Introduction to Act Four
You have listened to your community and heard issues of importance to them bubbling to the surface, done the work to situate your coalition within the existing landscape of plans and resources in your area, and called together your Local MPA Coalition.
By the time you finish this Act, you will have:
- A Local Multisector Plan for Aging with actionable policy tactics that will address the themes identified by your community
- Community validation of your Local MPA through active public participation
- A selection of local and regional partners who will lead and participate in the work of each tactic, including implementation, reporting, evaluation, and improvement.
Step 1: Present Research Reports to Your Coalition
As your coalition prepares to embark on the Local MPA development process, it is essential that they have a complete picture of the data. Host a meeting with your full coalition to present the eight Research Reports you prepared in Act II. As you do so, keep the following tips in mind.
- Keep it high-level. Select main points from each Domain’s research report.
- Keep it interactive. Follow the best practices for meeting facilitation outlined in Act III, and pause often for questions and feedback.
- Keep it inclusive. Explain concepts clearly, and pause to check for understanding before moving on.
Step 2: Establish Domain Workgroups and Orient Workgroup Leaders
In this step, your coalition will divide into a set of eight workgroups, one for each Domain, and choose a leader for each group. In the coming steps, each workgroup will use the Research Reports as the starting point for developing a set of recommended policy tactics for the Local MPA. You can allow members to self-select or assign them based on skillset.
Workgroup Selection
As you create your workgroups, keep the following tips in mind.
- Continuity: Place a Development Team member on each workgroup to ensure continuity and consistency across workgroups.
- Diversity: Scan each workgroup to ensure diversity of skills, backgrounds, and identities, with no favoritism toward any specific group.
- Roles: Establish roles for each workgroup. At minimum, every workgroup must have a leader and a note-taker. Workgroups can create additional roles as needed.
- Capacity: Honor the capacity of your coalition members by providing clear instructions, realistic timelines, and straightforward assignments.
Workgroup Leader Orientation
The workgroup leaders will be tasked with guiding their workgroup through steps 3, 4, and 5. In these steps, the workgroups will develop and refine a list of policy tactics for their Domain, from early brainstorming to specific recommendations.
Set up a meeting with each workgroup leader to orient them to the tactic recommendation process. In the orientation meeting, review the following:
- Domain Research Report: It is essential for the workgroup leader to understand the Research Report prior to the workgroup’s first meeting.
- Workgroup Recommendation Worksheet: This worksheet will help workgroups transform the Research Report themes into a set of specific, actionable policy tactics, from brainstorming to final recommendation.
- Workgroup Recommendation Spreadsheet: Workgroups will use this spreadsheet to organize and track their tactic recommendations.
This is a big undertaking: make sure your workgroup leaders know that the Development Team is available to answer questions, course-correct, and otherwise advise.
Step 3: Domain Workgroups Develop Tactic Recommendations
In this step, each of the eight workgroups will use the Workgroup Recommendation Worksheet and Workgroup Recommendation Spreadsheet to complete the tactic recommendation development process.
The workgroups will likely need to meet several times, and conduct background work outside of meetings. Be sure to set a realistic timeline for this step, establish clear deadlines with workgroup leaders to stay on track, and provide support as needed.
Once all workgroups have completed their Tactic Development Spreadsheet, gather your full coalition for a meeting (or series of meetings) so that your workgroups can present a high-level overview of their tactic recommendations to the whole coalition.
Step 4: Determine Your Tactic List
Now that your workgroups have submitted their recommended tactics, it is time for your Development Team to determine the complete list of tactics to be addressed in your Local MPA. Use the Local MPA Tactic List Spreadsheet to guide your work.
- Consolidate. Consolidate the full tactic recommendation list from each Domain into Tab 1 of the Local MPA Tactic List Spreadsheet.
- Eliminate Duplicates. Scan the tactic list and merge or remove any redundant or similar tactics.
- Categorize. Collate all tactics into the following categories:
- Quick Wins: Tactics that can be accomplished in around 1 year using existing resources
- Mid-level: Tactics that would require funding, policy changes, or both to implement
- Transformative/ambitious: Tactics that would require significant investment and/or changes beyond the scope of local government to implement
- Validate tactic achievability. For each category, validate the workgroup’s answers to the following questions for each tactic:
- Narrow it Down. Eliminate any tactics that are not relevant or achievable. Aim for a portfolio of 50% quick wins, 30% mid-level, and 20% transformative/ambitious.
- Who will lead the work?
- What partners should be included?
- What resources are available to support this work?
- Re-sort by Domain. Sort the tactics back into the 8 Domains of Livability to ensure that all are satisfactorily represented.
Tool Spotlight: Workgroup Recommendation Worksheet and Spreadsheet
These tools are designed to be used together, with each step in the Worksheet corresponding to a tab in the Spreadsheet.
Together, they guide each workgroup in transforming Research Report themes into a set of specific, actionable policy tactics, from brainstorming to final recommendation.
Tool Spotlight: Local MPA Tactic List Spreadsheet
This Spreadsheet supports your Development Team in refining the tactics submitted by the Local MPA Coalition, in collaboration with the implementation leaders who will do the work.
Toolkit Check: Network Development Spreadsheet
As you reach out to implementation leaders and partners to validate tactics, add their contact information to the "Implementation Workgroup" tab in the Network Development Spreadsheet.
You will need this information in Act Five.
Step 5: Refine Tactic List With Implementation Leaders
For your Local MPA to be effective, you will need active participation and buy-in from the agencies, organizations, and individuals responsible for carrying out the work. In this step, you will refine each tactic in partnership with the organizations who will implement them. Your implementation leaders are crucial for success – without their buy-in, even the best Plan will not happen.
Implementation Leader Meetings
Meet with each proposed implementation leader to discuss each of their tactics. Record any subsequent changes in Tab 2 of the Local MPA Tactic List Spreadsheet.
In the meetings, ask them to consider:
- Whether the tactic is properly assigned.
- Existing services or infrastructure connected to those tactics.
- Potential costs and investments needed.
- Barriers for implementation.
- Funding opportunities/ideas.
Revised Tactic List
Tab 2 of the Local MPA Tactic List Spreadsheet should now contain a complete and revised list of policy tactics, validated by implementation leaders and slated for inclusion in the Local MPA. Circulate Tab 2 to the Local MPA Coalition and all implementation leaders and partners.
Aging Our Way, PA Core Tenet Spotlight: Living Document
Aging Our Way, PA was designed to adapt with changing circumstances.
Establish a proactive approach to change, and keep flexibility at the forefront of your Local MPA draft.
Step 6: Draft Plan
Select one or two people from your Development Team to create a draft of the Local MPA. You are well-prepared to create your draft: pull from the work you have already done, including:
Once your draft is complete, circulate an embargoed copy to the Local MPA Coalition. Proceed to Step 6 once the Coalition approves that the draft is complete – the Coalition’s individual and collective feedback on the contents of the draft will be captured in public comment.
Step 7: Public Comment
You have a finished first draft of your Local MPA – congratulations on achieving this major milestone! Now it is time to circulate your Plan for public comment.
- Distribute widely. Using social media platforms, newsletters, and other distribution methods, distribute the proposed Local MPA for a period of public comment. Create a mechanism for responding via email, telephone, or land mail. Use your Network Development Spreadsheet to reach a broad and diverse group of community members.
- Be inclusive. Consider your broad community and seek to include voices from racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, sexual, gender, and ability minorities.
- Encourage Participation. Prime respondents by asking if the Plan and its tactics address the needs and concerns of the community. Ask for suggestions of how each tactic can be applied or changed to meet local needs.
- Be transparent. Determine and advertise a clear start and end date for the public comment period. Publish comments for public review, and clearly articulate how feedback has been incorporated into the draft. Present a final draft to the Local MPA Coalition.
Step 8: Publish Final Draft
It’s time to publish your Plan! Be sure to gather as many contributors as possible to celebrate this accomplishment with you, and acknowledge the hard work of your partners along the way.
Transition: Development Team to Implementation Team
Now that the development of your Local MPA is done, what will be the role of your Development Team? Your Development Team will now need to transition from leading the development of the Local MPA to coordinating its implementation. This may require a slightly different set of skills. Assess your Development Team to ensure you have the right set of skills, and adjust accordingly until you have a Implementation Team that can accomplish the following: