1. Regional Performance and Innovation Consortia Oregon’s Road to Change Presented by Tom Clancey-Burns, Executive Director Community Action Partnership of Oregon Region 8/10 Conference May 13-15, 2014 Boise, ID

2. Oregon’s Road To Change  Public Will, Public Action & The Role of Government  Messaging Recommendation to CAPO

3. Patrick Bresette - pbresette @demos. org Public Works: the D ē mos Center for the Public Sector D ē mos: A Network for Ideas & Actionwww.demos.orgwww.demos.org Public Will, Public Action & The Role of Government Community Action Partnership of Oregon March 10, 2010 Understand how dominant cultural stories, perceptions and frames effect public will to address social problems Explore the dominant public attitudes toward government & poverty Learn key elements for creating a more productive public conversation about these issues Discuss and Practice new approaches and how to apply the lessons to your work.

4. We Need to Build Public Will Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.“ - Abraham Lincoln

5. The Great Disconnect, Circa 2006 How Public Confusion Impedes Political Solutions to Some of Our Biggest Problems Condition #1: public cynicism, negativism, and skeptic ism about government... at the highest levels in 30 years of doing quantitative and qualitative research in Oregon. Condition #2: decreasing awareness and knowledge about government... about 30% of the general public cannot name a single tax that is used to help pay for public services. - Adam Davis, City Club Speech, May 12, 2006

7. The Benevolent CommunityThe Triumphant Individual IndependenceInterdependence Dave Kolpack / APDave Kolpack / AP “Self-Made Man” – Irene Ritter

8. THE PROMISE OF COMMUNITY ACTION Community Action changes people's lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other

9. Poverty Story Each individual is responsible for his or her own success or failure; With hard work comes reward; The goal is equal opportunity, not equal outcome; and Anyone can achieve the “American Dream”. Source: Meg Bostrom, For and Economy that Works for All

10. Hard work should be valued and rewarded Working people are struggling The country needs to act to impact the economy People tend to judge the economy based on their perceptions of how they and people like them are doing. We can all work together to find solutions Some Public Beliefs work for us…

11. “... a talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well, is the chief instrument of cultural change...” - Richard Rorty

12. Messaging Approved by CAPO Board of Directors We all want to live in communities where all people can be successful and families can thrive. We remove barriers to opportunity and build upon strengths so that families can succeed and lasting change is possible. We work with our communities to address common concerns, improve systems and influence policy for the benefit of all. We know that every life we impact improves our lives together.

13. From Theory to Action  Theoretical Framework of Poverty  OSU Project Update  Next Steps  Theory of Change Models

14. STRUCTURAL CAUSES OF POVERTY Economic Processes Economic Restructuring Economic Inequality: increase in relative poverty because only some to be better off Joblessness Social Policies/Programs do not adequately address the needs of the poor  Skills mismatch  Technological Changes Social Stratification Poverty Typologies/ Conditions Transitory: In and Out of Poverty Chronic: Continual state of poverty Lifecycle: Poverty Due to stage of life Economic Growth: decrease is absolute poverty Jobs available to low skill workers do not support family above poverty line  Globalization  Depressed Wages High vulnerability to unanticipated life events Exclusion/Inclusion: Based on gender, race, ethnicity, class, etc. Low Political Capital: Makes it difficult to influence policy that directly impacts them

15. TYPES OF POVERTY Transitory: In and Out of Poverty This group includes individuals and households who occasionally dip below the poverty line. Examples include working families facing unanticipated events such as medical costs, households experiencing the loss of an income earner, households gaining an income earner, individuals who experience a decrease in pay, etc. Lifecycle: Poverty Due to Stage of Life This group includes individuals and households who experience poverty during a certain stage of life and is usually connected to limited human capital and assets. Examples include young adults working in entry-level jobs, young adults still attending school, seniors with insufficient assets, new parents facing the increased costs associated with rearing children, etc. Chronic: Extended State of Poverty This group includes individuals and households who are extremely marginalized and therefore often cannot or do not earn wages. Examples include individuals with disabilities that prevent them from working, individuals with drug/alcohol addiction, individuals with mental health issues, or even individuals living in an area with scarce resources and limited access to low-skilled jobs.

17. The proposed Theory of Change should more explicitly reflect CAPO’s sphere of influence. Since Community Action Agencies are geared toward stabilizing and moving households out of poverty, emphasis should be placed in these areas (versus addressing structural causes of poverty). While indicators should rise above the level of individual programs or funding sources--they should ideally be sensitive enough to capture client "progress" regardless of starting or exit points. For example, one idea was to employ a scale that would measure how much "better off" a household is as a result of CAA services.

18. We continue to scour the national landscape for existing anti-poverty outcomes and indicators that could be incorporated into CAPO’s Theory of Change. This includes paying special attention to indicators that might potentially measure the movement or progress of households receiving various Community Action services.

19. We are also spending time on the ground to investigate existing Community Action Agency program reporting and data collection requirements. Using Community Services Consortium (Albany) as our “home-base”--the goal of this research is: To assure that our recommended outcomes and indicators account for existing required reporting elements (in an effort to streamline data collection and reporting). To isolate common, cross-cutting outcomes among various programs. To identify what data are currently available, as well as areas where further data collection may be valuable. To better understand current data collection and reporting systems.

20. Here’s Where We Are Today  Theory of Change Models

23. With gratitude to the Washington Community Action Partnership and the Community Action Partnership of Oregon, for providing inspiration and insight into this theory of change model

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