Arkansas Case Study

Strategic Planning Process to Address Tobacco-Related Disparities in Arkansas

Timeline

Planning

• January: Attend CDC training, hold staff planning committee meeting, recruit workgroup members, and send out workgroup invitations.
• February: Hire contract facilitator and designated state Department of Health staff to support workgroup process. Review data and hold workgroup planning meeting.
• March: Hold first workgroup meeting; discuss workgroup membership and seek suggestions for wider representation; review available data sources including Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Arkansas Youth Tobacco Survey (AYTS), and Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring Survey (PRAMS) and their data available for specific populations. Review African American population assessment and data. Review data relevant to gender. Hold workgroup debriefing and planning meeting.
• April: Hold second workgroup meeting; provide an intensive review of general tobacco data for Arkansas, tobacco use and mortality data, and youth tobacco usage and their data available for specific populations. Hire evaluator. Hold workgroup debriefing and planning meeting.
• May: Hold third workgroup meeting, discuss differences between diversity and disparity, present Secondhand Smoke (ETS) data, and results of the Arkansas Youth Tobacco Survey. Members requested additional data from staff to be presented at next meeting. Distribute homework assignments to fill community profiles and tobacco checklists including demographic information. Hold workgroup debriefing and planning meeting. Attend CDC training. Hold fourth workgroup meeting and discuss populations not represented. Present American Indian community profile and population assessment. Present Hispanic population demographic and cultural profile and population assessment. Hold workgroup debriefing and planning meeting.
• June: Hold fifth Workgroup meeting. Present youth profile and population assessment. Present secondhand smoke information. Present an overview of tobacco use among the state's disabled populations. Conduct the Selecting Priority Population exercise. Continue to request assistance in completing the community and population assessments. Hold workgroup debriefing and planning meeting.
• July: Hold sixth workgroup meeting. Review ways that the Department of Health has tried to reach communities and populations disparately affected by tobacco. Do SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of workgroups. Come to consensus on five key areas for strategic plan. Hold workgroup debriefing and planning meeting.
• August: Attend the Arkansas Minority Health Summit. Meeting with Dr. Robert G. Robinson, CDC, to solicit ideas on community infrastructure development. Attend CDC training.
• September: Hold seventh workgroup meeting, list twenty-three critical issues, and select five goals for the strategic plan. Hold workgroup debriefing and planning meeting.
• October: Staff develops two sample strategic plans for workgroup review. Hold eighth workgroup meeting. Review and compare the two strategic plans. Adopt the formal strategic plan with goals being represented by actions. Settle on seven goal areas. Incorporate a vision, mission and values statement into the strategic plan. Discuss building partnerships to help implement the strategic plan. Hold workgroup debriefing and planning meeting.
• November: Revise the Strategic Plan to create a final version for state adoption.
• December: Hold ninth workgroup meeting. Adopt the final strategic plan. Discuss the marketing plan and identify the primary audiences for the strategic plan. Workgroup agrees to continue meeting as a committee for one year to help monitor, oversee and provide feedback on strategic plan marketing and implementation. Secure adoption of strategic plan by Department of Health.

Implementation

The strategic planning process took one year from the first meeting of a planning committee to the last meeting of the workgroup at which the final version of the Strategic Plan was adopted. During that time nine workgroup members were actively involved in the process and were supported by two staff members, a facilitator, an evaluator, three guest speakers, five presenters and five contributors.

Note to Reader: Our staff is committed to all of the National Tobacco Control Program goal areas. However, the simultaneous start up of both TPEP along with the CDC's Disparities Pilot Project has influenced our tobacco prevention initiatives so that we always consider the critical issue of disparity among populations as a baseline focal point within the other goal areas.

Evaluation

• The evaluation coincided exactly with the strategic planning process of one year. The evaluation commenced with selecting an independent evaluator in March.
• March: Held planning committee meeting. Developed evaluation plan. Developed evaluation tools.
• April: Attended workgroup meeting. Administered workgroup meeting evaluation tools and attended project team debriefing meeting. Evaluation tool results were shared.
• May: Attended CDC training: Attended two workgroup meetings. Administered workgroup meeting evaluation tools. Attended two project team debriefing meetings. Shared evaluation tool results.
• June: Attended workgroup meeting. Administered workgroup meeting evaluation tool. Attended project team debriefing meeting and shared evaluation tool results.
• July: Attended workgroup meeting. Administered workgroup meeting evaluation tool. Attended project team debriefing meeting and shared evaluation tool results.
• August: Attended Arkansas Minority Health Summit on Tobacco. Attended meeting with Dr. Robert G. Robinson, CDC. Meet with Dr. Robinson for a debriefing and planning meeting.
• September: Attended workgroup meeting. Administered workgroup meeting evaluation tool. Attended project team debriefing meeting and shared evaluation tool results.
• October: Attended workgroup meeting. Administered workgroup meeting evaluation tool. Attended project team debriefing meeting and shared evaluation tool results.
• November: Compiled evaluation results. Wrote case study for final evaluation report incorporating results of evaluation tools.
• December: Attended workgroup meeting. Submitted case study for workgroup approval and revision.