The Jacob France Institute (JFI) is providing technical assistance to the Family Investment Bureau (FIB) of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services (BCDSS) in managing its performance.  FIB provides various forms of assistance to low-income individuals while preparing them to become financially independent.  These include Temporary Cash Assistance, Food Stamps, Medical Assistance, and the Temporary Disability Assistance Program. 

JFI is working with FIB to improve its Report Card of the city’s eight Family Investment Centers.  The new Report Card will compare each Center’s performance to the performance of the city’s highest performing Center and of the city overall, and award points to each Center based on the importance of the goal and the percentage of the goal achieved.  It will include new measures of progress toward FIB goals.

The Institute staff also is helping FIB with its CenterStat initiative.  CenterStat is a monthly meeting of FIB managers and Center managers in which performance is reviewed and ways to improve it are discussed.  Through CenterStat, FIB can identify performance areas that need improvement and then scrutinize operations in these areas.  CenterStat is being transformed from a large meeting of all eight Centers to meetings at each of the Centers to examine that Center’s performance in more detail. 

JFI is working with FIB to integrate CenterStat and the Center Report Card.  It also will analyze performance data and develop new measures as needed.  The Institute also will produce tables and charts that clearly communicate FIB performance and work with management to improve performance.