about physical activity supports in their community.

Tips
Invest in a solid survey design, which may mean accessing expertise in this area – perhaps through your local public health agency or by contracting these services. Make sure the survey and associated methodology are scientifically sound as this data will be very useful in “making the case” later and it will not be useful if those who might oppose your proposed direction are able to “punch holes in the data.”

Resources
The Future 500
http://www.future500.org/

WebSurveyor
http://www.websurveyor.com/pdf/designtips.pdf

Quadrant diagram from The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work, Peter Block, p 132, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1987. 4-quandrant mix of Bedfellows, Allies, Opponents, Adversaries and Fence-sitters.

• It may be unnecessary or not feasible to do primary data collection.
  Consider collecting research about people’s attitudes about cultural competency and  parent engagement and related policy supports that have been gathered by others. Although this may save time and money, the drawback is that the data is likely not specific to your community.
  
• Map the stakeholders related to your problem to understand where they stand – who are your allies, opponents?

Tools

• Checklist to Facilitate Cultural Competence in Community Engagement
  
  
• Recognizing Allies: The Community Tool Box from the University of Kansas
  
  
• Stakeholder Engagement: A Three-Phase Methodology
  
  
• Survey Design Considerations: Recommendation for Writing Effective Questionnaires

Is Policy the Way to Proceed?

To predict how well a policy proposal will be received, it can be useful to determine the forces likely to support and oppose the policy. Force field analysis, a process developed by Kurt Lewin, maps these opposing forces and studies their relative strengths. Force field analysis is particularly useful for identifying and responding to potential counter-arguments against the adoption of a policy. (THCU, Developing Health Promotion Policies)

Assessing Readiness

An Audit of the environment can assist in determining whether or not to move forward on an issue.

Making the Decision

Now that you have carefully examined your problem, you have a critical decision to make about whether or not to proceed with policy. Keep in mind that policy is not the only solution to an issue; in some cases, policy may not be the best solution. Answering the following questions will help you to determine if a policy is the most appropriate way of addressing the problem.

1. Is there more than one solution to your problem?
2. What does each solution require in terms of time, people, money and/or
   additional resources?
3. Which solution offers the greatest benefit at the least cost?
4. Do any of the solutions involve policy development?
5. Are you willing to do the work required to develop policy?
6. Is your organization willing to support you in your policy development work?
7. Does your organization have a mandate that includes policy development?
8. Do you have the necessary level of community support for policy change?

The decision about whether or not to proceed with policy is based on  finding the optimal fit between:

• the mission, purpose and goals of your group or organization;
• the strengths and weaknesses of your organization as an agent for policy change (resources, capabilities, etc.); and
• the forces in the external environment (opportunities and threats).”

You have decided that a policy in support of cultural competence and effective parent engagement is necessary at this time. Move on to Step 3 to set your goals and objectives and determine what specific policy direction you will take.

Source:
Adapted from the Physical Activity Resource Centre "Toolkit for Influencing Physical Activity"
http://www.ophea.net/parc/policy.cfm