Another Outlook on Outcomes - Part Five

NOTE: This is the final part of a five part series that began on Monday 4/9.

In closing, I’d like to comment on his idea for measuring outcomes in the long-term. If you recall from Part Three on Wednesday, April 11th, his concept was that real outcomes should be based on where a young person ends up, not necessarily on what they accomplish in programs. I’m paraphrasing here, of course, but the concept is; does a young person break out of the cycle of street-dependency and end up with a lifestyle that is, as he put it; mundane, predictable, productive, and all of those wonderful things that one might reasonably hope for life to be.

Unfortunately, it is not realistic to fund programs today and figure out 10 years down the road whether or not they worked, but that doesn’t mean the idea is without merit. If it were possible to find a neutral institution such as a university (as he suggests) to conduct such long term outcome research, one of the things that could be determined is what approach (or approaches) to services yields the desired outcomes in the long run. Once that is know, it would then be possible to determine short term accountability for programs based on consistency with the approaches that we know lead to the outcomes we are seeking.

I think further exploration of this idea is worth some investment. Anybody know a good university looking for something to do?