Stage 5:  Carrying Out Your Plans and Adjusting as Necessary

You should already have created a workplan to guide the actions during this stage. During regular ongoing meetings, the LCSC should check in on progress in accomplishing tasks. You will need to develop a strategy to assess whether what you are doing is working and what needs to change. 

Throughout this phase, NN4Y recommends using the PDSA cycle, developed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming:

  • Plan: Select your goal (as a team), gather needed information, develop ideas/possible solutions, and decide how you will measure change.
  • Do: Begin implementing any ideas, strategies, or plans you developed in the previous stage. You can also start gathering data on the solutions you implement in this stage. (This stage can also be seen as a process of “road testing” your proposed changes and seeing how they perform.)
  • Study: Start/continue to collect data and analyze it according to the earlier metrics you decided on for gauging success. Use this information to look for unintended consequences, parts of your plan that are working or not working, and places you need to develop additional solutions or change course.
  • Act: Use the information gathered in previous steps to re-evaluate your goals and plans and make changes as necessary.
  • The process then repeats again and again.

PDSA – Plan Do Study Act

Strategies that can be used during this phase include:

  • Quantitative and qualitative data gathering, including focus groups conducted by YAB members.
  • Development of a quality/performance improvement plan.
  • Hiring some or all YAB members to take on a larger role in the process (e.g., serving as paid consultants).
  • Retaining outside consultants with relevant expertise (e.g., in assessment).

Although agencies involved in the LCSC may have their Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) processes in place, it’s important to have one specific to the LCSC and its work. This should be a Participatory CQI process, meaning that impacted individuals (in this case, YAB members or other young people who have needed/accessed youth homelessness services in your community) are part of the process.