State of California
Health and Human Services Agency
M E M O R A N D U M
Date: June 2, 2008
To:
County Administrators Prevention Coordinators
From:
dave neilsen, Deputy Director Program Services Division Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs 1700 K Street, 4th Floor, 916-324-4398
Subject: Strategic Prevention Planning The Community Prevention Initiative (CPI), in collaboration with the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP), has been providing individualized consultation to counties with their Strategic Prevention Plans. To date, approximately 30 consultation calls have been conducted. A few common themes and questions have emerged during the calls regarding the county adoption of the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF), implementation, and reporting. The purpose of this correspondence is to respond to these questions and provide additional clarity to counties regarding ADP’s expectations. A) Evaluation Requirements As counties move through the five-step SPF planning process, many are now just beginning to consider Evaluation Plans. While counties are required to report progress on Goals and Objectives annually at the end of each fiscal year, in a narrative format via CalOMS Prevention, most counties do not yet have formal Evaluation Plans. ADP recognizes that counties are not prepared to develop and conduct highly scientific evaluations as resources are limited to mount such an effort. However, ADP would like to encourage counties to track and evaluate their prevention work as much as possible, and views this evaluation effort as a developmental task as the prevention field develops more capacity for SPF planning. These suggested and incremental timeframes may guide evaluation planning: FY 07/08: FY 08/09: FY 09/10:
Report progress on Goals and Objectives, including a brief narrative for all fields that apply. Complete an Evaluation Plan to measure the impact of the prevention services and activities. Implement the Evaluation Plan and report progress.
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County Administrators Prevention Coordinators Page 2
It is recognized that some counties may move forward even more quickly. This timeframe allows for building capacity for evaluation planning. Cost-free technical assistance will be available in several user-friendly forms to support building such capacity. ADP supports counties and stakeholders in a shared interest and commitment in learning about the impact of prevention services. B) Revising Problem Statements, Goals, and Objectives Considering the dynamic and iterative nature of the SPF planning process, it is not surprising that many counties are interested in making revisions to their Problem Statements, Goals, and Objectives as already defined in their Strategic Prevention Plan and as entered into CalOMS Pv. Those interested in revising Problem Statements, Goals, and Objectives must first update the narrative in the county’s Strategic Prevention Plan. A copy of the amended plan must then be uploaded into CalOMS Pv and the revisions to Problem Statements, Goals and Objectives must be keyed into the appropriate modules so the plan and the planning data in CalOMS Pv align. ADP recommends uploading the amended copy of the plan and making revisions to Problem Statements, Goals, and Objectives in the FY 08/09 version of CalOMS Pv, which will be available for use on July 7, 2008. A CalOMS Pv specific ADP Bulletin will be issued in June with additional information and technical instructions. C) Forum for Sharing SPF Implementation and CalOMS Pv Reporting Strategies Counties have also expressed interest in having a forum by which to share strategies regarding how Goals and Objectives are defined, and more specifically, how they correspond to individual prevention providers and how this interplays with CalOMS Pv data entry and reporting processes. The County Alcohol and Drug Program Administrators Association of California Prevention Committee plans to initiate a CalOMS Pv users workgroup this year. The CPI Technical Assistance team will be participating in this process and will determine if creating an additional forum for county cross-sharing will be beneficial.