Understanding what resources you have at your disposal will help you delineate the type, scope, and size of your project. Be realistic, be creative, and use your partners and stakeholders. They can help you with the design of your program, and also with securing necessary resources and expertise.

Remember that resources come in different guises. They can be financial, or in-kind, such as volunteer staffing, physical venues, or donated time, services, or equipment.

• Financial support can come from any entity that has an interest in seeing the project succeed. Consider private sources like retailers, producers, foundations, and local enterprises, as well as public funding or grants.

• In-kind contributions can be equally valuable. A local public relations agency may agree to donate design expertise for a website or poster; a school might make available staff or teachers to implement a skills-based intervention; a local cinema may agree to air program materials for free or advertise an intervention; a local university might agree to provide personnel to conduct an evaluation at no cost.

Identifying potential obstacles or challenges related to resources will help you to plan and prepare for unexpected events. During your formative research and planning, discussions with stakeholders can help you to assess possible resource-related barriers and challenges that may arise. Stakeholders may also suggest solutions. Use a checklist of possible barriers when you hold discussions with stakeholders and ask them to add any others they foresee.

Resource limitations and challenges to consider:

• Lack of financial resources to adapt the program (e.g. translation of materials, production of culturally appropriate visual material);
• Lack of trained personnel or lack of resources to adequately train personnel to deliver the program (teachers, peers, other messengers);
• Competition with other priorities for time; reluctance to implement a program which takes up more time than the school (or other setting) wants to provide;
• Competition for available space (if a physical location is needed for program-specific activities);
• Lack of resources to adequately cover both implementation and evaluation.