white paper on performance management for community ... - FACA

NASCSP 2013
supportive environments. The challenge here is to find a consistent protocol for agencies to
determine the number of individuals/families who are working toward self-sufficiency.
Furthermore, agencies make a Goal One and Goal Six determination based on the identification
of the family's own stated goal of "seeking employment" or not, as all the outcomes identified
as "supports" are related to securing and maintaining employment. (Note: This is cumbersome
and difficult for most agencies.) The challenge here is that getting a job does not ensure family
income will increase. Many studies of the "welfare to work" programs show that the loss of
benefits to families who secured employment resulted in a decrease in economic security.
Outcome Two speaks to increased family security without benefits. Considering the typical
family served by Community Action, perhaps if a family secures more benefits that would be an
increase in family stability but not a move toward self-sufficiency. The Network would need to
answer the following question: Are families better off? The data elements to consider include:
Deprivation of basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, safety in home and community) and
services (schools, health care)
Lack of skills include education, employability and technical skills
Lack of assets may include access to credit, availability of savings, owner ship of a
private auto or computer, and ownership of larger assets as real estate/property.
(Note: Many of these are identified in NPIs 1.2 and 1.3)
One way to do this would be to use a family development scale/matrix to show progress in
different domain areas. If the Network moved in this direction, would the matrix elements need
to be standardized across the country? While it might provide for more consistent and reliable
data collection, community differences that would argue the definitions for benchmarks of
"vulnerable" and "stable" would not be respected.
Would progress be measured only in domains for which the family received CAA services?
Would it include the progress from services that the CAA referred the family to?
Potential NPI Revisions to ROMA Goal Six
Outcome 1: People with low incomes secure cash assistance or public benefits to stabilize
family.
Measured as the number of families who receive new benefits to stabilize the family.
The families captured here would include those moving towards family stability through access
to public assistance and by addressing basic needs.
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