Providing outcome indicators for reporting on housing provision and improvement programs

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Abstract

This effective practice, excerpted with permission from the Urban Institute's Report on Performance Measurement (July 2002) for the Corporation for National and Community Service, shares standardized outcome indicators for housing provision and improvement programs that include activities such as constructing and modernizing housing and providing shelter assistance to homeless persons. The report further provides a critique of current measurements and recommends ways to enhance reporting. Read the report, Outcome Indicators and Outcome Management.

Issue

Using standardized outcome indicators for program management and reporting to enhance credibility, frequency, and value.

Action

The Urban Institute Report on Performance Measurement (2002) for the Corporation for National and Community Service provides a critique of current program measurements and recommends ways to enhance reporting. Although the various divisions within AmeriCorps programs have different specifications for their service, they all follow the same general service goals. Consequently, these outcome indicators are common across programs (AmeriCorps State/National, AmeriCorps*NCCC, AmeriCorps*VISTA) despite differences in activities and in the means by which they are accomplished.

The outcome indicators have been selected to be of value to both project sponsors (for internal management purposes) and the Corporation for National and Community Service (for policy development and aggregate reporting purposes).

The following represent recommended outcome indicators for the major issue area of "Housing Provision and Improvement" in which grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service are primarily used. This service category includes constructing and modernizing housing and providing shelter assistance to homeless persons.

1. Number of low-income, elderly, or disabled households (or, alternatively, individuals) who have been provided single- or multi-family housing units, for which AmeriCorps members or volunteers provided a significant amount of service to their construction, rehabilitation, renovation (including painting, weatherization, handicapped accessibility), or major repair, completed during the reporting period. [Intermediate Outcome]
  
  Source(s) for future collection of data for this indicator include: Aggregation of unduplicated counts, prepared and submitted at the project level, of households provided assistance.
2. Percent of beneficiaries of single-or multifamily housing units for which AmeriCorps members or volunteers provided a significant amount of service related to their construction, rehabilitation, renovation (including painting, weatherization, handicapped accessibility), or major repairs who, as of (to be determined) months after completion report quality-of-life benefits as a consequence. [End Outcome]
  
  Source(s) for future collection of data for this indicator include: Project-administered survey of beneficiaries of housing conducted (to be determined) months following completion of the work.
3. Unduplicated number of homeless or potentially homeless households (or individuals) who are either (a) placed in transitional, transitional-to-permanent, or permanent housing, or (b) provided independent living assistance through projects in which AmeriCorps members or volunteers provided a significant amount of service during the reporting period. [Intermediate Outcome]
  
  Source(s) for future collection of data for this indicator include: Aggregation of number of persons assisted, prepared and submitted at the project level.
4. Percent of homeless or potentially homeless households who were either (a) placed in transitional, transitional-to-permanent, or permanent housing or (b) provided independent living assistance during this reporting period — as a result of projects in which AmeriCorps members or volunteers provided a significant amount of service — who report this improved the quality of their lives. [End Outcome]
  
  Source(s) for future collection of data for this indicator include: Project-administered survey of beneficiaries of housing conducted (to be determined) months following initial placement or provision.
5. Number of shelter and voucher (i.e., person) nights of housing provided to homeless persons through programs for which AmeriCorps members or volunteers provided a significant amount of service during the reporting period. [Intermediate/End Outcome]
  
  Source(s) for future collection of data for this indicator include: Aggregation of person-nights of shelter (counting each member of a household separately) prepared and submitted at the project level.
6. Percent of homeless persons provided with emergency shelter or vouchers — through programs in which members and volunteers provided a significant amount of service during the reporting period — who report quality of life benefits.[End Outcome]
  
  Source(s) for future collection of data for this indicator include: Project-administered survey of beneficiaries either conducted at the time of service or, if possible, (to be determined) months following time of service.
7. Percent of homeless persons (or households) provided assistance — through programs in which AmeriCorps members and volunteers provided a significant amount of service during the reporting period —
  
  Source(s) for future collection of data for this indicator include: Project-administered follow-up of beneficiaries conducted (to be determined) months following time of service — where there are community-wide Homeless Management Information Systems that allow for such tracking and follow-up.
  Note: More stable housing for those provided emergency shelter or vouchers consists of transitional or permanent (and permanent supportive) housing; for those provided transitional housing, it consists of permanent (and permanent supportive) housing.

As AmeriCorps programs transition from outcome evaluation to performance measurement, the Corporation has selected terminology to describe this new method to determine program results. Other funding agencies may use different terms to describe these same performance measurement concepts.

Additionally, as the Corporation works to ensure measurement standardization, program directors might review outcome indicators used by other Federal agencies. Since the public service efforts of AmeriCorps members and volunteers are often similar to beneficiary assistance provided by agencies such as the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor, their outcome indicators might help programs gauge their own effectiveness.

Context

A major objective of AmeriCorps is to improve the lives of the direct recipients or beneficiaries of the assistance provided by members, volunteers, and sub-grantees. The Corporation for National and Community Service uses information derived from various sources to evaluate and report on its performance with respect to this objective, including:

Project/program accomplishments data assembled and submitted by sponsoring agencies/non-profit organizations
Surveys of sponsoring agencies'/non-profit organizations' ratings of project success
Surveys of corporation members' ratings of project success
Surveys of "community representatives" ratings of project success
Reports of ad-hoc program evaluation studies

An indicator currently reported by AmeriCorps programs in the housing and provision improvement category involves the number of homeless persons, rather than person-nights, who are provided shelters or vouchers. Although an unduplicated count of the number of persons aided would be desirable, the nature of homeless assistance generally precludes such a count when information has to be aggregated across separate providers or communities. The recommended indicator, therefore, considers the number of shelter or voucher nights of assistance provided — which is a more reasonable and credible indicator.

In addition, the Corporation — preferably with considerable input from the field — will need to define for each indicator the minimum amount of member-time necessary to meet the "significant-amount-of service" criterion.

The Urban Institute is a nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization, concentrating on issues important to the nation. Quantitative modeling is a core competency of the Urban Institute, as is revamping research methodologies to broaden their application. Frequently the Institute collaborates with outside researchers and other institutions or works in partnership with federal, state, and local agencies.

Citation

Hatry, Harry P., et al. Outcome Indicators and Outcome Management. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, Final Report, July 15, 2002.

Outcome

According to the Urban Institute, if outcome indicators were at least roughly standardized over many, if not all, projects, the annual findings could serve both local project management purposes, such as identifying if, and where, problems exist; and be converted into index scores for reporting to the Corporation for National and Community Service and aggregating across projects.

The more such indicators are standardized across projects, the more useful they will be for purposes of comparison and aggregation.

Posted On

November 10, 2002

For More Information

Source Documents

Outcome Indicators and Outcome Management

Related Practices

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Urban Institute

Keywords:

AmeriCorps

Project STAR

Program management

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