Elements of a Strategic Communications Plan
This template will walk you through the following elements of a strategic communications plan: Determine Goal, Identify and Profile Audience, Develop Messages, Select Communication Channels, Choose Activities and Materials, Establish Partnerships, Implement the Plan, and Evaluate and Make Mid-Course Corrections.
SPRC: Safe and Effective Messaging and Reporting
This webpage provides an overview of the importance of safe and strategic messaging in suicide prevention. It also highlights key related resources.
Preventing Suicide: A Community Engagement Toolkit
This toolkit follows from the World Health Organization (WHO) report Preventing Suicide: A Global Imperative (WHO, 2014) by providing practical steps for engaging communities in suicide prevention activities. It describes a participatory bottom-up process by which communities can work together to identify, prioritize, and implement activities that are important and appropriate to their local context.
SAMHSA: Strategic Planning Framework
This strategic planning model has been widely used, including effectively used with suicide prevention efforts. The model provides five steps that guide strategic planning.
Planning Primer: Developing a Theory of Change, Logic Models and Strategic and Action Plans
This primer provides guidance for coalition-based strategic planning, including identifying vision and mission statements, setting objectives, choosing and prioritizing strategies, and doing action planning. Although this primer focuses on substance misuse, it can easily be applied to other issues.
Community Readiness for Community Change
This is a handbook for assessing community readiness for change related to a specific health issue. It has been effectively used for suicide prevention efforts.
Community Tool Box: Assessing Community Needs and Resources
This section of the Community Tool Box provides guidance on describing a community, what matters to its members and stakeholders, determining what issues should be a priority, and describing the barriers and resources for addressing the identified issue(s).
A Strategic Planning Approach to Suicide Prevention online course
This online training on strategic planning is for suicide prevention coalitions and program leaders to enhance effectiveness of prevention efforts. It follows a case example of a community coalition through the six-step planning process.
A Guidebook to Strategy Evaluation
This guidebook helps cities evaluate violence prevention programs. It includes the following chapters: 1) Needs and Asset Assessment, 2) Clarifying Your City’s Approach to Change, 3) Setting Goals and Measurable Objectives, 4) Evaluating Your City’s Strategy, 5) Data for Evaluation, 6) Collecting Your Own Data for Evaluation, 7) Analyzing and Reporting Findings.
Prevention Institute: Suicide Prevention Module 4: Evaluation and Learning
This section of this module provides an overview of evaluation in suicide prevention and example logic models. It also links to the RAND evaluation toolkit and CDC and SPRC evaluation resources.
