AGA TOPICS Newsletter

Massachusetts Agency Produces Citizen-Centric Report, Learns Valuable Lessons

Pictured, left to right, Al Franklin, CGFM, President AGA Boston Chapter, National President Richard Fair, CGFM, and Craig Hall, Member AGA Boston Chapter.

Explaining the accomplishments and challenges of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council is not easy. In fact, it might be easier to describe what it doesn’t do.

That’s why Executive Director Dan Shannon embraced the idea of producing a four-page, Citizen-Centric Report, a concept that has been championed by AGA and adopted by about 30 governments across the country. “Describing to people who we are and what we do is extremely difficult.”

The developmental disabilities council is one of 55 in the nation that is funded primarily by Congress to improve independence and inclusion for people with developmental disabilities. They are required by law to produce five-year plans with annual progress reports. So while there’s no shortage of reports available, they aren’t particularly readable for the public. Even the public version of the federal report didn’t go far enough in simplifying the Massachusetts council’s work, Shannon said.

His initial reaction to the four-page summary? “This is an eye opener. This is great. Maybe we finally have a way to get people to begin to appreciate what we do and what we accomplish.” The Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council is the first DD Council in the nation to complete a Citizen-Centric Report, and it’s the first to do so among government agencies in Massachusetts.

The council does not provide direct services in the traditional sense, but conducts policy and advocacy work for the 115,000 citizens of Massachusetts with developmental disabilities. For example, the council’s report cited its achievements in educating state legislators about developmental disabilities, partnering with Boston Children’s Hospital to identify high-risk children, and creating a network of people with developmental disabilities who have started their own businesses.

When you know an agency as intimately as Shannon does, it was difficult to look from the outside in, to narrow down the agency’s work to the select few items that would be compelling to the public. Shannon said he reviewed a draft of the report, put together by CFO Craig Hall, and expanded it from four pages to six, which was reduced back to four in the end. “The toughest part of it for me was that we had to step outside of who we were, and how we knew ourselves. It was an interesting exercise.”

Hall, a member of AGA’s Boston Chapter, agrees. “The exercise of going through the report preparation allowed us as an organization to better understand what we do.”

Hall said the report will be formally presented to the council’s board of directors on March 18, with the president of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters, as well as the president of AGA’s Boston Chapter which is supporting AGA’s work on the Citizen-Centric Reporting initiative. He said the timing of the agency’s first Citizen-Centric Report was perfect. The agency’s current state plan covers 2007–2011, so four years from now, the report will present a complete comparison of the agency’s goals and achievements over the five years.

Hall said AGA provided technical support through the expertise of Susan Fritzlen, deputy executive director of programs, and the AGA website, where background information, design template and content guidelines can be found. “We now have a format that we can annually put data into to ease the generation of future reports,” he said.

While the 2007 fiscal year data was readily available, it took time after the kickoff meeting in November with the entire staff to organize it in an easily understandable way. “I think one of the reasons we were successful was because we involved everyone,” Hall said. “Staff all saw a stake in the outcome of the report and could point to their contributions to the organization because of how we communicated data and explained ourselves.”

In fact, Hall advises other governments to make the Citizen-Centric Report an “all-staff” exercise. He also suggests interpreting the guidelines and format in a way that they can be adapted to individual organizations, and recognizing that the report is not only a way to demonstrate accountability, but also a means of citizen engagement.

The council must gather public input every year under the federal Developmental Disabilities Act. The report could be used as part of that effort in the future.

Hall said the council is committed to preparing a Citizen-Centric Report every year. “I think from a financial management perspective as well as an organizational perspective this exercise was well worth doing and provided us with a valuable tool for accountability and transparency,” he said.