Results-Based Accountability Workshop Shows Promise Heights and Partners a New Way To Do Community Development

This week the Promise Heights staff and several of our community partners participated in a workshop covering the essential components of results-based accountability (RBA), asset-based community development (ABCD), and collective impact methods. The workshop, facilitated by Clear Impact, lasted eleven hours and was held over the course of two days. Our staff and partners learned how to effectively track the performance of our programs, measure the impact of our work, and report on the progress of our collaborative efforts to improve the lives of children, families, and the community in West Baltimore.

Following the workshop, Shindonna Matthews, a Director of Program Implementation at BellXcel and Promise Heights partner was asked about her takeaways from the workshop. Matthews said, "It was awesome, engaging, and enlightening as far as how to engage people in the work we do, and not just engage the people we hire, but engaging the entire community. That is something I am taking away."

Matthews continued on saying, "it changes the perspective. It changes the focus. It's not just about us and what we do. It's about what the community has to offer and bringing them in to do what they do. So that we all are doing together."

Promise Heights staff and its community partners are integrating these lessons and frameworks into our respective organizational DNAs, letting it improve how we work. By incorporating ABCD, collective impact, and RBA frameworks our staff and community partners envision increased commitment and participation from community residents, improved understanding of our individual and programmatic contributions to whole population results, and decreased time between moving from plan to action.

The Results-Based Accountability workshop and Scorecard training is a requirement of Promise Heights’ Promise Neighborhood grant awarded by the U.S. Dept of Education.