http://blogs.e-rockford.com/180degrees/2008/04/30/how-do-you-measure-success/ Want an inside look at a yearlong project by journalists at the newspaper and the Web site to help Rockford solve serious problems and turn around? We’re focusing on five areas that are key to our way of life in the Rock River Valley: Crime, education, the local economy, state and local government and our culture/sense of place. Would you like to help us in this campaign to bring about change? Give us your ideas and insights and help guide us to better solutions for Rockford. You can join the conversation here. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:39:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.4 http://blogs.e-rockford.com/180degrees/2008/04/30/how-do-you-measure-success/#comment-17 Cathy Johnson Fri, 02 May 2008 16:37:47 +0000 http://blogs.e-rockford.com/180degrees/2008/04/30/how-do-you-measure-success/#comment-17 One aspect pf measuring success would be to track use of local social services. If, after implementation of any program designed to ameliorate a particular problem, use of services related to that problem continues to increase, or does not decrease, it might be difficult to call that program successful. If use is reduced, while it may not definitely prove success (correlation is not causality) it would be a good sign that\' something\'s working. Rockford has a reputation of being a city with an abundance of services, but I\'m not sure that there\'s ever been a definitive study of how effective most of those services are. Maybe this is the time. One aspect pf measuring success would be to track use of local social services. If, after implementation of any program designed to ameliorate a particular problem, use of services related to that problem continues to increase, or does not decrease, it might be difficult to call that program successful. If use is reduced, while it may not definitely prove success (correlation is not causality) it would be a good sign that\’ something\’s working. Rockford has a reputation of being a city with an abundance of services, but I\’m not sure that there\’s ever been a definitive study of how effective most of those services are. Maybe this is the time.

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