Step 5: Reviewing your Program’s Activities
Rationale
Regardless of where you are in the program process - your activities are ongoing or you have not yet started - you should think through what you are actually doing with your program and how the activities are connected to your immediate and intermediate objectives. In other words -
- Why are you doing what you are doing?
- Why do that and not something else?
- Will your activities have some hope of creating the change that you have chosen to focus on in your objectives?
Make sure that those who are most knowledgeable of the program in action (how it actually works when implemented) participate. For example, program staff that are delivering the program and program participants.
Keep it real: What are you good at doing?
While you might have identified a social problem, and the objectives (or impact) you hope to achieve with your program, you also need to keep in mind what your organization can realistically do. If your expertise is in peer education but not in advocacy campaigns then you need to keep your objectives and activities focused on what your organization is really equipped to do. (This does not mean that you can’t, or shouldn’t, acquire new areas of expertise.) No one organization can do everything. One way of addressing the aspects of the social problem that you are not able to work on is through creating partnerships with other organizations who are working on the same problem. You may find that together you can be even more effective in achieving the longer-term goals
Consider how to incorporate a rights-based social justice perspective in your activities. Look at the local components of the complex concepts that you identified in Worksheet A and think about which activities could have an impact.
Here is an example of a rights-based sexual and reproductive health issue and some of the activities that would be well suited to address it.
Tips: Some Activities That Incorporate a Rights-Based Social Justice Perspective
To choose a small number of the most appropriate activities, use the following guidelines:
- Staff or volunteers have or can learn the skills and expertise needed to implement the activity.
- There is a reasonable expectation, based on extensive programmatic experience and/or scientific evidence that of other agencies, that the activity can be successfully implemented and will be effective.
- The number and frequency of activities you propose is realistic given your resources and can be expected to be sufficient to achieve your program’s objectives.
- Each activity is related to at least one objective.
Think about how the activities relate to what you hope to accomplish (your objectives and goal). For example:
Tips: Examples: Activities, Immediate and Intermediate Objectives, and Goals
Worksheet: Fill in the Activities section on your Causal Pathway
