Al Sax, Joe Diamond, and Bruce Morrell of MASSCAP
Southern New England CAPs Take First Steps in Creating Cross-Agency Standards
Community
Action Agency (CAA) leaders from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island
make the first steps in crafting cross-agency goals and standards at the
Southern New England Planning Conference held in Northampton, MA on April 6 –
7th. Paul Puzzo of CAFCA
and Al Sax of MASSCAP championed the implementation of common goals and
standards as a way to ensure the viability of Community Action in the 21st
Century. Uniform standards will
allow CAAs in the tri-state region to present a single, consistent purpose and
vision to policymakers and the general public, said Puzzo.
In
the seminar titled “Enhancing Performance/Preventing Crisis,” consultant
Barry Goff, pointing to the 1993 Government Performance and Review Act, said the
future portends a shift towards outcome-based performance measures.
Goff suggested CAAs create their own standards now, crafting them to
reflect the “soul” of the Community Action movement, rather than having
standards hoisted upon them later by an outside force.
He laid out a plan of action, which CAA
leaders agreed to implement:
1. Create common goals
2. Develop performance measures
3. Develop useful reporting strategies
4. Provide training opportunities and technical assistance for staff, contractors, subcontractors
Later
in the conference, breakout sessions were convened to discuss the potential for
regional collaboration in the areas of Information Technology, Training, and
Public Policy. Workgroup
participants narrowed their discussions to four or five regional action topics.
Volunteers from each breakout session formed task forces to:
· Collect and review existing efforts and/or models on each action topic
· Re-shape existing efforts and/or models to reflect the “soul” of Community Action
· Adapt existing efforts and/or models to reflect quality
· Create “dashboard” indicators showing the status of agencies and projected trends
· Create peer-review process through which to implement standards
Conference participants will reconvene in early- to mid-June in Sturbridge, MA to share task force planning efforts. This session will be used to build the curriculum for the annual CAFCA/MASSCAP conference in Moodus on August 21-23, 2000.
The following people have
been identified as contacts for each area of interest:
· Public Policy – Joe Diamond, MASSCAP
· Information Technology – Al Sax, Hampshire Community Action Commission (MA)