Who is using the Vital Signs?

Several groups across Baltimore use the Vital Signs and the "results based approach to decision making" process in their work to improve the quality of life where they live, work, play and invest in Baltimore City. This is tangible evidence that the integration and use of the Vital Signs in Baltimore life is a reality.

Here is what several of them are saying!

"…I did want to let you know that I got a lot of positive feedback from the meeting you presented- Everyone enjoyed it, and I think that you got everyone in the right "mind-set," to plan and implement SNAP…"

Edie Schuman
Chairperson, Southeastern Neighborhoods Development - SNAP Group

"A million thanks for the Vital Signs. Here in Ridgely's Delight we're in the midst of a strategic planning process, and the Vital Signs will prove invaluable at our visioning retreat and in our final product."

Blaine Nelson
President, Ridgely's Delight Association

"…The Friends of Riverside Park (FORP), a subcommittee of the Riverside Action Group (RAG), is using the "results based approach to decision making" process for a few things - we are considering becoming our own organization - and in order to attract residents of SBIC and residents of RAG…"

Shannon Sullivan,
Resident, Riverside Park

"…I have shared the publication "Vital Signs for Baltimore Neighborhoods," with other groups, including Citizens for Community Improvement, Neighborhood Housing Services, Alliance of Rosemont Community Organization, Rosemont Neighborhood Improvement Association and the third grade class that I work in at Belmont Elementary School. Association leaders are eager to receive copies in order to use this assembled information in their efforts to improve their neighborhoods. Some may have already requested copies from your office…"

Mary M. Rosemond
Chairman Sanitation/Beautification Committee
Rosemont Neighborhood Improvement Association, Inc.

"…Congratulations on the Vital Signs. They are a wealth of information that will positively impact our planning ability. A true "work of art." Kudos to you and your staff."

Ruth Ann Norton
Executive Director
Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning

"We are grateful for sending us a copy of Vital Signs. It's a fine report and we find it quite helpful in better understanding "What is going on,"…Most of us are not computer wizards so your report gave us vital information."

Brendan Walsh
Director
Viva House, Baltimore Catholic Worker

"…I am delighted to write and lend my support to the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance Vital Signs. The Vital Signs will become an important tool to help us measure progress towards outcomes for Baltimore City Neighborhoods over time…. I look forward to seeing the Project flourish in the coming years and provide fruitful information to help us continue to improve neighborhoods city-wide."

Mayor Martin O'Malley
Baltimore City, Maryland

"A question about the indicators. We understand the use of outcome indicators, for example in Sanitation. Incidents of illegal dumping per 1,000 population - a decrease indicates a cleaner community. Here, some folks feel we want to say an increase in reports for the most part because community does not report. So an initial increase would mean neighbors being more responsive. I guess it might be a matter of process indicator vs outcome indicator."

Chartruse (Trudy) Robinson
Reservoir Hill Improvement Council

"I liked the Vital Signs workshop, we can use this for our planning efforts around our programs for kids. We really needed more time on it so please have the Alliance back!"

Attendee to a recent Maryland Center for Community Development training

"The Knott Foundation supports local agencies desiring to improve their decision-making based on the outcome indicators provided by the Alliance. Because of this, we encourage those applying for Knott Foundation funding, whenever possible, to include the Vital Signs in their proposals and ultimately into their work. It is not as hard as you might think, and by thinking within the Vital Signs "results based approach to decision making" framework, you may actually come to a better understanding of how to better advance your organization's mission."

Greg Cantori
Executive Director
Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Foundation

Below is a list of examples of groups in all fields using the Vital Signs in their work. The Key to success is the direct assistance Alliance staff provide to interpret and use the Vital Signs effectively.

A Each year, more neighborhood organizations and community initiatives obtain assistance from the Alliance staff to use the Vital Signs and the "results-based approach to decision making" to designate their own results and indicators to monitor long-term progress and impact toward results. The groups include:

Neighborhood groups engaging in initiatives, planning, and strategies, some working with "umbrella" neighborhood organizations and community development corporations,

The neighborhood clusters selected to participate in the Strategic Neighborhood Action Planning program supported by the Baltimore City Department of Planning,

Organizations involved with Maryland Association of Nonprofits, Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative, the Maryland Center for Community Development, Citizens Planning and Housing Association, city agencies, and many others.

B. The Baltimore Investment Guide, currently being developed by the Baltimore Community Foundation, Goldseker Foundation, Baltimore City and many others, is designed to coordinate charitable and community development investment in order to have the most impact on changing conditions. Several Vital Signs are used to monitor current conditions in neighborhoods and quality of life and progress toward changing those conditions in the long term so that investment can be targeted accordingly. Investors can invest in a program, a specific subject area fund, or an indicator to move over time.

C. Baltimore City Mayor Martin O'Malley monitors the Vital Signs to understand the impact the programs and policies he sets in motion have on changing the conditions in Baltimore neighborhoods, and redirect them given the trends. His city government performance mechanism, Citistat, tells us as a city about the performance of city agencies, whereas the Vital Signs tell us about the changing conditions in neighborhoods and overall quality of life. Effective government agencies are one in several factors that make an impact on changing conditions in Baltimore. Along with efforts from neighborhoods, non-profits, businesses, etc, the Vital Signs ultimately will move in the right direction.

D. The Alliance staff works with several funders to utilize the Vital Signs and the "results-based approach to decision-making" in their work. The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Foundation have integrated the 5 key questions in the "results based approach to decision making" in their grant proposal and grantee reporting formats (see an example on the Knott Foundation website www.knottfoundation.org). The Baltimore Community Foundation and others are soon to follow suit. By using the Vital Signs in this way, trustees can target resources strategically given the trends and based in the impact they want to have over time.

E. Workshops on using the Vital Signs in the "results based approach to decision making" are part of the seasonal training calendars of capacity building groups like Maryland Nonprofits, Citizens Planning and Housing Association, Associated Black Charities, the Maryland Center for Community Development, and others. This enables groups to learn to think strategically about how their programs, investments, and strategies can have a long-term impact on changing conditions of neighborhoods, families, and others over time. This helps to make the Vital Signs applicable to the work of the audience, rather than just fun facts about Baltimore.

F. The Alliance staff help several groups that work one-on-one with neighborhoods (such as neighborhood organizers and others) to institute this thinking process in their everyday work to improve neighborhoods. This capacity building is about instituting a new way of doing business in Baltimore, thinking and measuring toward long term progress.

G. Major local organizational and business consortia like the Downtown Partnership, the Greater Baltimore Committee, the Baltimore Development Committee, are beginning to use the Vital Signs in their work with member organizations and potential clients. Workshops and presentations for these groups are provided by Alliance staff.

H. The Alliance staff works with television reporters, print media, radio, and others to use the Vital Signs in their reporting about Baltimore effectively and correctly. Other important media partnerships also exist including:
§ Monthly columns with the Daily Record;
§ Monthly Commentaries on DayBreak with Anthony McCarthy on WEAA radio and others;
§ As-needed items, like op-eds and letter to the editor, etc.

I. Alliance staff also work with policy makers such as the Baltimore City delegation of the Maryland General Assembly, the Baltimore City Council, and various city agencies on using the Vital Signs in their policy making and their work with constituent groups

The following are details on three examples listed above:

We work with the clusters of neighborhoods that participate in the Strategic Neighborhood Action Planning process. These groups came together with the help of the Baltimore City Planning Department to develop plans about the visions and strategies they will work on and advocate for. The first six clusters are part of an effort by the City of Baltimore to give "teeth" to community planning processes.

One particular example of a plan is enclosed. It was recently drafted by a cluster of neighborhoods in the Midtown / Reservoir Hill area. The Vital Signs make up the "Measures of Progress" sections. We worked with the group through the "results based approach to decision making" process to choose the Vital Signs they want to track in the context of the vision and results they want to see over time. A Baltimore City planner and others work with them on the strategies.

The group will use the Vital Signs they chose to track the changing conditions and progress their neighborhood, even after the short term initiatives in the plan take place. This will enable them to hold themselves, city government, their partners, and others accountable for ensuring the changes continue, marked by the direction the Vital Signs move over time. The Alliance staff will continue to work with them by tracking the Vital Signs, providing the specific information to their area, and helping them explain what may be happening given the trends.

Ultimately, this group and their partners will know if their work was one in many factors that made an impact on the changing conditions. If the trends are moving in the right direction, they can celebrate their success, and if not, they can use that information to re-direct strategies and tools to make the change desired.

Part of the process of designating the Vital Signs to measure was a dialogue about the indicators, how they are calculated, and what they show given the area. The neighborhood groups dig deep to understand this, and come up with explanations for the trends so that they can make their plans accordingly. For example, the coordinator of the group who is a resident in the area volunteering her time. Ms. Chartruse Robinson never used data before, and now asking important questions about the Vital Signs and what these show in the short and long term.

The Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Foundation has instituted the "results based approach to decision making" and the Vital Signs into their grant writing an reporting processes.

Another example of our work includes a recent partnership with the Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Foundation to work with their trustees and potential grantees to understand the impact of their work in changing conditions in Baltimore.

This work has three major benefits to the Knott Foundation in the short term:

• Grantees will be able to accurately place their work within a context of current quality of life and neighborhood conditions and make the case about how they work to change these conditions. This is skill and capacity that will help them in other areas as well.
• Grantees will be able to accurately plan and ensure their proposed strategy fits within a long-term commitment to change that will be one in many factors that moves one or more sets of the Vital Signs in the right direction
• Trustees will be able to make decisions on the strategies in which they invest that have the most impact over time.

Designating the Vital Signs for Watershed 263 - The Parks and People Foundation

The Parks and People Foundation and several other groups in the Southwest Baltimore area are planning their work to improve the quality of life in the Watershed 263 area (near the Gwynns Falls Watershed). Multiple stakeholders in the area come together to work through the "results based approach to decision making" process to designate their own Vital Signs for Watershed 263. Through this process, they determined their vision and Vital Signs to measure, and then make the plans accordingly.

After several groups participate in the same way, the end-product will be a decision-support tool that can be used to measure progress, understand the impact of the strategies, and hold one another accountable for making the Vital Signs they choose move in the right direction.

Contact the Alliance for more information.