Setting the Stage: Implementation in the Context of Community
For present purposes, a “community” might be members of a city, neighborhood, organization, service agency, business, or professional association.
A theme running throughout implementation literature is the importance of knowing the current strengths and needs of a community prior to selecting and attempting to implement an innovation. In the process of examining the community’s strengths and needs, a planning group is often formed and it becomes a catalyst for increasing awareness, mobilizing interests and driving planning activities.
The implementation literature across domains consistently cites the importance of “stakeholder involvement” and “buy in” throughout all stages of the implementation process (“Nothing about us without us” seems to apply to all stakeholders when choosing and implementing evidence-based practices and programs as well as other treatment interventions).
As summarized in an example by Petersilia (1990), “Unless a community recognizes or accepts the premise that a change in corrections is needed, is affordable, and does not conflict with its sentiments regarding just punishment, an innovative project has little hope of surviving, much less succeeding” (p. 144). Fox & Gershman (2000) summarized several years of experience with the World Bank in its attempts internationally to implement new policies to help the poor. They advised that, “…for a mutually reinforcing coalition to emerge, each potential partner must make an investment with a high degree of uncertainty regarding the commitment, capacity, and intentions of their potential partner” (p. 188).
