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2006 PROGRESS REPORT ON COMMUNITY OUTCOMES, INDICATORS AND STRATEGIES MONTGOMERY COUNTY FAMILY AND CHILDREN FIRST COUNCIL Table of Contents Letter from the Chair 1 POSITIVE LIVING FOR Strategic Community Initiatives 70 SPECIAL POPULATIONS Results-Based Accountability: 2 Positive Living for Special 36 Community-Based Projects The FCFC’s Use of Outcomes Populations Outcome Team Report Inter-Agency Collaboration 72 and Indicators Help Me Grow 40 Child Fatality Review 73 Nursing Home Population 42 Calendar Art Contest 74 HEALTHY PEOPLE Healthy People Outcome 4 People with Developmental 43 Brother Raymond L. Fitz, 75 Team Report Disabilities Competitively Employed S.M., Ph.D. Award Low Birth Weight 7 People with Developmental 44 Funding Activities and Review Disabilities Working in Enclaves Premature Mortality 8 Supported Services 76 Day-to-Day Living for 45 9 Childhood Immunizations Mentally Ill Adults Dayton Development 76 10 Coalition Review Process Access to Health Care Level of Functioning for 46 Behind the Numbers: Mentally Ill Youth Family and Children First Council 77 Access to Health Care 11 Successful Substance Abuse 47 State Duties Treatment Family and Children 78 First Council Roster YOUNG PEOPLE SUCCEEDING Behind the Numbers: 48 Young People Succeeding 13 Level of Functioning for Staff and Additional Support 79 Outcome Team Report Mentally Ill Youth 2006 Honors and Accomplishments 80 Mentoring Collaborative 16 Sinclair Fast Forward Center 17 SAFE AND SUPPORTIVE Data Sources 81 Teen Pregnancy Prevention 17 NEIGHBORHOODS Safe Neighborhoods 50 Kindergarten Readiness 18 Outcome Team Report rd Student Achievement—3 -Grade 19 Supportive and Engaged 52 Ohio Graduation Test (OGT)— Neighborhoods Outcome 10th-Grade 20 Team Report Graduation Rate 21 Violent Crime 56 Public School Attendance (K – 12) 22 Property Crime 57 Teen Pregnancy 23 Voter Participation 58 Behind the Numbers: Behind the Numbers: 59 Graduation Rate 24 Neighborhood Indicators STABLE FAMILIES ECONOMIC SELF-SUFFICIENCY Stable Families 26 Economic Self-Sufficiency 62 Outcome Team Report Outcome Team Report Avoiding Poverty 29 Unemployment 66 People Receiving Public Assistance 67 Substantiated Child Abuse 30 Per Capita Effective Buying Income 68 Preventable Child Deaths 31 Behind the Numbers: 69 Domestic Violence Deaths 32 Per Capita Effective Buying Income Behind the Numbers: Domestic Violence Deaths 33 Montgomery County Family and Children First Council 451 West Third Street, 9th floor P.O. Box 972 Dayton, OH 45422-3100 937-225-4695 Fax 937-496-7714 E-mail: [email protected] December 2006 Dear Community Member, I am pleased to present the 2006 Progress Report on behalf of the Montgomery County Family and Children First Council. The Report is the annual update of our community’s progress to improve the health and well-being of the families, children and adults of Montgomery County. Since the beginning of our local council’s work, we have annually monitored the six outcomes we initiated to describe the attributes of a thriving and healthy community. Our success in achieving these outcomes has been measured through tracking the change in very specific, yet broad-based indicators adopted by our council. Last year, I reported to you that we reorganized the Council into Outcome Teams, each led by appointed Champions, to assess community strengths and weaknesses, identify gaps and needs, and develop potential solutions to advance each outcome area. We have now completed our first year in this structure. I am convinced this was the correct decision. Our Champions and Teams accepted this challenge and performed incredibly. They invested their time to gather research, review data, consult with professionals, hear from stakeholders, develop findings and provide reports to the Council which included recommendations to help improve our community. This year, our Report has been expanded to devote a chapter to each outcome area and includes more informa- tion than prior years. Each chapter includes the Outcome Team roster, a report on the work of each Outcome Team, our traditional Outcomes and Indicators update and a Behind the Numbers briefing. The concluding chapter will bring you up to date on the status of our Strategic Community Initiatives, the work of our Agency Directors Committee and Service Brokers, Ohio Family and Children First duties, other activities of the Council and individual honors and accomplishments of our Council members. This is my final Report as chair of the Council. I am proud of the work we have undertaken. I want to personally thank all of our Council members and all of the other dedicated citizens of our community who volunteer their time and talents to make it a better place to live, work and grow. Sincerely, Ned J. Sifferlen, Ph.D. President Emeritus, Sinclair Community College Chair, Montgomery County Family and Children First Council 2006 PROGRESS REPORT 1 Results-Based Accounta THE FCFC’S USE OF OUTCOMES AND INDICATORS When the Montgomery County Family and Children First Council (FCFC) published Turning the Curve in 1998, we joined a small number of communities that had FAMILY AND CHILDREN BOARD OF COUNTY started using results-based accountability. FIRST COUNCIL COMMISSIONERS (ADMIN. AGENT) We were united by the conviction that describing in everyday language the results or outcomes that a community desires for OFFICE OF FAMILY AND CHILDREN FIRST its children and families, and then identifying a small number of meaningful, measurable indicators to track the AGENCY DIRECTORS EXECUTIVE community’s progress, is an excellent COMMITTEE COMMITTEE way to galvanize effective action and to hold ourselves accountable. SERVICE BROKERS Since 1998, other communities have COUNTY COLLABORATIVE joined us. The movement has attracted GROUP (CCG) the interest of academic researchers1 who report there are over 200 community HEALTHY PEOPLE indicator projects in the United States. POSITIVE LIVING FOR SPECIAL POPULATIONS Our own efforts have been singled out by YOUNG PEOPLE SUCCEEDING STABLE FAMILIES Mark Friedman, one of the leading SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS proponents of this approach, who chose ECONOMIC SELF-SUFFICIENCY the FCFC as an example to illustrate SUPPORTIVE AND ENGAGED NEIGHBORHOODS “Where Results Accountability Thinking Has Worked” in his recent book, Trying Hard is Not Good Enough. OUTCOME TEAM DUTIES: 2006 marks the first full year of r Identify related strengths and weaknesses in the community operation of our Outcome Team r Research related causes and effects of related strengths and weaknesses structure which allows us to align our r Assess needs, gaps and priorities energy with our purpose: better results for r Identify and research best-practice models children and families. The six community r Identify projects/subcommittee work outcomes first embraced by the Council r Identify financial and non-financial resources in 1998—Healthy People, Young People r Seek, solicit, negotiate, acquire and leverage other resources Succeeding, Stable Families, Positive r Develop, recommend and implement community strategies Living for Special Populations, Safe and Supportive Neighborhoods, and Economic Self-Sufficiency— are the core of this structure. 22006 PROGRESS REPORT ability The chart shows that five of the outcomes OUTCOMES are conditions of well-being and, by their nature, are general and descriptive. each have one team and, in order to recog- As mentioned, we have embraced six. Each chapter that follows begins with a statement nize the dynamics of neighborhoods, the of our vision for that particular outcome. outcome called “Safe and Supportive Because of their general nature, outcomes do not lend themselves to measurement. Neighborhoods” has two teams. Therefore, in order to quantify the achievement of the outcomes we have selected some The Outcome Team structure of the measurable attributes of the community to use as INDICATORS. The reasoning is that if Council has also been translated into the these indicators are moving in the desired direction from year to year, then we are making structure of this Report. Each outcome now progress toward achieving that outcome. To make them more useful, we have, whenever has its own chapter. By grouping reports possible, assembled data that not only reflect our own history but also enable us to from each Outcome Team together with compare ourselves to the other large counties in Ohio, to the state as a whole, and to the updates on the indicator data and with nation. Once again, we have placed arrows in the upper right hand corner of the indicator additional material related to the outcome, pages to let you know the desired direction and the historical trend of the data. we hope to give you a better understanding of the challenges facing our community The desired direction tells you if we want the value of the and of our efforts to meet those challenges. desired direction indicator to go higher or lower. The Report closes with a summary of the other activities of the Council, activities The historical trend tells you, over time, the direction the value which in some way impact all of the historical trend of the indicator has actually moved. community outcomes. To understand the impact—If the historical trend arrow is shown moving in the same The basic concepts we are using, and our direction as the desired direction arrow, it means that the value of the indicator (and commitment to give you data in a clear, measured condition in our community) is improving. If the arrows are moving in consistent format, have not changed. opposite directions, it means the value of the indicator (and measured condition in our community) is getting worse. In a few cases, the historical trend arrow is shown level because there has been very little movement or because the value has fluctuated up and 1For example, Dluhy, M. and N. Swartz: down with no significant change. 2006, ‘Connecting Knowledge and Policy: The Promise of Community Indicators in We continue to give you the background on each indicator, to highlight the new data, the United States’,Social Indicators Research 79, pp.