How Do We Measure Up?

Have you ever wondered or had someone ask you what impact are you having personally or is your department having collectively on youth and families?  These are questions the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s leaders get asked everyday from legislators, the media and the public and you probably get asked by your neighbors and members of your community.  With the Department’s new Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiative these questions will be easier to answer and the Department will be able to quickly identify and address areas where improvement is needed. 
 
In order for the Department to know how we “measure up” we must first have a system in place to measure our performance.  Developing these performance measurement systems will be a key part of the CQI initiative. 

So What is Performance Measurement?

Organizations, agencies and publicly funded departments are organized to perform services. Performance is basically the act of doing something successfully.  Performance measurement is assessing what we did and how well we did it, including:

• Productivity (how much did we do?) and (how long did it take?);
• Effectiveness (did our efforts generate the desired outcomes?);
• Efficiency (were our efforts most productive using the best and proper amount of resources?) and  
• Quality (how well do we do it?).

The CQI team is working with the Deputy Secretaries, work groups and others to develop systems to measure what we do and how well we do it. These work groups will include members of each division within the department, including Court Services, Facilities, Community Programs, Treatment and Education, and Administration.

Why Measure Performance?

Very simply, we measure performance because we care — about the quality of our work, about the outcomes of our efforts, and about the expenditure of public dollars toward public safety as well as the achievement of the best results for our youth and their families. The purpose of performance measurement is to assess how the agency performs against expectations - each day, each month and each year – all with the goal of understanding what needs to happen to improve in a predictable manner.

The beginning of this process is for the Department to define quality. This is an important step in developing a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process. With ideas and input from staff Department wide, we have established the Quality Statement which states. 

 “Quality Statement

The North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is committed to producing the best quality outcomes possible for the citizens of our State through a continuous quality improvement (CQI) process.

Through a comprehensive, team focused and highly collaborative approach, CQI examines all aspects of the Department’s administrative, program, and supporting activities. Feedback from youth, families, and collaborating agencies including all internal and external stakeholders is used via systematic and rigorous methods to ensure that ongoing improvement is achieved. Effective CQI practice focuses on conformity to performance standards as well as assures the highest level of quality outcomes throughout the Department.”

Stay tuned.  We will be seeking your help, thoughts, ideas and opinions more and more as we move forward with this process. In order for the Department to be successful in improving quality, it will take all of us working together to achieve the best possible outcomes.

And the next time someone asks you how does your Department “measure up” you will be able to tell them “yes!”?