Abstract
The name of my program is Food Security and Sustainable Local Food Systems. There will be thirty participants in the program. The program will be conducted on Saturday from 12 PM to 3 PM at the Community Centre.
Promotional Plan/Marketing Plan
The most effective communication and promotional strategies that will be used in reaching out to the learner community will include brochures, posters and text messages. Given that the target learner community is located in the rural setup, it will be appropriate to reach them using traditional means of marketing. The nature of activities in the lives of the learner community limits the use of the most modern methods of promotion as the chances of the messages not reaching are increasingly high.
The information that will be communicated to the learner community will vary with the mode of communication being used. The brochures will contain detailed information about the program as these will be used as reference materials for the learner community even in the later dates. The brochures will include a detailed program of the event day and all the scheduled activities. The posters will be less detailed as compared to the brochures as the focus of the communication will be to inform the learner community about the venue, date, time and location of the event. The text messages will be sent to community members who will have provided their mobile numbers. The text messages will be used to remind them about the event and as such will contain information about the time and venue.
The different forms of communication will be used at various timelines leading to the event. The distribution of the brochures will begin one month before the event to allow for enough time to reach more people. The posters will be put up one week before the event and will be positioned in strategic locations in areas such as supermarkets, community halls, and churches. The text messages will be sent out a day before the event to serve as a reminder.
Program Budget
The program will be financed using different funds from diverse sources. The parent organization will contribute towards financing the program from the previous donations that are in the account. The program will also benefit from an amount of cash from different sponsors who intend to put advertisements on the brochures that we will distribute. The government through its Department of Horticulture, as well as the Department of Social Services and Community Welfare, will also contribute funds towards financing the program.
Some of the resources that will be used during the program will not have a direct cost towards the project. The resources include websites, internet connection, learning systems, computers and projectors. Given the program is meant to contribute towards community welfare it is not intended to make any profits. As such, the members are not required to pay any attendance fee. Leftover funds from the event will be banked in the program account as savings towards financing the next planned program.
Support Services
The planning committee has included several support services to empower further the learner community and ensure the objectives of the entire project are realized. Counseling services will be included to offer support for members of the community who have previously suffered the scourge of food insecurity. The counseling services will be provided by counselors from the local churches.
The project will also include agricultural forensic services that will enable to ensure that the instituted measures of ensuring food security do not cause harm to the community. The agricultural forensic services will ensure that the learner community is informed about any catastrophic events that had occurred in the community in the past. The agricultural forensic services will be provided by a team of forensic experts from the Department of Horticulture.
The program will also enlist the services of an interpreter given that the learner community is multilingual, and the program will be conducted in English. The program will also include sign language as there are a few members of the community who are deaf. The sign language and interpreter services will be provided by personnel of the Department of Social Services. There will be wheelchair support and modification to allow the wheelchairs to be taken into the training homes. The program will include security services to ensure that the members of the community are secure during the program.
Administrative Responsibilities
The program planner will handle the planning aspects of the entire program. Some of the responsibilities assigned to the program planner include gathering of ideas from the community members and conducting a needs assessment in the community. The information obtained during the needs assessment will be used by the program planner to develop the program objectives. The program planner will also handle the preparation of program budgets, sourcing for funds and planning the transfer of learning activities.
The instructors and consultants will be required to work together during the preparation of the program brochures and instructional videos. The instructors will handle the preparation of the program handouts that will draw information from the brochures. The instructors and the consultant will complete the process by making the PowerPoint presentations.
The program evaluator will be responsible for the preparation of the questionnaires that will be used to collect more information about the learner community. The program coordinator will handle all logistical operations such as arranging the hall, registering participants and monitoring the program. The technical support will be responsible for updating the program’s website and Facebook pages with all the information regarding the dates, the venue and the theme of the event. The technical support personnel will service the computers and projectors in preparation for use during the training as well as setting up equipment for the program day.
There are some contingencies that have been anticipated, and appropriate measures take to address the issue in case they arise. The first contingency is the event where the primary instructor falls ill and is unable to conduct the assigned session. The contingency action is to have an assistant instructor conduct the course to ensure that the course is executed without any interruption. The second contingency is an event where the workstations fail. The contingency action is to ensure that at least fifty percent of the workstations are functional to allow the participants to share the remaining workstations.
Summative Evaluation Plan
Some of the stakeholders in the evaluation include the members of the Department of Agriculture, Horticulture and Food Security, the World Food Organization as well as the Department of Social Services. The stakeholders will mainly be concerned with information about the ability of the learner community to demonstrate that they have learned about food security. The stakeholders will also want to information about the ability of the learner community to implement the techniques that they learn to guarantee food security.
The primary purpose of the evaluation will be to assess the ability of the learner community to implement the lessons learned to ensure that the objective of food security is achieved. For the evaluation to achieve its objective components such as program design and learner satisfaction (Fenwick and Parsons 51). The following questions will be included to assess each component:
- What aspects of the program design did the participant find hard to navigate? Which aspects of the program design were hard to execute?
- How satisfied are you with the information that you have learned today? How confident are you that the learner community will be alt to implement the lessons learned?
To answer the questions about the process data will be obtained from different sources. The sources include participants, program staff, instructors, community members and consultants.
Description and Justification of Evaluation Methods
The program will be evaluated through qualitative interviews and focus group discussions. Qualitative interviews will allow the evaluation to capture details through individual perspectives (Fenwick and Parsons 52). The qualitative interviews will provide a precise meaning of the program in a dynamic manner. The interviews will also provide variations in understanding of the program given that they will be conducted by instructors too.
On the other hand, the focus group discussions will provide information about how the learner community feels about the issue of food security and the program. The focus group discussion will provide information that will be effective in improving the design of future programs. The discussions will also provide insight into the reasons why certain opinions exist in the learner community.
Description and Justification of Data Analysis Process
Content and narrative analysis will be conducted on the evaluation data. In content analysis, the verbal data will be categorized and classified to allow for easier summation and deduction. The narrative analysis will be used to transcribe the experiences of the participants during the program to allow for the better redesigning of the programs.
The results of the analysis will be provided to all the stakeholders. The first use of the results will be to justify the use of funds provided to finance the project. The second use of the results will be to allow for tracking the program at a later date to evaluate its effectiveness in resolving the community issues. The results will also be used by the planning committee in the evaluation of their work and to design programs in the future.
Conclusions
The assignment was a learning experience that enabled me to develop more analytical skills in program planning and evaluation. The consideration of the administrative plan has enabled me to understand other components of the program such as roles of the different personnel who will be involved in the entire project. The complete planning for the course has enabled me to understand all the details of which I could have overlooked previously. The entire planning has also enabled me to understand how the different components of program plan synergize each other.
Works Cited
Fenwick, Tara and J. Parsons. The art of evaluation: A resource for educators and trainers. Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing, 2009. Print.