It’s time to put your plan into action and watch for positive changes in your community! Implementation is where project-specific work begins and community excitement builds. This is where your team will need to mobilize resources, create new connections and partnerships to move work forward and tap into community assets. You will learn a lot along the way and find that new opportunities will emerge or you may face challenges that force you to change directions. Remember it is all part of the process.
Consider:
Diagram revised from Harmonization Cancer Prevention Team, (2016).
Evaluate
Evaluation provides your team with an opportunity to learn from experience and to showcase the impacts of your initiatives. It demonstrates accountability to your funders and your community. It helps you to identify what is working well and where there is the opportunity for improvement. Use different data collection tools (surveys, focus groups, interviews) to track and monitor your progress. And don’t forget to share your successes and learnings along the way!
Need help getting started? Check out step 4 of the AHC Action Guide for a variety of tools to help your team implement their action plans and determine how they will measure success.
Tools and Resources:
- Evaluate the impact of your healthy community initiative with the Evaluation Toolkit. This toolkit aims to support organizations in conducting evaluations, enabling them to continuously improve their initiatives and achieve positive health outcomes in their communities.
Launch the Evaluation Toolkit - Strategy Kits: tried, tested and useful strategies and resources to create healthier communities
- Login to the Community Library to access appendices associated with step four of the AHCA:
- Evaluation Plan Template (example) – Guide Appendix Q
“Evaluation shows what worked well, what didn’t and what can be done differently to get the desired outcome”
~ Community team member
Community Stories
View all stories
We are collecting stories on how communities are creating healthy places and spaces. If you have a story or idea about your own community we would love to hear it!
External Resources
Evaluation Capacity Network
Supporting evaluation capacity by providing opportunities for dialogue, co-learning, and the sharing of resources.
Health Nexus
Helping create healthy, equitable and vibrant communities where people of all ages can thrive.
Tamarack
Evaluating Community Impact
Step 4: Implement and Evaluate
