Counties Working Group

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Participants:
Co-Chairs: John Perry (HUD - Atlanta Field Office) and Norma Drummond (Westchester Co., NY)
Members: Kristina Rogers (Conifer Realty), Fran Lunney (Arlington Co, VA), Leslie Suarez (NACCED).
Aspen/ComCon staff: Grace Morris

The group discussed performance measurement. It was offered that Arlington County, VA., tried to identify items and came up with 180 strategies. That has since been reduced to 90 but clearly it shows that quantity of activities will be an issue when attempting to identify measures. Arlington County offered to be a link under CPII references. The group agreed that most grantees do several common things with their funds which could be reported upon at a national level.

It was raised that HUD only should need to tell Congress a few simple things: Money - what kind was spent, how much and on what? People - who was helped?

HUD, it was suggested, needs to come up with a reporting format, possibly a matrix if it is easy for HUD and the public to follow, especially for the CAPER. It was suggested that a sample CAPER document would be more helpful than a checklist. CAPER submission should be all electronic.

HUD needs to ask the right questions. Because grantees want to spend their time on activities and not on reporting, they usually prefer to submit the minimum amount required.

It was suggested that it would also be helpful if HUD developed some icons that could be used to represent certain activities and those could become the universal symbols used for reporting.

It was suggested that "best practices" would be very helpful especially for communities with small staffs and/or high staff turn over. Communities could be requested to submit their shining examples which could be abstracted and posted on the web. For instance if a community administers a youth program, it is more important to know the reduced rate of drop-outs, pregnancies, etc and not just the number participating in the program. Westchester County, NY offered that they develop an annual calendar to show before and after pictures of their projects so that people will actually see what the program is all about. Arlington County uses a teen photography program to show their outcomes. There is a need to market the programs.

The group will meet again at the NACCED conference in Westchester County, NY on Sunday, September 22 to review and discuss the County submission of ideas.