Setting Reachable Goals
Broadcasters and community partners come to their individual projects sharing the national Sound Partners program goals:
- to increase public awareness of specific health issues, and
- to facilitate citizen's involvement in making decisions affecting health care.
To be successful on the local level, each grantee's project must reflect the overlapping vision, goals, and needs of the broadcaster, partner(s) and the community.
THE VISION: Begin with the End in Mind
The vision's focus is global.
Measurable outreach begins with a vision-a vision of all that the station and community might accomplish by working together. The vision is the essence of the effort, understood fully by all partners. It expresses why they have joined together to pursue a common goal.
The vision encompasses both the partners' and the station's individual missions and strategic goals. The vision encompasses the funders' goal for the project, and expresses it in terms of what the community will gain from the effort.
THE PROJECT GOAL: The Community Owns the Problem and Solution
The project goal is focused outward.
The project goal translates the vision into an action statement, and frames the vision in terms of benefits to the community.
The project goal lays out the "who, what, when, where, why and how" of the project, in terms of benefits to the community/listeners.
Both the station and the partner(s) meet their strategic goals by engaging in the project, although these goals are not referenced in the project goal.
The potential effectiveness of every action in the master plan can be measured by relating it back to the goal. Ask, "Will this action help us achieve our intention? How?"
THE STRATEGIC GOAL: Action Equals Intention
The strategic goal is focused inward.
The station and partner each have separate strategic agendas that converge in a shared vision. Outreach must serve these strategic goals, so that both partners and stations can answer the question "Why is this organization engaging in this outreach effort?"