PiTS Toolkit: Planning Phase
Contents
Objectives
In the first phase of the Point in Time survey project, syringe services programs will:
- Become familiar with the components of a PiTS project
- Understand what a PiTS can and cannot accomplish
- Identify some recommended practices and common pitfalls when considering a PiTS
- Create a timeline for their PiTS project
- Establish learning goals and objectives for their own PiTS
Contents
To help you start planning your Point in Time Survey, this page contains a step-by-step walkthrough of what a point in time survey entails, as well as resources for you to learn key terms, develop your survey goals and project work plan, and start considering survey questions.
Step 1: Set Aside Resources
PiTS projects can be resource-intensive, especially the first time an SSP takes it on. As an organization gains experience and strengthens survey-related systems, they may be able to streamline certain aspects, particularly when it comes to survey design.
Most importantly, SSPs should consider the time and effort it takes to complete this project. You will want to identify as early as possible which team members will be responsible for supporting the survey, from planning to design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of findings. This will help you identify how you can schedule team members to ensure they have protected time to work on the project.
Not every SSP can set aside money for implementing a Point in Time Survey, and that’s okay. However, in our experience, funding the survey may support buy-in for the project, which is essential to ensuring that it gets rolled out in a timely manner and that survey findings are useful. SSPs who aren’t able to dedicate significant financial resources to the project may scale back the length of the survey itself as well as the duration of the project period.
Below is both a template and sample project budget. The purpose of this resource is to help program and agency leadership understand what resources may be needed in terms of both direct costs and personnel time/effort to complete a PiTS project.
Step 2: Create a Workplan
There are many steps to completing a Point in Time Survey from start to finish. Before you finalize your to-do list, you’ll probably need to reference your game plan several times to make sure it’s still realistic. Ensure your plan is flexible so you can revise your timeline as necessary.
The purpose of this resource is to support your team in creating a vision for when and how tasks will be completed leading up to and during the implementation of the survey. Some SSPs may choose to keep things simple and create a calendar for the project. Others may want to adapt one of the templates we have created. The first template is for programs who would like to use a Gantt format so they can see the progression through the project from start to finish, including the duration of each individual activity and where activities are overlapping.
The second template is a simplified version of the above workplan, for SSPs who would like to create a list of activities with the person responsible and the due date for tracking and accountability purposes without the visual aspect of each task’s duration.
Step 3: Set Survey Objectives
Every survey needs survey objectives to keep it on topic and ensure the data is useful, and prevent it from becoming long or burdensome. Your objectives describe why you are running a point in time survey. Remember to test your objectives by reviewing them with your team and survey stakeholders. Use this handout to guide your brainstorming and understanding as you generate your own.
Step 4: Review the Question Bank
Not all questions are created equal! There are often not validated survey questions for the types of things SSPs want to measure. But you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. In this handout we have included dozens of questions other SSPs have used in their surveys to measure a wide variety of topics. You can use this as a reference guide while designing your survey to meet your survey objectives.