Readiness & Preparation

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Assessing Your Readiness

Before the process of planning your intervention begins, the time you take to prepare and assess community interest will increase your chances of success. In terms of preparation, it is important to determine the time, skills, resources and support you need. Assessment of community interest may involve determining whether the intervention is of concern to the organization or community, there is leadership support, there is political will and there are other types of support. Thinking through the process of planning and implementing (or putting to action) your intervention may help you identify partners to assist you, resources you will need, sources of funding and barriers you may encounter along the way.

To help you determine whether or not you are prepared and the interest of your community, Intervention MICA provides the Show Me Am I Ready scale. This scale provides ten essential questions to guide you in thinking through your next steps.

Show Me Am I Ready Scale
The Show Me Am I Ready scale is designed to help you figure out whether your partners and those who may be affected by your intervention are ready for developing and implementing (or putting into action) an intervention. Begin by checking the box with the most appropriate response for each item ("Good," "Fair" or "Poor"). Once you have entered all of your responses, check to make sure that you have entered a response for each item and that it is correct. After you are finished, click the "Submit" button at the end to get your results. If you are unable to answer these questions at this time, print off the following worksheet, which will help you think through these responses with your partners.

Assessing Your Readiness Worksheet

Items	Good	Fair	Poor
1. The level of support I have from those who will be affected by the intervention is… Before you answer, think about the following: Who will be affected (family members, co-workers, neighbors, community members)? Have you talked to these individuals about the intervention or asked them about their needs? Have you received positive responses and encouragement from different groups or stakeholders (demographic, political, geographic)?
	Good	Fair	Poor
2. The level of political support I have from key decision-makers is… Before you answer, think about the following: Who are the key decision-makers (organizational administrators, legislators, advocacy groups)? Have you talked to these individuals about the intervention or asked for their opinions on what might work? Have you received buy-in from key decision-makers that shows they will support your work?
	Good	Fair	Poor
3. The extent to which I’ve engaged partners – individuals or organizations – to assist me in the planning and implementation of the intervention is… Before you answer, think about the following: Who are potential partners? Have you included individuals or groups with public health experience as well as those from other fields (e.g., public policy, education or social services)? Have you included individuals who will be affected by the intervention to help you plan?
	Good	Fair	Poor
4. The level of administrative support I have from my organization is… Before you answer, think about the following: Who are the key decision-makers and administrators for your organization? Have you considered the administrative resources you need? Have you identified organizations that will support your work and allocate resources to you? Have you received positive responses and encouragement from administrators?
	Good	Fair	Poor
5. The amount of funding I have for planning and implementing the intervention is… Before you answer, think about the following: What is your current budget for the intervention? Will this be sufficient? Have you identified and/or applied for funding from other sources?
	Good	Fair	Poor
6. The number of people I have to work on the intervention is… Before you answer, think about the following: How many individuals do you have to plan and implement the intervention? How much time can each individual spend? Will this change over time? Do you need individuals with special skills or expertise?
	Good	Fair	Poor
7. The resources I have readily available to plan and implement the intervention are… Before you answer, think about the following: What are your space and equipment needs? What are your technology needs?
	Good	Fair	Poor
8. My team’s level of skills and expertise to plan and implement the intervention is… Before you answer, think about the following: What are the skills and expertise on your team? What are your training needs? What are your technical assistance needs?
	Good	Fair	Poor
9. The strength of our team’s leadership is… Before you answer, think about the following: Who are the leaders on your team? Do the leaders motivate and support the team? Does your team respond favorably to the leaders?
	Good	Fair	Poor
10. Our ability to work together as a team is… Before you answer, think about the following: Does your team communicate effectively? Do team members trust one another and work well together? Is your team organized and efficient?

Thank you for completing the Show Me Am I Ready scale!

You received out of 20! See below to evaluate your score.

Evaluate your score:

If you received:

20 out of 20
Congratulations! Your score shows us that you are ready to begin work on planning and implementing your intervention. Please proceed with the next sections to help you get started.

15-19 out of 20
Congratulations! Your score shows us that you are ready to begin work on planning and implementing your intervention. You may want to consider the following suggestions as you proceed with the next sections to help you make the most of your intervention.

10-14 out of 20
It is clear that you have been doing some great work to get ready for planning and implementing your intervention! Your score shows us that you are almost ready to begin. You may want to consider the following suggestions as you proceed with the next sections to help you make the most of your intervention.

0-9 out of 20
It looks like you are just beginning to get ready for planning and implementing your intervention! Your score shows us that you are not yet ready to begin. You may want to consider the following suggestions before proceeding with the next sections to help you make the most of your intervention.

Suggestions to help you prepare for planning and implementing your intervention:

If you marked fair or poor on:

Question 1
In order for your intervention to be successful, it is helpful to think about those who will be affected by the intervention. Consider the different groups in your community (e.g., demographic, political or geographic) and their different perspectives on how to plan and implement the intervention. Once you have a good sense of who will be affected, figure out a way to talk to them about the intervention to get their feedback. This can be done informally by having conversations with these groups or more formally through interviews, group discussions or surveys. To ensures ongoing input from these groups, it is important that representatives from groups be part of ongoing working groups or committees that are developing and implementing (or putting to action) the intervention. Go to Related Links for more information.

Question 2
Within any community, there are key decision makers that influence what gets done and how it gets done. These decision-makers may be found within schools, businesses, civic organizations, advocacy groups or they may be elected officials. Because politics have such an important role in how interventions get planned and implemented, it is useful to identify these key decision-makers that can have an impact on your intervention. Be sure to talk to key decision-makers who may support your intervention and those who may not support it. It is helpful to know what political barriers you may encounter up front so that you can plan accordingly. You may want to informally have conversations or formally use interviews, group discussions or surveys to get feedback from these individuals or groups. Go to Related Links for more information.

Question 3
Partnerships play an important role in the success of any intervention. Intervention MICA has an entire section dedicated to creating partnerships. Go to Creating Partnerships or Related Links for more information.

Question 4
Working within organizations can present challenges. Therefore, it is best to get support from the organization administrators prior to beginning your intervention. Identify key organizational representatives who may support or stand in the way of your intervention. This way you can attempt to “sell” your ideas to them up front and, by their responses, you can be prepared to address their concerns as you plan and implement the intervention. You can have informal conversations or use interviews, group discussions or surveys to get feedback from these individuals or groups. Go to Related Links for more information.

Question 5
Preparing a budget and having a good understanding of the costs associated with the planning and implementation of your intervention can provide valuable information about what you may be able to afford to do and where you may need to cut costs. Intervention MICA has a whole section that describes how to prepare a budget. Go to Budget Preparation or Related Links for more information.

Questions 6, 7 or 8
One of the biggest challenges to planning and implementing your intervention is trying to make it manageable with the staff and resources that you have or that you can afford. Once you have prepared your budget (see Budget Preparation), you have a pretty good idea of what you can do. If you are short on staff time or other resources, you may have to consider cutting out certain parts of the intervention or shortening the timeline. You may also consider training your staff to enhance their skills and expertise so that you can improve their efficiency or limit the number of people you need to implement the intervention. Another alternative is to hire a technical assistant to take on some of the tasks that you can’t afford to hire or train staff to do. You can also consider trying to get additional resources from other funding agencies (see Funding Resources). Go to Related Links for more information.

Questions 9 or 10
Some of the hardest barriers to overcome include those that occur in the working relationships between your team members. It is critical to develop strong leadership and conflict resolution skills among team members to build their capacity to deal with day to day problems in managing the intervention implementation. Several resources are available on strengthening leadership capacity and team building. Go to Related Links for more information.

Continue to Preparing for Your Intervention >>

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