100 Program Overview

Georgia State Seal

Georgia Division of Family and Children Services
CSBG Policy Manual

Policy Title:

Program Overview

Chapter:

100

Effective Date:

October 2020

Policy Number:

100

Previous Policy Number(s):

Community Service Block Grants (CSBG)

The State of Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Family and Children Services, hereafter referred to as the State Department, CSBG funding supports projects that lessen poverty in communities, address the needs of low-income individuals including the homeless and the elderly and provide services and activities addressing employment, education, better use of available income, housing, nutrition, emergency services and health.

With the support of CSBG funding, eligible entities work together to achieve increased self-sufficiency, improved living conditions, ownership and pride in the communities served and stronger family and support systems goals for low-income individuals.

Authorization

The Community Services Block Grant Program is authorized by the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981, P.L. 97-35, the Community Service Block Grant Act, as amended (in 1998 by the “Coates Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998, P.L. 105-285).

Background

The Official Code of Georgia Annotated, 49-8-4 (O.C.G.A) designates the Department of Human Services, as the lead state agency for the administration of the Community Services Block Grant.

Requirements

The State Department must comply with federal statutes and regulations in administering the Community Services Block Grant program through Community Action Agencies and county governments (hereafter referred to as eligible entities).

The eligible entities must comply with all policies and procedures found in the CSBG Manual and the State Department contract.

Basic Considerations

The purpose of the Community Services Block Grant funds is to allow states to provide a wide range of services to help ameliorate the causes and conditions of poverty. Funds are distributed to all twenty-four (24) eligible entities based on a formula adopted by the State Department and a committee of representatives from eligible entities. Assistance is provided for individuals at one hundred and twenty-five percent (125%) of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.

Eligible entities must submit a Community Action Plan at least annually, prior to the beginning of the grant program. Programs or services administered by each entity must be used to support activities and services designed to assist low-income families and individuals to become self-sufficient. Each eligible entity will conduct a Needs Assessment in their service delivery area to determine the needs of the community. Programs administered by the local agencies should be guided by the results of the Needs Assessment.

ROMA and National Goals

Results Oriented Management and Accountability, or ROMA, is a set of principles designed to preserve the anti-poverty focus of community action and to promote greater effectiveness among state and local agencies receiving CSBG funds. Programs or services administered must address at least one (1) of the six (6) national goals and each program administered should have measurable results.

ROMA was created in 1994 by an ongoing task force of Federal, state, and local community action officials – the Monitoring and Assessment Task Force (MATF). Based upon principles contained in the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, ROMA provides a framework for continuous growth and improvement among more than 1000 local community action agencies and a basis for state leadership and assistance toward those ends.

Currently the Community Services Network has been guided by three broad anti-poverty goals established by the MATF:

Goal 1: Individuals and families with low income are stable and achieve economic security.

Goal 2: Communities where people with low incomes live are healthy and offer economic opportunity.

Goal 3: People with low incomes are engaged and active in building opportunities in communities.

To accomplish these goals, local community action agencies have been encouraged to undertake a number of ROMA implementation actions that focus on results-oriented management and results-oriented accountability:

Results-Oriented Management

  • Assess poverty needs and conditions within the community;

  • Define a clear agency anti-poverty mission for community action and a strategy to address those needs, both immediate and longer term, in the context of existing resources and opportunities in the community;

  • Identify specific improvements, or results, to be achieved among low-income people and the community; and

  • Organize and implement programs, services, and activities, such as advocacy, within the agency and among “partnering” organizations, to achieve anticipated results.

Results-Oriented Accountability

  • Develop and implement strategies to measure and record improvements in the condition of low-income people and the communities in which they live that result from community action intervention;

  • Use information about outcomes, or results, among agency tripartite boards and staff to determine the overall effectiveness, inform annual and long-range planning, support agency advocacy, funding, and community partnership activities.

(See NASCSP website for Instructions on completing Outcome Measures at www.nascsp.org).

National Performance Indicators

The National Performance Indicators (NPIs) collect data on ALL of the agency’s activities (not just CSBG-funded activities). The NPIs require eligible entities to think about the context in which the agency is providing services in order to determine where various outcomes should be reported. Eligible entities should evaluate programs or services to identify whether or not the service is providing the intended outcome and may be used to measure program effectiveness.