COMMUNITY ACTION AND RESULTS ACCOUNTABILITY

Where We've Been. Where We're Going:


RESULTS-ORIENTED MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Charles McCann, Administrator
State of Missouri CSBG Unit
Jefferson City, Missouri
Reported by Ronald Logsdon, Executive Director
Audubon Area Commuynity Services, Owensboro, Kentucky

Charles McCann, Administrator of the State of Missouri CSBG Unit, addressed the Kentucky Association for Community Action meeting at Jamestown, Kentucky on June 12, concerning results-oriented measures. The Community Services block Grant (CSBG) is the first federal program to implement results-oriented measures under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993. GPRA (pronounced Gipra) grew out of Vice President Gore's "reinventing government" initiative; CSBG's results-oriented initiative is known as ROMA, an acronym for Results Oriented Management and Accountability, whose development began in 1994. McCann served on the Task Force that developed CSBG/ROMA's six national goals, its outcome measures, and implementation guide.

McCann presented a most interesting review of where community action has been, how it evolved from its 1964 inception to where it is today, and its results-oriented future. First, he recounted the changing focuses of community action:

He said that ROMA's six national goals fall into three main groupings which he styled as "fish programs", i.e., the teach-a-man-to-fish idea; "pond programs," and "agency capacity" initiatives. McCann said we needed both fish programs and pond programs because teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime does not work if someone killed or removed the fish, has not already drained the pond, or the powers that he won't let you "go where the fishing is good."

Human services delivery expectations are changing, he said. When he started in this business in the 60s there were he said, three requirements for funding: keep up with the money (show fiscal accountability); promise to "try hard"; and don't embarrass the funding source in public. So, he says, the prime standards over the years have been:

That new question we must answer in 1997 and afterwards addresses the public's underlying concern for all public expenditures: So what? Or... But what good did it do? What was made better because of it? ROMA is in response to that. But also, said McCann, let's be sure to answer the So what? question on our own terms with data we can support, not the unrealistic expectations others unfamiliar with our services could impose. That's why CSBG has led the way with its outcomes measures-and has agreed gained much credibility with Congress in the process.

Indeed, CSBGs FY96 $100 million increase [click here to see Capitol Hill announcement photo] was justified largely on the basis of CSBGs nationwide data collection initiative, which publishes a national summary entitled the Community Services Block Grant Statistical Report each year. The data collection and the report preparation are done under the auspices of the National Association for State Community Service Programs, the association of the 50+ CSBG state administering agencies. The 1996 report will include a results summary to better address the So what? issues.

McCann also recounted the changes in the CAA/CSBG-to-government relationship:

McCann said there was still much work to be done to "educate" all our community action partners, and the going might be tough. He noted the saying of Dr. Pollard who heads a social studies department at Syracuse University, "You cannot teach passion, but you might be able to teach empathy."

CSBG is only a 1981 and later expression of the Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) of 1964, specifically the EOA's Section 221 relating to community action agencies. CSBG's purposes, like the earlier Section 221 of the EOA, include the functions of:

The later one includes six to seven conditions identified in the law: unemployment, inadequate housing, poor use of resources, malnutrition, unmet emergency needs, and inadequate education. The Act is silent, he said, on causes of poverty; this is likely because they vary by locale.

McCann said that CSBG and ROMA incorporate a number of strategies relating to the CSBG Act's purposes:

The six ROMA goals are set nationally, but under each one there is a "defined locally" provision. ROMA Goal 1 and Goal 6 are "fish" programs; Goal 2 and Goal 3 are "pond" programs; and Goal 4 and Goal 5 are "agency-capacity" programs, said McCann. There are standards in ROMA, but they are not set in federal "stone." The measures are flexible and subject to local acceptance, use, and/or replacement. The measures will be refined and perfected over time. It will be a somewhat messy process, so McCann reminded the KACA conferences of the advice of then CEO Director Sargent Shriver in the mid 60s: "Don't cry failure at the first sign of controversy." McCann also noted the advice of his friend, Wayne, who is a refined administrator from the Kansas City Regional Office, who said, "People frequently don't get to where they're going because they quit before they get there."

McCann went on to share these bullet points of advice:

McCann said that we should target our efforts to those "really ready to change their lives" and through our help improve their prospects! "Balance stewardship," he said! Help all you can with the limited resources you have. Relating the advice of another friend he said: 1) we must always be careful not to just "make poverty more tolerable," and 2) remember as we fight to keep community action alive that "it's always appropriate to be self-serving to the point of self-survival."

With that second point of advice in mind, McCann suggested that we should show care and intelligence in creating ROMA-related expectations. In Missouri, they've moved quite deliberately, he said. They're already fairly well along with their ROMA initiatives, but the Missouri effort has been marketed carefully and implemented slowly. The first year was billed as a "test year." The second was their "transition year." That might be followed by years of implementation, improvement, and so forth before ROMA is truly established and ready for prime time.

McCann's closing bullet points of advice concerning ROMA and public expectations were these:

CSBG/ROMA's Six National Goals -- and the outcome measures