CSBG DCL Extension Announcement of the ACSI Surveys for CSBG States and Eligible Entities and Update

Publication Date: December 3, 2015
Current as of:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Administration for Children and Families
Office of Community Services
Division of State Assistance
370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20447
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/programs/csbg

Community Services Block Grant
Dear Colleague Letter

Re: Extension Announcement of the ACSI Surveys for CSBG States and Eligible Entities and Update

Date: December 3, 2015

Dear Colleagues,

This message is to provide an update and extend the deadlines for the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) surveys to States and to eligible entities as a part of the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) performance management framework.  The Office of Community Services (OCS) is extending the deadline for both surveys to Friday, December 18, 2015.

As shared in earlier correspondence, OCS is working with the CFI Group to conduct these two surveys: one of the local eligible entities (Community Action Agencies) that receive CSBG funds and one of the State CSBG Lead Agencies.  These two surveys are critical elements of the State and Federal Accountability Measures, established to promote efficient and responsive operations at the state and federal levels.  Earlier correspondence on this topic can be found at the following web link: CSBG Dear Colleague Letters.

Response to Date

For both the eligible entity and State agency surveys, we are pleased that there has been a strong overall response.  More than half of all States and eligible entities nationwide have submitted responses.  However, to ensure the statistical validity of the surveys—and to make sure all perspectives are heard—it is very important to increase the overall participation.

Increased nationwide participation is particularly critical for the survey of local eligible entities.  The survey of eligible entities is designed to provide feedback on a state-by-state basis, so we need to have a statistically significant response rate from each state in the survey.  This will allow CFI to provide customized feedback to each state CSBG Lead Agency.

To help ensure the success of this ground-breaking effort, OCS is asking for your help to strengthen the nationwide response rate.  The survey methodology is designed to be confidential; OCS does not have and will not receive information on which States or eligible entities have responded to the ACSI survey.  However, CFI has provided us with a count of how many responses are needed from each state to ensure statistical significance.

CFI Group has indicated that they do have a statistically significant sample of eligible entities from the following states: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin.  While we welcome any additional responses from eligible entities in these states, we have exceeded the necessary response rate for statistical significance.  Thank you for your responses!

For the remaining States, CFI group has advised us that anywhere between one and nine additional responses are needed from eligible entities in each state in order to ensure a statistically significant response.  An OCS staff person will be calling the State CSBG Lead Agencies and State Community Action Associations to discuss the specific number of responses still needed.  As we are very close to having meaningful data for all the remaining states, we are making one final push to get more eligible entities to respond to the survey by the December 18th deadline.

What You Can Do to Help

OCS is requesting assistance from the following groups to ensure success in this important effort.

  • Community Action Executive Directors — If you have already completed a response to the ACSI Survey, thank you!  If you know of other executive directors who have not yet responded, please encourage them to do so.  If you have not yet responded, please note that the survey is a critical opportunity for you to provide anonymous input to the State and OCS about the administration of CSBG.  While some of you may have concerns about confidentiality, we want to assure you that your responses will remain confidential.  CFI will only provide the States and OCS with aggregated data.  On December 10, you will receive a reminder message of the survey from CFI on behalf of OCS via the email address of: noreply-cfigroup@qualtrics-survey.com.  Please follow the links on that message to complete the survey.  If you don’t receive a message, please look in your “spam” or “junk” e-mail folders.  Please note that if you forward the message to another staff person to complete the survey, the link will not work.
  • State Associations of Community Action Agencies — Please contact your members to encourage them to participate in the survey.  Remind them that responses are confidential and are necessary for the success of the CSBG performance management framework.  Please let executive directors know that the deadline for response has been extended to December 18 and that a final reminder message will be coming on December 10.
  • State CSBG Lead Agencies — If you have already completed the ACSI survey regarding Federal OCS services, thank you!  If you have not yet responded, please note that the survey is confidential (OCS will not know which States have or have not responded) and that your input is still needed.  CFI Group will be sending a reminder message on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 via the email address of: noreply-cfigroup@qualtrics-survey.com.  Please also communicate with all eligible entities (Community Action Agencies) in your state to urge them to participate in the survey of eligible entities.  We suggest that you alert the agencies to look in their spam files as we have learned that the email has, in some instances, gone to spam or quarantined files.
  • National Community Action Organizations — Please assist in notifying your members that the response deadline for both the State and eligible entities surveys have been extended to Friday, December 18, 2015.  Please share this information in your news alerts and e-mail systems.

We appreciate your efforts to make these surveys meaningful and look forward to the participation of the remaining States and eligible entities.

Thank you,

Jeannie L. Chaffin                                                                             Seth Hassett
Director                                                                                             Director, Division of State Assistance
Office of Community Services                                                           Office of Community Services