Budgeting and developing a timeline are important steps in public health program planning. If a budget is properly developed it provides a solid foundation for guiding the implementation of the program as well as sustaining it. A timeline is also essential as it provides program planners a guide to use when determining the progress of a program.
For your Course Project this week, you are given $200,000 to fund your program for one year. You will prepare a budget for your program, considering the resources that you need and how you would allocate funds. Some allocation of funds may include marketing DVDs, time for personnel to hold meetings, electricity, and cleaning services for the office space. For your budget, you do not need to include more complex allocations such as employee salaries, fringe benefits, overhead, phones, etc. Also, you should assume you have some in-kind support to use in your project. In-kind support is any resource you do not have to pay for such as free printing of educational brochures or free telephone services. In addition to your budget, you create a basic Gantt or PERT chart to present your timeline.
To Prepare for this Assignment:
Review Chapter 13 in the McKenzie et al. text. Pay particular attention to how to create a budget and allocate funds.
Given the $200,000 you received for your public health program, create a one-year budget.
Refer to Figure 10.2 on p. 283 of the McKenzie et al. text to view a sample budget sheet.
Think about potential in-kind support/assets that may influence your budget.
Review Chapter 12 in the McKenzie et al. text, and see the sample timeline and Gantt charts on pages 325–326. In addition, you may wish to use the Internet to research how to create a Gantt or PERT chart. Microsoft Excel also has some resources available that you can search. Consider what would be an adequate yet basic timeline to execute the program plan you have developed. Think about the tasks and activities that should be included in a basic timeline for your program plan.
The Assignment : Final Course Project Submission (8 – 12 pages total, not including cover page or references)
Begin with an Executive Summary of your whole project and a Conclusion statement (3 – 4 paragraphs)
Collate the components from Weeks 2, 3 and 4 with corrections to items noted by the Instructor.
In addition, add a final 2- to 3- page section on budget and timeline that includes responses to the following prompts:
Using the sample budget sheet on page 283 of the text, create a budget allocating $200,000 for your public health program. Include at least one in-kind support/asset in your budget.
Provide a rationale for your allocation of funds.
Develop a basic timeline using a Gantt or PERT chart. Note: Microsoft Excel provides templates that you can use.
Provide a rationale for the basic timeline for your program plan.
Note: To ensure that you are meeting all of the requirements for the Course Project, be sure to review the Course Project Instructions located in the Learning Resources.
Your written Assignments must follow APA guidelines. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate.
