Frequently Asked Questions

Program planning is a way of gathering input from a broad array of interests and constituencies that is used to help us decide what programs are important for us to plan and conduct.

Resource management planning helps us decide how to use our resources to best address the program needs of our publics. Over time, the results of our program planning efforts will be used by our resource management teams to decide how to invest both financial and human resources.

The two processes are complementary and both need to be ongoing.

What is the Specialist Trends Analysis supposed to accomplish?

The goal of the specialist trends analysis is to identify new and emerging issues and trends that are significant to the County Planning Process. The trends analysis can also inform changes in work team implementation and evaluation plans, and the allocation of programming resources.

When conducting the trends analysis, specialists will engage our internal and external partners in a dialog that allows their perspectives and interests to be represented. The output of the trends analysis is a concise two page summary of trends and other factors that focuses on the relevance of the identified issues and trends to County Program Planning. Counties will use this information as they work with their local stakeholders to identify community issues and programming priorities.

Sample of a Specialist Trends Analysis

Who organizes the Specialist Trends Analysis?

Each of the program areas will be taking an approach to conducting the Specialist Trends analysis that best meet the needs of that program area. Program Area Leaders will collect the trends analysis for their program area and these will be compiled into a binder that will be distributed to the counties during the May all faculty meeting.