To learn more, go to: http://www.roma1.org/index.asp
ROMA (Results Oriented Management and Accountability) was created in 1994 by an ongoing task force of Federal, state, and local community action officials – the Monitoring and Assessment Task Force (MATF). Based upon principles contained in the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, ROMA provides a framework for continuous growth and improvement among more than 1000 local community action agencies and a basis for state leadership and assistance toward those ends.
Since 1994, the Community Services Network has been guided by six broad anti-poverty goals established by the MATF:
Goal 1: Low-income people become more self-sufficient.
Goal 2: The conditions in which low-income people live are improved.
Goal 3: Low-income people own a stake in their community.
Goal 4: Partnerships among supporters and providers of service to low- income people are achieved.
Goal 5: Agencies increase their capacity to achieve results.
Goal 6: Low-income people, especially vulnerable populations, achieve their potential by strengthening family and other supportive systems.
To accomplish these goals, local community action agencies have been encouraged to undertake a number of ROMA implementation actions that focus on results-oriented management and results-oriented accountability:
Results-Oriented Management
• Assess poverty needs and conditions within the community;
• Define a clear agency anti-poverty mission for community action and a strategy to address those needs, both immediate and longer term, in the context of existing resources and opportunities in the community;
• Identify specific improvements, or results, to be achieved among low-income people and the community; and
• Organize and implement programs, services, and activities, such as advocacy, within the agency and among “partnering” organizations, to achieve anticipated results.
Results-Oriented Accountability
• Develop and implement strategies to measure and record improvements in the condition of low-income people and the communities in which they live that result from community action intervention;
• Use information about outcomes, or results, among agency tripartite boards and staff to determine the overall effectiveness, inform annual and long-range planning, support agency advocacy, funding, and community partnership activities.
State CSBG lead agencies and state community action associations have been encouraged to work as a team to advance ROMA performance-based concepts among local agencies through on-going training and technical assistance.
