1. Promoting Regular Community Assessment, Reporting, and Accountability

2. What do we mean by regular community assessment, reporting, and accountability? You use regular assessment to examine anything from specific areas (education, child health) to the overall conditions and quality of life in the community. You compare the results of regular assessments to those of the previous assessments, and/or to the benchmarks or long-term goals from your strategic plan.

3. Why propose regular community assessment, reporting, and accountability? You propose regular assessment, reporting and accountability because * They clarify the state of the issues at hand in the community, making ongoing rational planning possible. * They show which, if any, current efforts are bearing fruit and should be continued or strengthened. * They show which, if any, current efforts seem to be having less impact than hoped, and need to be watched carefully, changed, or discontinued. * They define the areas – of both community assets and needs – that should be concentrated on.

4. * By defining the areas of concentration, they give direction to the initiative, fleshing out the strategic plan, and allowing for changes of emphasis when necessary. * By showing progress, and shedding light on what needs to be worked on, they motivate the community, officials, and policymakers to continue the effort. * They keep the community vision before the public, so efforts toward change remain supported. * They help with maintenance of the effort over time. * They can hold the feet of politicians, corporations, agencies, and other policymakers to the fire, pointing out their responsibility for addressing issues when appropriate, and reminding the public to whom to complain – or protest – when issues are not addressed.

5. Who should propose and/or conduct regular assessment and reporting, and establish accountability? * A broad-based coalition. * Local government. * A local or state agency. * A grass roots initiative. * A community-based organization. * A watchdog or advocacy organization.

6. When should you propose regular assessment, reporting and accountability? * At the beginning of an initiative. * When an issue is being ignored by policymakers. * When a high-profile issue has been addressed for a period of time, but there has been no assessment of progress. * When an issue escalates to crisis proportions. * When the public demands action on a long-standing issue.

7. How do you conduct regular community assessment and reporting to gain accountability? * You present the process as positive. * You present the process as part of an ongoing effort. * You present the process as a way for citizens to have a voice in community change. * You determine whose accountability you’re aiming to establish. * You establish the areas the assessment will examine. * You set a regular assessment and reporting schedule.

8. * You adopt methods of assessment. * You keep your methods of assessment consistent from one assessment to the next. * You adopt methods of reporting. * You determine how to get the reports out to the public. * You carry out the process. * You prepare to continue the process indefinitely.