Outcomes

Beginning at the end
As previously noted, a collaboration is a process of participation through which people, groups and organizations work together on the strengths of the community to achieve desired results. Outcomes represent the desired “conditional” changes. While a vision articulates a picture of the future that the group seeks to create, the outcomes address specific “conditions to be achieved.”

The Collaboration Framework centers on six of the most common outcomes today: Public Safety; Education; Economic Wellbeing; Family Support; Health; and the Environment. Outcomes are essential to the formation of a shared vision, though, often they are not thought about until after the shared vision has been created. This leads to inconsistences between vision and actual desired outcomes. Thus, we have placed the outcome section before the Process and Contextual sections to encourage the creation of a shared vision that purposely includes well thought–out desired outcomes (Figure 3).

The following list are actual examples of specific outcomes defined by community collaborations. Following the example outcomes, indicators are listed. Indicators are short term measures of achievement. Indicators may include data counts, change in beliefs or behaviors, or new policies.

	Public Safety	Communities are safe, enriching, and participative and have access to essential services. Indicators – lower index in crime rate and increased youth participation in out-of-school programs.
	Education	Well–educated and capable people along with individual, family and social wellbeing are ends in themselves. Indicators – increase in student skill levels and literacy rates.
	Economic Wellbeing	Economic diversity exists which generates desirable jobs and higher income for citizens. Indicators – increase in personal income, employment rate increases and contained costs.
	Family Support	Families are competent, self-reliant, skilled and globally knowledgeable. Families are cohesive and nurturing. Indicators – civic and occupational participation, family participation in intergenerational support.
	Health	A healthy society defined by individuals who are mentally and physically healthy. The harmony of social relations as neighborhoods and places of employment become more heterogeneous. Indicators – live birth rates, lower alcohol and drug rates, and higher number of women receiving prenatal care.
	Environment	Retaining and bettering quality of life characterized by natural environments, vital communities, accessible services, and responsive political and social institutions. Indicators – air quality, land use policy, transportation services and available housing.

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Impact Measures

Impact Measures are embedded within the context of Outcomes. Impact Measures are specific measures related to any outcome defined by a collaboration. Impact Measures articulate the dramatically improved results which support sustainable change and eventually “conditional” change. Four categories of Impact Measures have been identified: Real People Impacts; Policy Development; Systems Development; and Resources Development. A definition and example for each Impact Measure follows.

	Real People Impacts	The behavior changes occurring within individuals, among groups, families, and within communities. These can include sharing of gifts and building on community capacity and strengths. Example: As a result of a collaboration focused on providing parenting education, child care and a parenting support network, 18 two–parent families and 23 single–parent families are now practicing learned parenting skills and behaviors.
	Policy Development	The evidence of policies and procedures that support and sustain ongoing efforts. Example: A collaboration of eight agencies, and four community organizations focused on the issue of providing 24–hour child care for infants through 12 years of age. The collaboration led state–legislated policy to provide matching budget for the services. Policy was developed to provide quality care standards for private childcare providers which supported interdependent relationships with Community Childcare.
	Systems Development	Organizations, agencies and groups of people who work together in a common cause. Example: Three agencies joined together to create a new program for teen parents, including mothers and fathers, which provides education, family support, and job skills training.
	Resource Development	A range of resources including skills, time, people and money re-aligned to focus on common issues. Example: In a three county, community–supported effort, a new $450,000 administration building for private non–profit social services has been built. A $120,000 grant with a realignment of existing resources in the community valued at $320,000 in materials, supplies, and labor was leveraged to complete the structure. The incentive for the community was to provide services with low or no administrative costs to allow more resources to be provided for the people of the community.

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