on track: Achieving Outcomes

human services organizations and their staff want to make a difference in the world but moving from intention to realization of outcomes when dealing with the multiple dimensions of human circumstance is far from simple. Along the road to achieving outcomes and making a difference, organizations can get bogged down in "doing" versus "achieving." To move organizations toward achieving outcomes, on track engages staff members in three major areas of activity:

• Clarifying the outcomes for which an organization is accountable
• Identifying information needed to track progress towards achieving outcomes
• Training staff to regularly monitor progress towards outcomes and make needed changes in policies and practice

Unlike a point in time evaluation conducted by outside researchers, on track gets all members of an organization:

• Working towards the same outcomes
• Building agreements on intermediate and long-range targets for success
• Assessing and learning from what does and does not work
• Deciding needed actions to get intended results
• Implementing action plans

As a result our clients gain skills and capacity to effectively monitor progress and achieve outcomes on their own.

on track, Flint Springs' most recent innovation in services, grew out of our observations working with organizations over the past three decades:

• Organizations' activities may not always be consistent with their vision and mission
• Organizations may not have the resources and capacity to regularly monitor the extent to which their activities lead to stated outcomes
• Organizations may lack the ability to work with Results Based Accountability, Logic Models and other monitoring approaches required by funders

on track strengthens an organization's ability to positively impact people's lives and allows funders to effectively invest their resources.