Community Action Plan

Issues effecting the community that are supported by LDAT

• Alcohol and pregnancy/Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
• Alcohol
• Other illicit drugs
• Non-prescribed pharmaceutical use
• Crystal methamphetamine (‘ice’)
• Stimulants (including cocaine)
• Cannabis
• Steroids.

Confirm your target audience

It is important to understand who is affected by the issues you have identified and who will directly benefit from your activity , so that it can be tailored and targeted appropriately. Different groups will have certain attitudes, behaviours and demographics that need to be considered and representatives should always be consulted as part of the development and delivery of the activity.

Age

• 0–5 years (parent)
• 6–11 years
• 12–17 years
• 18–30 years
• 30–50 years
• 50–60 years
• 60–70 years
• 70+ years
• Whole of Community

Priority population It is important to ensure at least one organisation within your LDAT (Lead or Partner) represents the priority group throughout the development and delivery of your activity, including the initial consultation phase. Priority populations are:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Gender Diverse and Intersex (LGBTIQ+)
• Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD).

If the audience that your LDAT is targeting is more specific than the options provided in the Community Action Plan template (e.g. pregnant women; people who are unemployed) or unknown, then you can indicate this in your CAP submission.

Supporting resources

• Identifying alcohol and drug issues in your community
• AOD Lifecycle Planner

More tools

AOD Mapping Tool Facilitator Guide (PDF)

A guide to assist facilitators when using the Community Mapping Tool. Includes guidelines and a range of questions that can be used to investigate the identified community priority issues and unpack information from sessions to provide direction for the development of a suitable, evidence-based, community solution.

Your CAP should be based on activities that have been shown to be effective in preventing and minimising AOD-related harms.

Recognised activities include:

1. activity drawn directly from ADF Toolkits
2. activity supported by evidence-based information; e.g. parent education session
3. activity is supported by an evaluation plan to determine impact.

Further considerations

Consider the following questions when developing your CAP (and activity) to ensure it is a good fit with your group and local community:

• does your LDAT have the capacity to carry out the activity?
• do you have the resources (people, money, materials) available, or can you access them?
• what expertise does your group have? Do you need another Partner?
• who could you partner with in order to access additional skills and knowledge?
• what are the community’s strengths and challenges regarding alcohol and drug use?
• how can you leverage off the strengths of partners, and mitigate the challenges?

Supporting resource

• VicHealth Partnership tool
• Community consultation
• AOD Lifecycle Planner

Evaluating your CAP activity lets you assess your project's effectiveness, describe your successes to others, identify the areas to improve next time and plan the next stage of development.

The following section applies to evaluation planning for a Prevention CAP. If you are a first time LDAT, you will have to complete an Engagement CAP first. The Engagement CAP follows a similar evaluation process to the Prevention CAP, but there are some differences. Please consult the Community Engagement and Mobilisation resource for more details.

To begin planning your evaluation, you will need to select at least one ADF-recommended Measurable Activity associated with your Toolkit. A Measurable Activity is an activity, designed and delivered by the LDAT or an AOD health practitioner, that facilitates the structured collection of short-term impact data. This can include AOD data, such as knowledge about AOD harms. Learn more below:

Facilitates the structured collection of short-term impact data: this means that the activity will a) provide exposure to information or ideas that can support harm reduction, and b) allocate time to collect short-term impact data from participants following the activity.

Designed and delivered by the LDAT: this means that the activity has either been designed by the LDAT or designed by an AOD health practitioner who the LDAT has engaged for the purposes of completing their CAP. If an external partner is involved with delivery (e.g. to facilitate a discussion) the LDAT is still present to support them. Public events or activities that are being delivered outside of the LDAT Program (e.g. classes, meet-ups, training etc.) do not meet this criterion.

For each Measurable Activity you will be required to select at least two ADF-recommended Process Measures and two ADF-recommended Impact Measures. For an overview of Process and Impact Measures, see Establish your measures.

The full list of ADF-recommended Measurable Activities and ADF-recommended Process and Impact Measures can be found in the LDAT Evaluation Measures Guide. You will also be guided through the Measurable Activities and Process and Impact Measures for your Toolkit when you complete your digital CAP submission.

A well-planned CAP evaluation allows you to:

• measure against your original goals – did you achieve what you wanted to?
• assess the effectiveness of your activity
• share your successes
• identify the areas you intend to improve next time
• use your learnings and insights to stay motivated and guide future activities to support your Local Drug Action Team and community
• report your outcomes to the ADF and others who are interested

For more on how to set up a strong evaluation plan see LDAT Evaluation Tools.

'Steps' refers to tasks that need to be completed to deliver your activity, e.g. further consultation, advertising, recruit participants, conduct training, event management.

For each step include who is responsible and the start and finish date.

An outline of the main steps and resources required is provided in each of the toolkits.

You and your partners will need to consider all your income and expenditure lines.

Budget notes

Complete a budget table to explain what the funding will be used for.  This will help ensure your proposed CAP is value for money; planned expenditure is within the funding guidelines; and, you are utilising partners and other avenues of support (in-kind and other grants) to build sustainability.

A few tips to keep in mind:

• catering costs on average up to $15 per head
• include staffing in your total budget, i.e. the number of hours required and cost per hour per person
• make sure capital expenses over $500 are itemised and include a justification for the expense (you can add this as an attachment)
• do not include administration or overhead fees.

You can attach a more detailed budget at the 'Attachments' tab.

Note: All LDAT funds received must be acquitted at the completion of the CAP

The table for your budget is a guide only. You may need to add additional columns or rows if you have multiple sources of in-kind support, for example.

Reference

• Budget guidelines

Your Relationship Manager will be able to guide you in developing your CAP to ensure the activity will meet the needs of your community.

You can develop and submit your CAP on Community Hub.

Once approved, deliver your CAP activities, collecting your success measures and recording expenditure as you go.

• Alcohol and Other Drug Lifecycle Planner Use this planner to guide the development of a Community Action Plan that addresses local alcohol and other drug (AOD) issues, by addressing risks and building protective factors using the range of evidence-based toolkits.