One way that I’ve used ROMA tools to improve my program management that has nothing to do with submitting loads of data to the government involves outcome reports for case managers. It seemed pretty obvious to me, but when I shared it at the ROMA training yesterday, a number of people seemed to think it was an example of best practices. In case it might be helpful to anyone else in my position out there, I wanted to discuss it a bit.

All of the programs I work with have outcomes associated with them. One way that I’ve worked to focus our energy on accomplishing those is through outcome reports that we now use on a weekly basis. Staff receive individual reports on performance, noting outstanding goals and also showing overall outcomes.

Being able to see outcomes-to-date helps keep all of us aware of the successes we are having with the people we serve, and it’s good motivation–”You’re doing a great job!” is not the same as “Did you notice that you are having an 82% entered employment rate with your homeless clients? Compared to national averages, that is remarkable.”

Outcome check-ins help me and my staff to be more accountable, and it helps us make fast corrections when we get off course with programs or individual clients.

By the way, I email out reports, so it’s not destroying the environment.

For a bit of context, I work at a community action agency (CAA). CAAs carry on President Johnson’s war on poverty by offering a wide range of programs to reduce and eliminate that poverty. We get money. We produce outcomes. We report those outcomes using guidelines spelled out in ROMA literature. Over a thousand other organizations use ROMA tools to help develop and report outcomes as well. Together, these outcomes should reduce poverty across the country. All of the outcomes fit neatly into one (or more) ROMA goals:

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.
[quoted from here]

There’s a lot to value in the process; I approach my programs differently when I am thinking about performance measures than I do when I am thinking, “Ah, it’s another day. Let’s get some homeless people into housing!” It helps me think about long-term impact, about communities, and about outcomes being something beyond simply providing a service.

On the other hand, it takes time. A lot of time. Data collection doesn’t happen by osmosis, and every time I find out that there’s some new information we need to be collecting, verifying, storing, and reporting, I feel the dream of an eventual vacation slipping farther and farther away. It will be two years since I started in a couple of weeks, and in that time, I’ve only taken more than a day of vacation off in a row when I have been sick or had surgery. However, I don’t think that’s the intended outcome of ROMA. It would be funny if it were, I must say.”Goal 7: Community Action Agency employees stop having time for vacations. Any vacations. Even sick leave. There’s work to be done.”