Arranging Assessments that Span Jurisdictions

1. Arranging Assessments that Span Jurisdictions

2. What do we mean by assessments thatspan jurisdictions? A jurisdiction is the area that a particular agency, branch of government, organization, educational institution, or other entity – or a particular office of one of these entities – is responsible for serving. Arranging assessments across jurisdictions can involve not only getting and integrating data from many different sources, but also facilitating agreements among the stakeholders about what they’ll agree to provide, do, or consent to.

3. Why arrange assessments thatspan jurisdictions? It gives more information to those serving the area. It affords the opportunity to look at problems and issues as a whole, rather than focusing on a narrow geographical area. It encourages agencies, institutions, and organizations to look at the area comprehensively, and to work together to serve it effectively.

4. It can change the norms for how the area is assessed and served. It recognizes that administrative boundaries should follow community boundaries, rather than the other way around It encourages people in the area to view it as a unit, and to see themselves as members of a coherent community. It can bring out data that wouldn’t otherwise be visible.

5. Who should be involved in assessments thatspan jurisdictions? • Those directly affected by the issue(s) of concern. • All those entities whose jurisdictions are involved in the assessment. For example: • Local elected and appointed officials. • Local government departments. • Representatives of state and federal government and government • agencies. • Non-governmental and community-based non-profit human service • and charitable organizations. • Administrators and staff of hospitals, clinics, and other private and • public non-profit and for-profit health providers. • School superintendents and other public and private school • personnel

6. All sectors of the community, including: • Local college and university administrators and faculty • The business community • Local and state police • The court system • Clergy and other representatives of faith communities • Community activists • Service clubs • Ethnic organizations

7. When should you arrange assessments • that span jurisdictions? • When you’re serving a cohesive area that falls into several jurisdictions. • When issues span jurisdictions. • When you’re organizing a major initiative to address an issue. • When you’re setting out to address social determinants or other root causes that are larger than any one jurisdiction. • When funders or laws mandate it.

8. How do you arrange assessments that span jurisdictions? • Engage the community and the entities whose jurisdictions are in question. • Identify the intended uses of the data and the implications for jurisdictions that those uses imply. • Examples of uses: • Investigate the extent and seriousness of a particular condition. • Assess community needs in general or relating to a specific broad • issue. • Identify social determinants of health. • Comply with a law, regulation or funder’s requirement. • Rationalize service delivery and jurisdictionalboundaries.

9. Examples of implications: • Memoranda of agreement among entities • Greater collaboration in general across jurisdictional boundaries. • Changes in focus from dealing with specific issues to larger ones, such as social determinants of health. • Redefinition of the area as a community or unit. • Redefinition or renegotiation of jurisdictional boundaries.

10. Specify the geographic areas served by key stakeholders and the overlap among them. • Similar entities serving the same area. • The area split among offices of a single entity. • A coherent area served by different administrative districts of a • variety of different entities. • Similar entities serving distinct areas, all of which are being • targeted for a single assessment. • Identify potential data sources and the geographic areas they represent. • Census data • Organizational and institutional files • Municipal records • State and federal government agency records and studies • Direct, hands-on information gathering

11. Identify potential community goals and target populations and how those affect the definition of the region covered in this assessment. • An assessment exploring the extent to which HIV is spread through • intravenous drug use in a rural area must also assess nearby urban • areas, where people buy (and often inject) their drugs. • Assessing the health and economic consequences of pollution in a • river may mean examining areas far up- and downstream as well as those close by. • Understanding broad social determinants – poverty, unemployment, • racial discrimination – often means looking at causes that play out • over a broad geographic area.

12. Describe features of the defined community and the broader context that affect the issue and efforts to improve it. • Demographics • Social determinants that intensify or moderate issues  • Nature and capacity of the community • Determine how well the available data fit with the geographic area you’ve defined. • Maintain cross-jurisdictional alliances and collaboration, so that you can continue to monitor the area in the future.