UWA Common Good Report: A Lesson in the Importance of Measurement and Message

As Meghan said in her last blog, the United Way of America recently unveiled what they are calling The Common Good Report which identifies three broad issue areas that UWA believes are the essential building blocks to a successful life, these being education, income and health, and goes on to articulate four indicators within each of those categories, which they plan to track over time. More importantly though, is the fact that in this report and the communication that has accompanied it both in the press and at the UWA Community Leaders Confernce, UWA has put forward what I consider to be both very bold and very specific goals around what they are commiting to achieve in the next ten years. Cutting to the chase, these goals are:

• Increasing the percentage of youth graduating from high school on time from 73.9% to 87%,
• Reducing the percentage of lower-income working families who are financially unstable (as indicated by the percentage of families with income less than 250% of the Federal Poverty Level who spend more than 40% of income on housing costs) from 36% to 18%,
• Increasing the percentage of youth/adults who are healthy and avoiding risky behavior from 34% to 45% for youth and 35% to 47% for adults. (UWA defines avoiding risky behavior for youth as not being involved in violence, no smoking or drug abuse, no alcohol binge drinking, practicing abstinence or safe sex and not being overweight. For adults this definition is similar, good overall health, no smoking, no alcohol abuse, not being obese and not having high blood pressure)

Although it is clear that there is a great deal of work to be done around connecting the dots between seeing changes in these national indicators and the work of all the local United Ways that would support it, I think we would be remiss not to acknowledge what setting such goals, so publicly means. Making these audacious statements indicates the leadership and staff at United Way of America has taken a considerable leap of faith, as the ability to meet these goals rests on the assumption that the collective work of the system can be connected to those national indicators relatively quickly and yield the significant outcomes stated above. Underlying all of that I would have to assume is a strong belief at a higher level that although these social problems are complex, challenging and intractable, solutions do in fact exist. A deep conviction that, although it will take careful thought, coordination of services and strategic application of resources, we actually CAN change our communities for the better, in ways all community members would see and feel. It is for this reason that even with all the questions such statements raise; I can't help but applaud the courage needed for United Way of America to put itself on the line in this way.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? In ten years from now do you think the national trends will reflect those changes? Why or why not?