Before you can address funding or implementation issues, you need to decide what your CAP project will look like.
Territory:
What territory will you be working in? Are you going to serve a small community, a portion of a major city or a province? Your territory will depend on how many children you believe you can serve. Of course you should start with a reasonable area for your first year while you pilot the program. A three year plan may reflect expansion past that region.
Establish an Identity:
Determine what you will call this new project? Many CAP projects identify themselves by using the acronym of “CAP” with the location or territory of the project, such as “CAP Center of Japan©”, “New Jersey CAP©”, “Devon CAP©” or “The Front Range CAP©” (which is located in the Front Range region of Colorado, USA). Along with a name you will eventually need a logo, letterhead and possibly business cards bearing your identity. ICAP has a standard logo that you may modify to capture the motto of the program.
Facilitators: Volunteers or paid staff?
This is a crucial decision in the design of the project. It will affect funding efforts, scheduling, public relations, and a variety implementation issues. Both models can be extremely successful. If funding is an issue, trained volunteers may be your only option. Consider however, what we pay people to wash cars. We should make every effort to pay for good work with our children.
Finding/Selecting Facilitators:
You will need to find facilitators who will be available to work during the day to train children. One CAP project in Slovenia wrote about finding facilitators:
We started with the group of approximately 30 facilitators, half of them were professionals (psychologists, social pedagogues, social workers,etc.). This was a good combination, because professionals have more experiences, student on the other hand are more flexible because they don’t have regular jobs and are more available to conduct children workshops in the morning.
ICAP encourages projects to have a project team which reflects a diversity of professions, educational levels, ethnicity, gender, race and religion. ICAP has various sample flyers that you may wish to use to advertise for facilitators in your local newspapers or read as public service announcements on radio or cable television.
Demonstration Pilot Project: Selecting a School
Demonstration projects allow decision makers and funding sources to observe your successes, and then continue to support the project. An administrator is also more likely to sign up for CAP knowing it will be a demonstration program for the district/county. Like all of us, educators are proud when their school is chosen for special recognition. Finally, starting with a small school or district allows your task force to evaluate its work and fine tune things without the pressure of running six or seven schools simultaneously.
One & Three Year Master Plans and Timeline:
To give possible funders a clearer picture of your project and where you see it going, you might want to develop one & three year plans. Include goals and objectives for the project and timelines for accomplishing them. This gives your backers a sense of continuity, as well as giving you some direction and a stronger sense of purpose.
