Results Oriented Management and Accountability

ROMA enables the community action network to account for its work more accurately and descriptively than before. As welfare reform has gone forward, the nation has come to realize that not all low-income people need the same kind of assistance, nor move at the same pace, in an effort to become self-sufficient. Community action agencies have always... known this, and work with people to address individualized needs identified by the agency staff and the customers. Using the ROMA style of planning and reporting allows the network to evaluate disparate programs and services and demonstrate how they work for different people, because the common thread is the outcome of achieving a higher degree of self-sufficiency. Using an outcome to define success also helps us learn valuable lessons about what works best for whom--something more traditional management and reporting styles do not do. ROMA is a management philosophy that re-invents agencies. With all the talk about reinventing government and reinventing CSBG, ROMA provides the perfect platform for agencies to reinvent themselves. Shifting from a service-based operational model to an outcome-based operational model is not an easy task, nor one for the faint of heart. ROMA helps organizations step through the process. ROMA's agency level outcomes and measurement tools help organizations focus on capacity and performance issues. ROMA strengthens an agency's commitment to continuous, internal improvement. ROMA provides the framework for the discussion of organizational excellence. ROMA improves partnerships between the state and local levels. The ROMA model focuses on results, and moves the discussion away from the methods used to obtain the results. Former local level boundaries must be renegotiated to enable more efficient and effective ways of doing business. A parallel change occurs on the state level as well. Additionally, state offices are finding new roles as state-level advocates for changes the local agencies need to improve field operations. Reduction of ...Read More