There are three blocks of time during the workshop designated for team meetings. The intent is to provide the opportunity
for teams to plan how best to use their time during the workshop, assess what they are learning, and develop a plan for what they
will do when they return to their partnerships and communities.
This section of the Participant Manual provides you with an outline for each team meeting. Each offers
a set of critical questions or tasks that will help you focus and structure your discussion around sustaining prevention. Estimated
times are indicated for many of the tasks, but will vary with your own needs. The instructions offered in each meeting are
suggestions for how to complete the tasks. Your team may find other ways to organize your work that meet the goals of the sessions
and address your specific needs and issues.
For your team to review the current status of prevention and to determine an overall direction for your efforts
to sustain prevention in their community.
Activities
There are three activities to be completed
during this meeting:
Complete or reexamine a review of the current state of prevention in you community.
Clarify and reach agreement on your team's roles in the process of sustaining prevention over the long term,
based on the review of the current state of prevention, and define an overall direction for your team.
Determine the specific learning activities your team will engage in during the workshop.
Further instructions for each activity are on the following pages.
Before beginning the activities, please note:
The amount of time your team spends on each of these activities will depend on how much work your partnership
has done in assessing the current status of prevention, setting direction for the future and deciding how to sustain prevention
within the community.
It is important that the analysis in activity 1 not be cut short; it is a foundation for the team's decisions
about how you will approach both the tasks related to sustaining prevention and the learning activities you will engage in during
the workshop.
However, doing a thorough review of prevention during the workshop could take the entire 2 days, which is the
reason that this activity was initially outlined in the preparation package sent to your partnership prior to the workshop. Spend
enough time on this activity to gain clarity around key issues and recognize that you will need to spend additional time once
you return to your partnership.
As a team, decide how you will organize yourselves to accomplish the activities of the workshop by answering
the following questions. (10 minutes):
Who will facilitate the team's discussions? (This role can be rotated among members.)
Who will keep time, record notes on newsprint, and preserve any records of the team's work? (These roles can
also be rotated among members of the team.)
What norms will govern the team's deliberations during the workshop?
When and how will breaks be taken?
How much time will be allocated to the activities of this meeting?
Are there any other team administrative and procedural matters?
Individually, read through the following questions and select the four that you think your team needs to
discuss in this session. These are the same questions that appeared in the preparation package sent to your partnership prior to the
workshop, so you may have already worked through some or all of them. (10 minutes):
What have been the accomplishments of the partnership to date?
Where has the partnership been successful in turning ownership of prevention activities over to the community?
Where has the partnership been less successful than hoped in turning over ownership to the community?
What other organizations in the community see ATOD prevention as their role? Do they operate under the
umbrella of the partnership or separately?
What are the current needs of the community regarding ATOD prevention?
How is prevention defined by the partnership?
What critical elements of a comprehensive ATOD prevention effort still need to be developed and implemented
in the community?
What are the current financial and in-kind resources within the partnership that are important for sustaining
the prevention effort? Resources within the community but outside the partnership?
What role does the partnership see itself playing in the continuation or institutionalization of prevention
within the community?
What role do you see this team playing and what are the roles of the individual team members?
On a sheet of newsprint, write the question numbers down the left side, then record the number of "votes"
for each question. (5 minutes)
From this, select the questions that will be discussed and determine how much time to allocate for the discussion.
(5 minutes)
Discuss the questions selected. (30 minutes to 4 hours)
When this activity is finished, proceed to Activity 2 to clarify the role of the team.
Based on the responses to the discussion questions from the previous activity, brainstorm a list of the
major issues and tasks involved in the initiative for sustaining prevention. Write these on newsprint and post. (15 minutes)
Brainstorm a list of the chief actors (persons, groups, organizations) that need to be involved in the
initiative at some time and in some way. Write these on newsprint and post. (10 minutes)
Discuss the role of your team in accomplishing the tasks identified and how this role differs from the roles
of the other actors. (30 minutes)
It may be helpful during this discussion to remember:
The team should have responsibility for managing and providing oversight of the sustaining initiative;
developing an action plan for the tasks that need doing for a systematic, timely initiative to be implemented; and ensuring
that some person or group is assigned to each of the tasks and that all of the tasks are being accomplished.
When this task is complete, move on to activity 3 and select learning activities.
As a team, review the descriptions of the learning activities related to the four strategies for sustaining
prevention:
Marketing
Resource Development
Reinventing Infrastructure
Reinventing Prevention Programs
(The descriptions can be found in the introduction section of this manual.)
Identify the activities that have the most relevance to your partnership's efforts to sustain prevention,
given your discussions from the previous two activities.
Quickly scan the activities you identify to see the amount of time required for each and set priorities
for the team. On newsprint, record the activities you will engage in and the order in which you will undertake them, creating an
agenda for your team.
Once this activity is complete, begin the learning activities or take a break for lunch.
Special Note:
The learning activities provide you with the opportunity to explore tools and processes for four strategies
and to practice applying them to your own partnership. The true benefit of these activities will come when your team uses them
to facilitate further discussion and action among the members of the partnership and community that are not participating in
the workshop.
Day Two, 1:30 to 3:00 (90 minutes, including break)
Purpose
To begin the development of an action plan for sustaining prevention in the community and drawing upon the
learning activities your team has completed.
By the end of this session, your team should have some answers to the questions:
What strategies will we recommend to our partnership/community for sustaining prevention?
What are the goals or tasks associated with each strategy?
What actions will we take to move each strategy forward? When (in general) will we take these actions?
Who will be responsible?
Before beginning the activity, please
note:
It is underscored here that you are only beginning the development of the plan, rather than fully developing
a plan that you will take back to your partnership. It is recognized that what you have learned here must be shared with other members
of your partnership and community, and there must be opportunities for others to have input into what actions are taken.
However, you are encouraged to be specific and realistic in your planning because when you return to your
partnership/community you will be playing a leadership role on the issue of sustaining.
Instructions:
Review the goals or tasks identified in the learning activities you completed as a team. Post them on
newsprint so they visible to the team and can be used throughout your discussions. It may be helpful to indicate whether each
goal or task is short term or long term.
As a team, identify the four or five priority goals or tasks from the list: What will we recommend that our
partnership move forward on to sustain prevention in our community?
Select one goal or task from the list of priorities.
Brainstorm a list of actions that would be needed to move this task forward. Write the suggestions on
newsprint as they are made.
Determine which actions logically should be first on the list, then second, and so forth, and number each
task accordingly on the newsprint. If possible, assign time frames to the actions.
This exercise may reveal that some items are better grouped under new goals or that other tasks need to
be specified. It is not important at this stage of the activity to fine-tune the plan, but for the whole team to get a sense for
creating the basic elements of the plan.
Spend a few minutes discussing tentatively what persons (roles) or groups might take the lead responsibility
for the actions listed.
The team has now successfully drafted one complete section of an action plan. The rest of the time
in this meeting should be spent on repeating these steps for the other items identified as priority goals or tasks.
The team may want to divide into subgroups to plan around different goals or tasks. If this team division
is done, allow time to reconvene and review the work that has been done.
In drafting an action plan, the team may discover that there are goals or tasks that they need to tackle
that do not relate specifically to one of the learning activities. When these goals or tasks are identified, add the items to the
list, identify their priority and identify the actions needed to address them.
To obtain and consider feedback on your action plan from another partnership team or one of the workshop facilitators.
Activities
This meeting involves three activities:
Prepare for soliciting feedback from another team or a workshop facilitator
Meet with another team or workshop facilitator to obtain feedback
Reconvene as a team to consider the feedback
Instructions:
Prepare (10 minutes)
As a team, determine the specific aspect of your action plan that you would like to have feedback on.
Identify any information that you will need to give to the other team or facilitator to help them understand
your issue and be able to provide you with thoughtful advice and guidance.
Meet with another team or a facilitator to obtain feedback (25 minutes)
Present your issue or question and solicit specific feedback.
If working with another team, shift roles, listen to their issue, and provide feedback.
Reconvene to consider the feedback (10 minutes)
Review the feedback you received for its relevance and significance for your action plan. Note any implications
on newsprint as items to be added to the action plan after the team returns home.
Review and discuss the following action plan checklist, identifying tasks that remain to be done and reaching
agreement about them. Note them on newsprint for later incorporation into the action plan.
_____ Plan goals need to be revised
_____ Additional goals need to be added
_____ Dates for completing goals need to be plotted on calendar
_____ Tasks need to be revised
_____ Lead responsibility for tasks needs to be assigned
_____ Resources needed to accomplish each set of tasks must be
obtained
_____ Dates for monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, and annual reviews of the plan are
incorporated into the plan
Decide where and when the team will next meet to continue your work.
Collect all newsprint, notes, etc. to take back to your partnership.
