Program Expansion
Steps to Program Expansion
Step 4: Obtain stakeholders support for a possible expansion.
- Review and revise mission.
- Communicate the reason(s) for considering expansion.
- Conduct a survey of families, both those whose child died of SIDS and those from other causes, to solicit their ideas about expansion.
- Inform all existing families about possible program expansion.
Step 5: Conduct community needs assessment. Programs need to estimate the number of additional deaths that would be included with various program expansions:
- Obtain statistics and information on type and number of deaths in local or State area.
- Decide how in-depth your organization can go with available staff.
- Conduct a survey of existing service providers such as funeral homes, hospitals and emergency rooms to determine where families are currently being referred.
- Conduct a survey of existing professional and community training programs including those that currently train first responders in responding to child deaths, hospice programs, health care providers in grief and risk reduction and child care providers in general grief and risk reduction.
- Hold a community meeting to discuss the unmet needs in the community
and to locate other available bereavement support. Typical partners
would include:
- Health departments
- Hospitals
- Health promotion organizations and agencies
- Local March of Dimes chapter
- Local FIMR
- Local CFR
- Funeral homes (NFDA’s Web site includes a member list.)
- Local SHARE chapter
- Local MISS Foundation chapter
- Local Compassionate Friends chapter
- Local Parents of Murdered Children chapter
- Local MADD chapter
