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PURPOSE: |
This memorandum describes how the Office of Community Services (OCS)
will carry out its compliance and technical assistance responsibilities
for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program during the next
two years to help assure that the Community Services Network remains strong,
focused, effective, and accountable.
Specifically, the memorandum addresses:
· Challenges facing the Network;
· How States and eligible entities may use "Results Oriented Management
and Accountability" (ROMA) to meet those challenges;
· Technical assistance available from OCS to States and eligible entities
as they implement ROMA, as required by law.
OCS appreciates the help received from the Network in developing this
document, including suggestions and comments on an initial draft circulated
late last year. We especially appreciate the guidance from the Monitoring
and Assessment Task Force (MATF) and its committees, State CSBG offices,
State Associations and a number of CAAs and interested individuals.
Challenges Facing the Network
Last year, we celebrated the thirty-fifth anniversary of the community
action program. Over that remarkable time, we have learned many lessons,
confronted many issues, and above all, helped many people achieve better
lives in better communities. Revised 2/21/01 The cornerstone of the Network's
longevity and accomplishments has been its willingness to understand and
adapt to changing client needs, community conditions, financial support
and public expectations while maintaining a steady focus on eliminating
poverty. The most successful State and local agencies among us have come
to understand that community action not only survives, but thrives, when
it engages in continuous self-examination. Our "star players" ask and
answer, again and again:
"Why are we here, who are we helping, what are we helping them to become,
and how will we know and describe success, both theirs and ours?"
All agencies and their staff that comprise our Network need to ponder
anew these questions from time to time. They are the wellspring of continued
vitality. And, if we choose to ignore them, we place ourselves at risk.
For these are the questions that will be asked of us by the general public,
our clients, and especially our benefactors. They will demand our focus;
they are entitled to answers. The new Administration has given clear indication
that it will emphasize results-based, client-focused accountability among
Federally-funded domestic assistance programs. Recently announced Administration
education and social service initiatives share common themes - that Federal
funds should not lock clients into service systems that continually fail
to meet their needs, and that alternative service strategies ought to
be available and supported. The Community Services Network is fortunate
to have initiated its own performance-based, "Results Oriented Management
and Accountability" (ROMA) system almost six years ago. As an effort in
progress, ROMA has built strong foundations for continuous program improvement
and accountability among State agencies, community action associations,
and local entities. A significant number of States and eligible entities
have implemented ROMA, but many have been slow to understand or adopt
its results-oriented and accountability concepts.
The challenges facing the Network over the coming years are:
1. To safeguard support for community action by insuring that all agencies
are strong, financially, administratively and programmatically, and that
they achieve robust and measurable improvements in the lives of clients
and communities;
2. To reinforce the role of community action as an effective and accountable
partner to other service providers, including faith-based organizations,
and as a viable alternative to failing service delivery systems; and Revised
2/21/01
3. Toward these ends, to have all States and local community action agencies
understand, embrace, and use ROMA as a omnibus for mission renewal, improved
service strategies, strong program and fiscal management, and ultimate
accountability based on client and community change. It is in the context
of meeting these challenges that OCS will work to help the Network move
toward universal ROMA implementation over the next two years.
ROMA Implementation
As indicated, the Community Services Network has been engaged in a voluntary
effort over the past six years to create a new and powerful tool to help
keep our programs strong and effective, "Results Oriented Management and
Accountability," or ROMA. A CSBG Monitoring and Assessment Task Force
(MATF), composed of Federal, State and local Network representatives:
· Identified six national goals for community action that both respect
the diversity of the Network and provide clear expectations of results
from our efforts:
Goal 1: Low-income people become more self-sufficient.
Goal 2: The conditions in which low-income people live are improved.
Goal 3: Low-income people own a stake in their community.
Goal 4: Partnerships among supporters and providers of service to low-
income people are achieved.
Goal 5: Agencies increase their capacity to achieve results.
Goal 6: Low-income people, especially vulnerable populations, achieve
their potential by strengthening family and other supportive systems.
· Developed and disseminated a number of performance measurement tools,
including: 1) scales of client/family, community, and organizational well-being
against which change can be planned, tracked and reported; 2) individual
outcome measures for each of the six national goals; and 3) a ROMA Guide
that provides step-by-step help in converting to results-oriented management;
· Established a web site devoted specifically to advancing ROMA implementation,
including the sharing of documents, experiences, plans and problems associated
with innovation and change among Network constituencies; and Revised 2/21/01
· Helped identify training and technical assistance priorities for OCS
support to advance ROMA awareness, experimentation, and competencies.
As a result of these efforts, ROMA implementation has been steady, although
uneven, across the Network. Many initial hopes for ROMA are being realized
gradually:
1. ROMA has been used by some States and eligible entities as a framework
for rethinking and redefining their overall mission, realigning their
services, empowering staff, and evaluating effectiveness;
2. ROMA has expanded and enriched cooperation among CSBG agencies in a
number of States. It has improved communication and coordination among
State CSBG officials, CAA association executives, and local CAA directors.
3. ROMA has provided State agencies that have chosen to explore its possibilities
with a vital new role in CSBG leadership and stewardship. It has provided
a focus for meaningful State agency outreach to other State officials
and legislators, training and technical assistance to local agencies.
ROMA has helped create a common way to understand what community action
does and how best to do it;
4. ROMA has provided some local entities with a means of not only "telling
their story better," but of "telling a better story." Some CAAs have used
results oriented management to target and coordinate their services, document
and publicize the resulting success of clients in their efforts to become
self-sufficient. These agencies have used ROMA-generated data to gain
additional support, both politically and financially, from State legislatures
and town councils.
5. ROMA has prompted some States and local agencies to develop new ways
of tracking, recording and reporting what they do. A number of States
are working on information systems that will permit collection, storage,
retrieval and analysis of client-focused service and outcome information
across funding sources, and for all eligible entities. Similar client-based
information systems have been developed by individual community action
agencies;
6. Some CAAs have used ROMA performance management principles to build
new alliances and contractual relationships with other agencies that share
responsibility for client or community outcomes.
7. A number of CAAs have used ROMA as a tool to build greater staff cohesion,
commitment, and effectiveness. These agencies have helped all staff, regardless
of whether or not they work directly with clients, understand their connection
and contribution to agency goals, client/community/organizational outcomes.
Revised 2/21/01
All of these changes being brought about by ROMA are encouraging. They
are evidence that ROMA is far more than a measurement and reporting strategy,
or a management gimmick, or a burdensome requirement that will go away
someday and hopefully not be replaced by some other "fad" of the moment.
We must work together over the next two years to achieve universal acceptance
and adoption of ROMA within the Community Services Network.
We must do so not only because it is required by law, but because the
continuation of community action as we know it may depend on our willingness
to embrace change, to adopt ideas and concepts that we have fashioned
ourselves to enhance program effectiveness and accountability.
OCS has identified a number of core activities that appear to be common
among CSBG agencies that have succeeded in developing and adopting performance-based
management in recent years. OCS will use these core activities as yardsticks
to measure ROMA progress among States and eligible entities, and as focal
points of State plan approval, compliance monitoring and program reporting.
OCS training and technical assistance support will be targeted on helping
the States and eligible entities conduct these activities that constitute
basic ROMA implementation.
We encourage States and eligible entities to join with OCS in using these
core ROMA activities to assess their own ROMA progress and to identify
what work needs to be done to complete their efforts before CSBG reauthorization
in Fiscal Year 2003. We will offer help to States to conduct such assessments.
OCS hopes that the Network will agree that we need this uniform and easily
understood way to document ROMA adoption. Our ultimate goal is to replace
process measures with strong and specific reports of gains made by clients
and communities with the help of effective community action agencies.
OCS believes that the core activities constituting ROMA implementation
are:
State Agencies
1. The agency has developed, in coordination with eligible entities and
the State CAA association, a State-wide vision statement that speaks to
the goals and purposes of community action within the State and that supports
the six national ROMA goals. The agency is encouraged to participate in,
and contribute to, broader State anti-poverty/community development initiatives
with outcome measures and goals compatible with ROMA;
2. The agency has trained all its eligible entities (staff and boards)
in outcome-based management, and that 80% of the entities use ROMA concepts
to guide needs assessment, agency mission review, activity planning, resource
allocations, service delivery, measuring and reporting results; Revised
2/21/01
3. Eighty percent of the plans and program reports received from eligible
entities in the State describe plans to achieve projected outcomes, and
evaluate results based on measurable improvements of condition(s) among
clients and/or communities served; and
4. The agency submits complete, accurate, and timely annual reports to
OCS on the "measured performance of the State and the eligible entities
in the State" as required by Section 678E of Public Law 105-285, the Community
Services Block Grant Reauthorization Act of 1998.
Eligible Entities
1. The entity and its board complete regular assessments of the entity's
overall mission, desired impact(s) and program structure, taking into
account: 1) the needs of the community and its residents; 2) the relationship,
or context, of the activities supported by the entity to other anti-poverty,
community development services in the community; and 3) the extent to
which the entity's activities contribute to the accomplishment of one
or more of the six ROMA national goals;
2. Based upon the periodic assessments described above, the entity and
its board has identified yearly (or multi-annually) specific improvements,
or results, it plans to help achieve in the lives of individuals, families,
and/or the community as a whole;
3. The entity organizes and operates all its programs, services, and activities
toward accomplishing these improvements, or outcomes, including linking
with other agencies in the community when services beyond the scope of
the entity are required. All staff are helped by the entity to understand
the direct or indirect relationship of their efforts to achieving specific
client or community outcomes; and
4. The entity provides reports to the State that describe client and community
outcomes and that capture the contribution of all entity programs, services,
and activities to the achievement of those outcomes.
OCS received a number of comments from the Network questioning whether
ROMA should involve programs beyond the Community Services Block Grant.
After careful examination of the CSBG authorizing legislation, which speaks
to program coordination requirements both within and beyond eligible entities,
consultation with the MATF, and review of ROMA implementation activities
that have occurred to date, OCS has concluded that it is both necessary
and appropriate to apply ROMA concepts to the work of community action,
not CSBG alone. Revised 2/21/01
OCS believes that the six national ROMA goals reflect a number of important
concepts that transcend CSBG as a stand-alone program. The goals convey
the unique strengths that the broader concept of community action brings
to the Nation's anti-poverty efforts:
1. Focusing our efforts on client/community/organizational change,
not particular programs or services. As such, the goals provide a basis
for results-oriented, not process-based or program-specific plans, activities,
and reports.
2. Understanding the interdependence of programs, clients and community.
The goals recognize that client improvements aggregate to, and reinforce,
community improvements, and that strong and well administered programs
underpin both.
3. Recognizing that CSBG does not succeed as an individual program.
The goals presume that community action is most successful when activities
supported by a number of funding sources are organized around client and
community outcomes, both within an agency and with other service providers.
OCS Technical Assistance and Administrative Support
As discussed, the Office of Community Services views successful ROMA implementation
across the entire Network as the best way to insure that our programs
remain strong, focused, effective, and accountable for years to come.
We intend to devote a significant portion of our CSBG technical assistance
resources and administrative support activities toward helping States
and eligible entities achieve this goal before program reauthorization
in FY 2003.
OCS believes that the best way to achieve universal ROMA implementation
by FY 2003 is to build upon existing capabilities within the Network.
Our technical assistance strategy will rely heavily on using ROMA resources
and competencies that have been developed over the past six years by various
national organizations, State agencies, CAA associations, and eligible
entities. We will support a mix of approaches, including "peer to peer,"
that have evolved within the network as proven catalysts for growth and
change.
Among the technical assistance strategies OCS is adopting are:
1. Promoting Core Competencies Across the Network
OCS believes that immediate needs among a significant number of eligible
entities warrant support for two national training efforts: 1) strengthening
community action program administration, with emphasis on fiscal management
and accountability; and 2) creating immediate awareness, knowledge, and
acceptance of ROMA concepts among entities that have not yet begun their
implementation efforts. Revised 2/21/01
Accordingly, OCS will support the creation of a national "academy" to
provide basic and advanced training in program administration and fiscal
management to a significant number of staff from eligible entities across
the Network. In addition, we will support a number of community action
leadership training initiatives that have proven successful in the past.
In terms of basic ROMA competency building, we will fund the replication
of a "train the trainers" program developed in Pennsylvania in other States
and regions. The Pennsylvania program helps community action staff gain
a sufficient ROMA knowledge base and teaching expertise to spread the
task of ROMA training within and among eligible entities.
2. State ROMA Planning and Tailored OCS Technical Assistance
OCS received a number of comments to its November draft memorandum indicating
that our initial plans to link or team States to achieve universal ROMA
implementation failed to take into account differences among States in
terms of their size, number of eligible entities, unique economic or political
circumstances, experience with ROMA to date, etc. We appreciate the difficulties
presented by our initial proposal and will respect the requests of many
that we continue to support ROMA work by individual States or any State-generated
consortia that might be created for special initiatives.
Given the short period of time available to complete ROMA implementation,
OCS believes that it will be important for everyone in the Network to
know what work has been accomplished and what remains to be done. Accordingly,
OCS is asking State agencies and CAA associations to participate in the
following ROMA assessment and planning activity over the next several
months:
· OCS plans to convene five regional meetings with State agencies and
CAA associations in July and August. A major portion of these sessions
will be devoted to one-on-one meetings between State and OCS representatives
to:
1. Assess the status of ROMA implementation by the State and its eligible
entities;
2. Develop a State-specific work plan for completing tasks by FY 2003;
3. Identify OCS technical assistance needs and strategies tailored to
the particular needs of the State and its eligible entities.
· OCS is developing tools to assist States in conducting an assessment
of eligible entity ROMA implementation progress in preparation for the
regional meetings. A brief and easy-to-fill-out ROMA assessment instrument
used Revised 2/21/01 in Pennsylvania and Florida is being modified to
meet the needs of this OCS/State initiative and will be available for
distribution to States shortly. In addition, OCS will support on-going
technical-assistance during the period of information gathering, as well
as help in processing and interpreting data received from eligible entities.
3. ROMA Best Practice Models
Six years of pioneering work in performance-based management has provided
the community services network with an abundance of "in house" model programs.
While this knowledge base of successful ROMA implementers is known and
utilized by some within the network, it needs to be organized and financially
supported in a way that makes it available to a broader audience in the
immediate future.
OCS is looking at a variety of strategies to identify existing and emerging
performance-based management strategies at the State and local level that
might serve as models for others. It will encourage and support electronic
and other means of both disseminating model program information, and facilitating
follow-up interaction, including site visits, as a result of the initial
model program exposure.
4. Network "Consultants"
OCS will identify a pool of network "consultants," or peer-trainers composed
of community action officials (from State agencies/associations and eligible
entities) with knowledge and experience in specific aspects of ROMA implementation.
A guide to these consultants will be developed and disseminated using
a variety of communication tools. Supported by OCS, the consultants will
be available to provide on-site, in-depth consultation to individual State
and local agencies. They would also be available, on a more limited basis,
to make presentations at meetings, conferences, or workshops.
5. State Plans
OCS will use the annual and multi-year CSBG state plan submission process
to strengthen its review of ROMA implementation plans and progress at
both the State and local levels. One of the measurements we will use to
assess compliance with ROMA provisions of the CSBG statute will be the
extent to which the State is conducting the four core activities described
in this memorandum and the extent to which the State is engaged with its
eligible entities in helping them conduct their ROMA core activities.
Revised 2/21/01
6. OCS Monitoring of States
OCS will structure both the schedule and content of its periodic reviews
of State CSBG programs to support this ROMA implementation initiative.
Special attention will be paid to State capabilities to identify and meet
the on-going technical assistance needs among eligible entities, particularly
those related to strengthening overall program administration, fiscal
management, and the adoption of ROMA outcome-based strategies.
7. Focused Training and Technical Assistance
As indicated, OCS will use a variety of ways to focus its training and
technical assistance resources on completing ROMA implementation by FY
2003. We intend to set aside funds for State-specific needs identified
at one-on-one State/OCS assessment and planning sessions at regional meetings
this Summer. And, while some funds may be available for innovative proposals
generated by States and eligible entities, OCS will use its competitive
grant mechanism to address specific national needs, such program administration/financial
management instruction and ROMA "train-the-trainers" replication. |
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