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Action Plan - Introduction
High achieving organizations find that, to remain
vibrant, they have to periodically reinvent themselves. This is not
to suggest that these organizations tear away from their roots and discard
their essential character. Rarely is such a drastic departure warranted
or wise. Instead, successful organizations continually reflect on their
history of achievement and build on the lessons they have learned along
the way.
In 2001, as the Los Angeles Children's Planning
Council (CPC) completed its first decade, we took time to celebrate
its accomplishments, acknowledge and learn from its disappointments
and consider how, if at all, it should refocus its efforts in the second
decade. The CPC is at a critical time in its continued development:
it has recently replaced its founding Executive Director, it is about
to celebrate a ten year anniversary, new leadership is coming to the
fore as some long standing participants have reduced their involvement,
the Service Planning Area (SPA) Councils which were created as a part
of the CPC are showing growing pains, and many of the ideas that characterized
the vision of the CPC - a focus on children; paying attention to outcomes;
expanded use of data; service integration; inclusive processes that
find room for community voices - have been accepted and become a part
of a changed environment.
The Los Angeles CPC is, to our knowledge, the
strongest and most influential cross-system vehicle advocating for reform
of children's service systems in a major US metropolitan area. With
relatively little resources, the presence of the CPC has quietly changed
the discussion in Los Angeles County about children. As one key informant
for this report noted, "The contribution of CPC has been to change what
is considered common sense in county government." Common sense, ten
years after the creation of the CPC, is now about service integration,
decentralization, data driven planning, a focus on outcomes and inclusive
decision-making. While a great deal more needs to be done to implement
these ideas into daily practice, most agree that the concepts and ideas
that have characterized the CPC are now deeply rooted in Los Angeles
County.
The CPC has been largely responsible for a series
of important changes in the County environment, helping to move the
County:
- From independent County agencies working in
isolation to agencies working closely together.
- From isolation from non-County agencies to multi-faceted,
deep collaborations.
- From a focus on funder imposed processes to
one on outcomes for children.
- From the collection and use of data to meet
program requirements/reporting to using data to help make programs more
effective
- From thinking and acting at a countywide level,
to increased attention to services and interventions that reflect unique
geographic circumstances.
Yet, some worry that the CPC may become a "victim of its own successes."
The environment of ten years ago has changed dramatically, in no small
measure as a result of CPC efforts, and the precise role of the CPC
in the next ten years is not entirely clear. What does the CPC do, now
that the ideas it has championed have won the day?
The Cornerstone Consulting Group was asked by
the Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council to develop a document
that would assist the CPC in charting its future direction. After ten
years, it is possible to see both the important accomplishments of the
past and difficult challenges that lie ahead. The CPC has built a reputation
as an independent, objective body focused on planning for children's
services in Los Angeles County, and CPC members are committed to making
the next ten years as productive and as useful as the first. Cornerstone
is assisting the Council in forging this vision by helping to focus
CPC member's attention on strategic choices, challenges ahead, and strategies
to overcome them. Our hope is that this report will be helpful to the
CPC in framing the discussions and decisions that lie ahead.
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