View Research by Author - Jake Cowan

Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/JakeCowan

This guidebook provides information on how interested parties can understand and address prisoner reentry at the local level through mapping and data analysis. The examples and guidance within the report are derived from the experiences of the Reentry Mapping Network (RMN), a collaborative effort by community-based organizations and the Urban Institute designed to create community change through the mapping and analysis of neighborhood-level data on prisoner reentry. This guidebook outlines the concepts and methods underlying the RMN and the lessons learned by RMN partners so that other jurisdictions can learn from these experiences and create more successful reentry strategies in their own communities.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) recognized the relationship between adult education and workforce development and the need for accountability in all literacy, training, and employment programs. Enacted as Title II of WIA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) required substantial changes in the operations of state and local adult education programs, including allocation of funds, accountability and performance measurement, and the relationship between adult education and one-stop delivery systems. This report synthesizes information from a survey of all state directors of adult education and site visits to nine local programs in five states. Findings relate primarily to the first 18 months of AEFLA implementation.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) recognized the relationship between adult education and workforce development and the need for accountability in all literacy, training, and employment programs. Enacted as Title II of WIA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) required substantial changes in the operations of state and local adult education programs, including allocation of funds, accountability and performance measurement, and the relationship between adult education and one-stop delivery systems. This report synthesizes information from a survey of all state directors of adult education and site visits to nine local programs in five states. Findings relate primarily to the first 18 months of AEFLA implementation.

In 2002, the Urban Institute established the Reentry Mapping Network (RMN), a partnership of jurisdictions throughout the country that are engaged in mapping and analyzing prisoner reentry and community data to help inform local policies and practices. This report describes the methods underlying the RMN so that other jurisdictions can learn from these experiences and replicate their efforts in the interests of crafting more effective and successful reentry strategies at the community level. These experiences learned are derived from the three RMN partners funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ): Washington, DC, Winston-Salem, NC, and Milwaukee, WI.

Any organization with an outcome measurement system will quickly accumulate lots of data. Before those raw data can be used to help improve services, they need to be converted into useable information, through the process of analysis. This guide provides step-by-step basic procedures that can be used each time the outcome data become available. Even though nonprofits provide diverse services, this approach can be applied in most programs. Ongoing analysis, completed on a regular basis, can provide a stream of key information about clients and results that can help organizations improve their services.

As outcome-reporting requirements from governments, United Ways, foundations, and other funding sources increase in number and complexity, nonprofit providers may be overburdened collecting the information they need for accountability to their funders and what they need to help improve services. Agreement between funders and service providers on a common core set of outcome indicators for reporting can greatly help balance these needs for information. Based on an effort in Montgomery County, Maryland, supported by government, the local United Way, and other funders, this guide describes how community funders and service providers can work together to develop these common indicators.

This report describes, and provides examples of, how nonprofit health and human services organizations use outcome information internally. It is based on an examination of the practices of eight health and human services nonprofits in the Washington DC-Baltimore MD metropolitan area. It also discusses factors that appear to contribute to, or hinder, use of outcome information by nonprofit organizations. The organizations examined most commonly used primarily qualitative outcome information to adjust services for individual clients. We also found many cases of use of quantitative outcome data to identify successes, problems and patterns in outcomes across clients, to identify the potential need for program modifications. This represents a "newer" approach to the use of outcome information by NPOs. However, a number of organizations that collected outcome data did not actually tabulate it, leaving it to supervisors and caseworkers to mentally "process" the data to identify patterns and trends.

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