Community Services Block Grant

Dear Colleague Letter

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Administration for Children and Families
Office of Community Services
Division of State Assistance
370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20447
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/programs/csbg

Re:  CSBG Performance Management Task Force                 Date: November 20, 2012

Dear Colleagues:

We are sending this message to provide an update on performance management efforts in the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG).  The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is taking administrative steps to support high quality services delivery across the CSBG network.  As part of a broader effort to meet goals outlined in the FY 2013 President’s Budget request for CSBG, the Office of Community Services (OCS) plans to work with a wide variety of organizational stakeholders over the next several months to establish a set of core Federal standards for States to use to assess whether an eligible entity is meeting a high standard of service delivery.

To help facilitate the development of an updated system of performance management tools and protocols for CSBG, OCS has contracted with the Urban Institute to facilitate the activities of a new CSBG Performance Management Task Force that will provide expert input and analysis from within and outside the current CSBG network.  This new task force will be a separate entity from other efforts focused on organizational standards and performance management coordinated by national partner organizations such as Community Action Partnership (CAP) and the National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP). 

The new CSBG Performance Management Task Force will provide general recommendations for improvements in performance management and documentation of program results at local, State and Federal levels.  Urban Institute will host three working group meetings to solicit input and coordinate plans for implementation of new standards and performance management protocols.  The first meeting will be held at the Urban Institute offices in Washington, DC, December 5-7, 2012.  All three meetings will be held in Washington, DC.

There will be approximately 40 people on the Task Force.  Each Regional Performance and Innovative Consortia (RPIC) has submitted nominations to serve on the task force from their region.  Membership on the task force will be drawn from these nominations (at least one member from each region) and those received from other sources (i.e. CAP, NASCSP, and CAPLAW).  Preliminary selections for task force participants have been made and will be announced once all participants have confirmed availability.  OCS and Urban Institute plan to circulate a list of participants in follow-up correspondence next week.  The agenda for the December 2012 meeting is being developed by Urban Institute and OCS, and will be distributed to task force participants in advance of the meeting.

OCS plans to work closely with its technical assistance providers to share information on the activities and outcomes of the CSBG Performance Management Task Force meetings.  Within two weeks of the first task force meeting, a webinar will be scheduled to provide an update to all national technical assistance providers and to the RPIC grantees.  These technical assistance providers will be asked to assist in disseminating information on the activities and outcomes of task force meetings.  The CSBG network is on its way to making significant progress in efforts to implement new core standards and performance management tools and protocols.  We look forward to our continuing partnership in these efforts.

Sincerely,

Jeannie L. Chaffin                                                      Seth Hassett
Director                                                                    Director, Division of State Assistance
Office of Community Services                                     Office of Community Services
Administration for Children and Families                       Administration for Children and Families
Department of Health and Human Services                   Department of Health and Human Services