Achieve Consensus on the Nature of the Problem or the Need for Change

Most planning activities are initially spurred by a problem or unmet need that affects the organization. However, the problem, issue, or condition may appear to be different to various stakeholders. Therefore, it is important to be sure everyone is identifying the same problem, issue, or condition, even though they may not yet be able to agree on the causes or solutions for it. At this juncture, the planning group also should agree on the scope of the planning process and develop a tentative timetable for undertaking tasks (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1998).

Organize Information for Decisionmaking

The foundation for effective planning is good information. Needed information for planning may include:

• Internal agency or jurisdictional information (e.g., number of youth served in programs, average length of stay, costs of various program components).

• Information external to the agency or jurisdiction (e.g., potential number of youth who might need services, attitudes of the community, potential revenue sources).

• Research data on the problem, issue, or condition under consideration (e.g., treatment effectiveness, risk and protective factors, efficacy of drug testing).

Develop or Clarify Organizational Values, Vision, Mission, and Goals

Values. Values represent the fundamental beliefs of the organization and are stated as principles or traits considered worthwhile. Organizational decisions, actions, and results are affected by these values, and they motivate the development and implementation of policies and practices (Boone and Fulton, 1995).

Vision. Visioning is imagining how the jurisdiction or program would be different if each of its values were fully realized and/or if the problem, issue, or condition of concern were no longer present. A vision statement defines the organization's ideal future state (National Crime Prevention Council, 1988). For example, questions that might evoke visioning include:

• If you woke up tomorrow and juvenile delinquency no longer existed in our community, what would the community look like? How would it be different from what it is today?

• If this organization became a true learning organization, what would it do?

• If this agency were to fully meet the needs of female juvenile offenders, how would we operate differently?

• If this program were to hold youth fully accountable for the harm they have caused victims, how would we function differently?

Mission. A mission statement describes the purpose, function, clients, and role of the organization and reflects its values and vision (Boone and Fulton, 1995; Steenson and Thomas, 1997).

Markley (1994) lists the following critical elements of mission statements. He writes that mission statements should (48-49):

• Be organization specific.

• Involve a broadly and deeply inclusive and participative development process.

• Be the centerpiece of the organization.

• Be a dynamic document.

• Inspire staff.

• Form the basis of organizational accountability, internally and externally.

• The activities, behaviors, and practices that must change for the mission to be accomplished.

• The roles of actors within the system (e.g., clients, staff, managers) and how they must change to achieve the mission.

• The reallocation or development of resources needed to meet program objectives.

Goals. The agency should have goal statements that reflect the specific intentions or purposes pursued to achieve the agency's mission. For example, in the Balanced and Restorative Justice mission, three primary goals are established (Maloney, Romig, and Armstrong, 1988):

• Accountability.
• Community protection.
• Competency development.

To hold juvenile probationers accountable for making amends for the harm they have caused by having them perform community service and pay restitution to victims.

A goal statement such as this one moves a mission statement into a more measurable format, and from these goals, even more specific objectives can be set. This goal for accountability allows the agency to evaluate the degree to which youth do perform community service and pay restitution to victims to fulfill the agency's mission and goals.

Design Program Objectives

Objectives clarify and quantify goals. Contrasted with the clarification of values, vision, mission, and goals discussed above, which apply to the entire jurisdiction or agency, objectives may be developed for a specific program or segment of the agency.

For example, one objective related to the goal of accountability shown above might be:

During the coming fiscal year, probation officers will supervise and assist youth who receive court orders to pay restitution and perform community services to ensure that at least 50 percent of youth on probation fulfill their orders to pay victim restitution and perform community service, and another 25 percent of youth achieve half or more of these requirements.

Such a statement meets the criteria for good objectives by:

• Stating who is responsible for accomplishing the objective (i.e., probation officers and youth).

• Setting a timeframe for completion or an interval for measurement (i.e., during the next fiscal year).

• Describing the conditions under which the objective will be performed (i.e., youth with court orders, under probation officer supervision and with assistance from him or her).

• Setting criteria for measuring success (i.e., 50 percent/25 percent will complete or partially complete community service and restitution requirements).

• Actions taken by probation officers and conditions under which these activities were performed (e.g., referral to community service programs, referral to jobs programs, counseling, classes on job preparedness, negotiations between victims and offenders).

• Actions youth took (e.g., number of hours of community service completed and amount of money paid in restitution).

• Achievement of the desired success rate within the specified time limit (e.g., 50 percent/25 percent completing or partially completing community service and restitution requirements within the fiscal year).

Another important aspect of objectives is that they should be attainable (Steenson and Thomas, 1997) or realistic. For example, suppose that the agency setting the objective under discussion here had, in the previous fiscal year, only 30 percent of youth completing community service hours and 25 percent completing restitution payments. It would be unrealistic to expect the program could achieve a perfect score (100 percent of hours worked and restitution collected) within 1 year. But, planning to improve their outcomes substantially from year to year is attainable.

Identify Strategies

The objective just described shows how specific objectives lead directly to strategies. To accomplish the youth accountability strategy, the program and personnel will need to:

• Develop sufficient and viable community service opportunities.

• Work with community agencies to expand the pool of community service jobs.

• Plan efficient ways to refer youth to community service work and account for their hours.

• Create and/or work with community resources to develop work opportunities for youth who need to earn money to pay victim restitution.

• Develop job-readiness classes.

• Design a system for collecting, accounting for, and disbursing restitution to victims.

• Perform victim-offender mediation.

• Maintain efficient data collection and retrieval systems for assessing the success of the program.

Strategies outline the specific means through which the objective will be achieved. They often constitute the actual program components.

Make Action Plans for Implementation

The action steps refine the planning process even further. They should specify all steps to be taken for each strategy, who will be responsible, the timeframe within which activities should be accomplished, any specific procedures to be taken, and other detailed steps necessary. Regarding the example given in the previous section, an action plan might look something like Table 4:e.

Locate or Create a Plan for Generating Necessary Resources

Resources always must be considered, and there is usually a greater demand than supply. However, there often are creative ways to develop needed resources. Several approaches may be possible with the idea of developing community service and restitution programs. For example, ways of increasing resources or realigning them might include the following:

• By keeping youth busy with community service and work, they may have fewer unstructured hours to get in trouble; thus, violations and revocations may decrease, and money will be saved on detention and residential placement costs.

• Volunteers may be used in several ways, such as supervising youth on work details, accounting for hours of community service worked, and calling work and community service supervisors to find out how youth are doing.

• Grants, local government funds, and gifts from businesses and community organizations might be sought.

• Modest fees for service might be assessed, such as a small percentage of earnings collected over and above restitution amounts, to defray program costs.

• Youth participation in money-making activities, such as assisting with a recycling program, might be encouraged.

From the beginning of the planning process, the need to monitor and evaluate programs and activities should be given attention. Both process and outcome evaluation measures will be important. Process evaluation will compare the activities undertaken with the original plan to determine whether the program was implemented properly. Outcome evaluation will describe the results of the project, usually in quantifiable terms. For example, the process evaluation activities of the situation followed in this section may include:

• Documentation of the members and activities of the advisory group.

• Number and types of community service and job opportunities developed.

• Forms and process descriptions for referring youth to community service jobs and documenting their hours.

• Content, instructor(s), and dates of job readiness classes taught.

• Number of youth successfully completing the job readiness class.

• Restitution program procedures for collecting, accounting for, and disbursing funds to victims.

• Documentation of the number of victim-offender mediation sessions held.

• Description of information management processes.

• Number of community service hours worked compared with the number ordered by the court.

• Amount of restitution paid to victims compared with the amount ordered.

• Number of youth fully completing community service or victim restitution requirements.

• Number of youth partially fulfilling community service or victim restitution requirements.

• Measures of victim satisfaction with restitution payment.

• Measures of victim and offender satisfaction with the mediation process.

Obtain or Plan for Needed Technical Assistance

At various points in either the operational or strategic planning process, jurisdictions and programs may encounter "speed bumps" that slow down the planning process or even make it veer off course. This may occur because of several possible problems or combinations of conditions. For example, barriers such as the following may be encountered:

• Lack of sufficient information about the problem or issue, lack of research data, or lack of program examples.

• Different perspectives on the problem, issue, or condition that cannot be resolved.

• Need for innovative ideas and motivation for key individuals involved in the planning process.

• Poorly defined agency values, vision, mission, and goals.

• Lack of involvement or cooperation from key stakeholders.

• Lack of resources to implement plans.

• Need for a management information system.

• Need for assistance in developing performance-based measures to evaluate the program.

The more clearly the problem for which technical assistance is needed can be delineated and articulated, the more likely the technical assistance—whether it be through information, distance communication with a consultant, or onsite assistance—will be effective in helping jurisdictions and programs achieve their planning goals. The questions provided at the end of this chapter will help you identify technical assistance needs.