1️⃣How to

How can we develop a community-led action plan?

Your action plan is where ideas meet reality. It's a roadmap that outlines what your community (CO), creatives, and other partners will actually do, when, and how. It helps everyone involved get on the same page, understand their roles, and move forward with confidence.

This stage is often iterative – it’s normal for things to evolve as you learn more and engage deeper. That’s why we recommend revisiting your scope and goals here. Adjusting now can save confusion later.

Why does this matter?

Creating an action plan is not just about logistics—it's a tool for building trust, clarity, and collaboration.

Here’s what it helps you do:

• Define realistic activities, timelines, and expectations

• Align everyone’s roles, especially when working with creatives or external partners

• Identify key resources and gaps, using your mapping results

• Keep the momentum going by making the path ahead visible and shared

It also provides a visual snapshot of your goals, helping you and your group feel grounded and motivated.

How to do this?

This step is about working together to map out:

1. What needs to happen?

2. Who does what?

3. When and with what resources?

If you’re working with creatives, this is a critical moment to build mutual understanding. You’ll need to:

• Schedule one or more induction meetings so creatives can learn about the community and its context

• Allow time for the creative to do research and development

• Involve them early on—ideally since the Initiation stage—to support co-creation

Below you will find a few resources you can use to map this out:

Experimentation Canvas

The purpose of this tool is to outline the essential components that are necessary for implementing our community-led action. It is recommended to use it as a guide to plan our community-led action. The canvas provides insight into all crucial aspects of experimentation – from idea development to testing and assessments – in a visually compelling format. It must be customized for each selected solution.

Toolbox for co-creating journeys - SISCODE Project (pages 34 and 35)

Developing an Action Plan Guide

This section provides a guide for developing and utilising our citizen-led action plan. The guide provides useful information such as:

1. What is an action plan?

2. Criteria for a good action plan.

3. Why is it important to develop one?

4. How to do it?

Including practical tools such as the Action Plan Form, Action Planning Tips and links to other complementary resources. This guide has been developed as part of The Community Tool Box (Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas), an online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

Developing an Action Plan

Useful resources

Collective intelligence canvas - Fab City Hub Toolkit

This tool seeks to promote and facilitate the creation of an action plan as it outlines the main phases, activities, and dynamics required to activate a community.

You may also be interested in...

• What do we have to consider when our action takes place?