In order to write a proposal for an effective intervention program, several strategies are vital. These include: (1) Identifying and describing the problem to be targeted by the program (2) Identifying those affected (intended participants) (3) Identifying the settings in which to reach the participants (4) Setting goals of the program (5) Selecting the intervention (s) strategy (6) Involving the community (7) Identifying and locating the necessary resources (8) Developing the activities and the materials for the program (9) Getting employees or volunteers to run the program (10) Developing an effective monitoring and evaluation plan. Given the limited scope of the paper I will only describe how I will use the first strategy to develop an effective intervention proposal.
Suffice to say that one cannot write an intervention proposal for a problem s/he is not well acquainted with. As such, I will do in depth research on the problem of childhood Obesity in the Buffalo community, in New York. In addition, to reviewing trusted publications on the problem I will interview some relevant officials in the Department of Health and in the Education sector in an effort to get preliminary and primary data on the status of the problem. I will also seek to understand the existing programs addressing childhood obesity in the participating schools and evaluate their success rate, strengths and shortcoming. This will help me to come up with a proposal that builds on the strengths of the existing intervention programs and address the shortcomings of the same. In addition, I will seek permission to review the records of the existing programs where possible.
This preliminary research will help me understand the background and the scope of childhood obesity in the Buffalo community so that I will be able to write the proposal from a point of knowledge. With a clear picture of the scope of the problem, it will be possible to justify to stakeholders why we need another program, how the proposed program is unique (more effective and cost friendly) and why they should support it. With this intimate knowledge, it is also possible to develop a proposal for an intervention that would complement the existing once rather than replaces them. The facts and statistics gathered at this stage can also be useful in fundraising for the program.
References
CDC. (Nd). Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating an Intervention —An Ov erview. Retrieved February 13, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/chapter1-a.pdf
