Fresh out of college, I was a teacher. I really loved it. Loved the relationships formed. Loved supporting students in all the ways I could.

One of the most important lessons I learned over the summer during my teaching training was how to create a long-term plan with goals, objectives and evaluation. (Investing the students in the goals we set is a whole other post…that I’ll get to at a later day).

I learned that a long-term plan is crucial. It’s where you set your expectations for what you’re doing-how you plan backwards- how you stay sane during the year.

To use a sports analogy in regard to long-term planning, imagine winning a basketball national title without practice, regular season games, team community service ;-), and skill development drills. Now imagine establishing a community engagement program that makes a lasting positive impact on the community, student-athletes, and school without having a clear sense of how you are going to get there and what steps are necessary to achieve that goal.

You need to plan to win a national championship just like you’ll need to plan to make a positive impact through your community engagement program. On a very basic level it’s important to make sure a long-term plan has three things:

1. One Big Goal
2. Clear objectives to accomplish that goal,
3. and ways to Measure/ Evaluate if you’re going to meet that goal.

Below I give you my basic (created in one day) Long-Term plan as if I were hired tomorrow to coordinate community service at a University.

Big Goal:

80% of all student-athletes graduate college ready to H.E.L.P.

Objectives:

1. Helper: the student-athlete selects ways to help via Helper Helper, and applies life skills learned though sport to make a positive impact.
   1. Recognize what impacts happiness and describe how that leads to success
   2. Identify experiences in the community where lessons were learned or perspective changed

Evaluation: Check participation on Helper Helper and in the EOY Survey ask for the athletes to respond to questions about happiness, success, and lessons learned from community experience

2. Encourager: the student-athlete supports younger student-athletes and applies their basic understanding of the value of one volunteer hour
   1. Models initiative and enthusiasm for helping others
   2. Uses data to set both a quantitative and qualitative goal for personal community involvement

Evaluation: Check participation on Helper Helper (for underclassman) and compare personal goals to actually hours

3. Leader: the student-athlete uses social skills to establish a relationship within the community
   1. Completes one (or more) networking meetings with an outside community member
   2. Describes the functional relationship as it relates to life after college

Evaluation: Check Helper Helper for past commitments titled “networking” and in the EOY Survey ask for the athletes to respond to questions about developing relationships and expanding networks.

4. Planner: the student-athlete organizes (potentially with other teammates) an event or initiative
   1. Apply experiences, relationships, and research to organize and carry out one community event
   2. Identify value provided for volunteers and community members

Evaluation: Check Helper Helper for student planned events and in the EOY Survey ask student-athlete if they felt their experience as a student-athlete added value to the surrounding community and themselves.