What to know
Before you get started, it's critical to think through the tasks your staff must perform to implement AMIGAS.
Overview
It's important to know what has to be done, who is going to do it, and by when. To help you, we provide a template below with a list of the tasks associated with implementing AMIGAS. How you assign these tasks among your staff will depend on your organization and the size of your AMIGAS program. You can use this template to help you develop a staffing plan that works for you. As you think through these tasks, use the list on the Resources Needed to Implement AMIGAS page to decide how many staff members you need and how much they will cost.
Work with community health workers and key partners to clarify your goals for AMIGAS. Know what you want to accomplish and how you will reach your goals. Then you will be able to judge your success and learn what you can do better. Work together as a team to answer the following questions:
- How will we recruit women to participate in AMIGAS?
- How many women will we recruit?
- How will we deliver education and outreach?
- How will we screen women?
- How many women will we screen?
- How will we track the services provided to women?
Preparing for evaluation
You can evaluate how well you achieve your goals by collecting information about your successes along the way. You can then share this information with funders, your managers, and the community. By evaluating your program, you also can get the information you need to make it better. On the Evaluating Your AMIGAS Program page, we provide more information about evaluation and the important role it plays in sustaining your program.
Your community health workers are your partners. Involving community health workers in the evaluation will help them understand why information must be collected carefully. Being involved will also help them be ready to use the evaluation results to improve what they do. If community partners are helping you design or carry out AMIGAS, you may also want to invite them to help you with the evaluation.
AMIGAS tasks and assignments
I. Plan
1. Identify community health workers.
2. Schedule community health worker training.
3. Identify a trainer (and a facility, if needed) to host training.
4. Work with clinics to prepare for increased screening demand.
5. Obtain external items for tool boxes, such as brochures, speculum, and gifts.
6. Prepare the resource list.
7. Send reminders for the community health worker training.
8. Conduct the community health worker training.
9. Evaluate the community health worker training.
II. Implement
10. Identify a location for group sessions (if needed).
11. Schedule individual and group sessions.
12. Develop a safety plan for community health workers, especially for those working by themselves.
13. Schedule debriefing sessions with community health workers.
14. Provide ongoing supervision of community health workers.
15. Recruit and train new community health workers as needed.
III. Monitor and evaluate
16. Collect, tabulate, and store contact sheets from community health workers.
17. Conduct data entry and management of evaluation forms and contact sheets.
18. Track the screening issues women talk about during the sessions.
19. Monitor follow-up of women and help community health workers with follow-up strategies.
20. Monitor changes in screening behavior.
21. Evaluate performance of individual community health workers.
22. Assess effect of AMIGAS on clinical outcomes.