The Whole Child planning process that is summarized in the planning road map below was developed by the first three Whole Child communities. It consists of the following steps with an estimated time frame for each:

1. Creating a Vision and Mission Statement: (All Whole Child projects agree to use the same vision statement which is, "Imagine a community where everyone works together to make sure children thrive.") Adoption of vision and mission takes one - two months.



2. Conducting a Community Analysis: This analysis is for the purpose of identifying the issues that impact the well-being of children across all six dimensions of the Whole Child. It usually consists of three parts:
   
   • Listening Projects (see "Guide to Conducting Listening Projects" in this "Tool" section)
   • Population data analysis
   • Program data from Whole Child partners
   This step can take 6 - 12 months for this step.
   
   
3. Determining Critical Issues and Root Causes: The critical issues are determined by the Whole Child partners based on the results of the community analysis. This step takes 1 - 2 months.



4. Conducting Process Analysis: This step is optional. It is used if a community identifies critical issues related to how it provides services and needs to systematically examine the processes it uses to provide its services. Process analysis does not have an estimated time frame as it can continue throughout the life of the project.



5. Establishing Interventions and Investments: This step is conducted by the Whole Child partners. It involves the following components:
• Creating objectives for addressing the critical issues
• Determining activities to accomplish each objective
• Establishing time frames and lead responsibility for completing each activity
• Determining investments needed for success
• Establishing measures of success for each critical issue
This step can take 1 - 6 months.


6. Implementation: This step involves carrying out the plan created in step 5. There is no estimated time frame for this step other than the times set in step 5.



7. Measurement and Evaluation: This step begins in step 5 and continues for the life of the project.




After the community has completed its initial journey through the planning map, it's ready to start all over based on what it experienced and learned from its first trip.




Planning Map









__© 2004 Lawton Chiles Foundation

Questions? Contact Us »