VISTA PROJECT PLAN, WORK PLAN AND VOLUNTEER ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION VISTA Orientation September 27-29, 2010

What is the Project Plan, Work Plan and VAD?  A Project Plan is a tool to help identify community need, goals and performance measures. The Project Plan is laid out, in narrative form, in your institution’s Project Proposal.  When timelines are added and the Project Plan is put in template form it becomes a Work Plan and a tool to help you manage your program.  The VAD (VISTA Assignment Description) identifies the key activities of a VISTA’s service year.

What is the Project Plan, Work Plan and VAD? continued  VAD has six sections: 1. Project Information, 2. Goal, 3. Activities, 4. Steps, 5. Planned Period of Work 6. Comments and Summary

Why?  Work plans & VADs are used first as planning tools to think through what members will do. Later, they serve as performance measurement tools, so you can look back and see what the member has accomplished.  A clear VAD helps avoid confusion over what's expected of your VISTA. Use it at the beginning of the term to see what the year ahead should look like. Go back to it every few months to develop short-term plans.  If used right, the VAD provides direction for the member and allows supervisors to talk about what's working and what's not.

How?  By developing a Work Plan you will set clear goals.  Identify performance milestones to track  Identify measureable targets or performance milestones  Report annual accomplishments

Work Plan  Consists of one or more action plans  Each action plan has:  Community need  Goal statement  Performance milestones ***Work Plans are Logic Model without the Inputs and activities. ***Community needs and goals are Program-wide and don’t change year to year. Performance milestones are results.

Inputs and Activities  The inputs and activities that are needed to reach milestones are outlined in the VAD.  If you include inputs and activities the project plan becomes a logic model. Most organizations use logic models to plan their programs.

The Logic Model Community need Goal Inputs and Activities Milestone Program wide – don’t change year to year Results Describe activities included in VAD

Writing Effective VADs

The goal is copied directly from your project plan. Most VADs have only one goal.

 Thank you!