Director's Message

Dec. 29, 2006

To: All DHS employees

From: Bruce Goldberg, Director

"What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen."

~Henry David Thoreau

Last week I reflected on some of the many accomplishments we achieved during 2006. Those successes helped build the solid foundation we will need to support additional improvements in the year ahead.

This week I want to briefly talk about two key areas where I would like to see us focus our efforts in the coming year -- working with our clients and our communities to develop services customized to their needs, and evaluating the effectiveness of DHS programs and services based on outcomes.

To do the best job we can of providing the services Oregonians need and want, we must work with the communities in which they live to develop a greater understanding of each community's residents and their needs. As we work with communities to assess their needs, we can use that information to develop the right mix of culturally appropriate and effective services. We also can learn what services are lacking and advocate for their development.

This of course, means bringing to bear our creativity, our passion, our ability to work across programs and our best collaborative efforts. All of this will enable us to do a better job of delivering the right services to the right people in the communities where they live.

Once we have more needs-based services in place, the next step is to improve our methods for evaluating the success of our efforts. True success can be found by measuring outcomes, not outputs. What's the difference? Here are two examples:

The number of parent education classes we conduct or home visits that we make is an output; the outcome we are seeking is children that are safe and fewer children needing to be placed in foster care.

The number of individuals who receive vocational rehabilitation services is an output; the outcome we are seeking is more people employed at a living wage.

The right outputs lead to good outcomes, but we must not confuse the two. The ultimate outcome we are always seeking is that more Oregonians are able to lead independent, healthy and safe lives. That is our mission, and that must be our focus.

And finally, I have one more goal for us in the year ahead -- I want each of you to think about your needs and those of your families and your friends, and to take good care of yourselves. I've mentioned before that we tend to focus our attention on the needs of our clients and forget our own needs and those of our families and friends. The start of a new year is a good time to reflect on your professional and personal goals, and I hope you will take the time to do that. I also hope that each of you will be able to fulfill your goals and most importantly to find fulfillment in your professional and personal lives.

Happy New Year!

To provide feedback email: DHS.Directorsoffice@state.or.us

This message is intended for all department employees. Please read it electronically, if possible. Managers and supervisors are asked to share the message each week with employees who do not have email access.