Good Practices
The National Board published the EFSP Technical Assistance Manual entitled
What Makes Sense: What Works in 1993. We are reproducing that manual here to
broaden its availablility. The referrals and points of contact may no longer be valid.
If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please contact the EFSP National Board staff.
What Makes Sense: What Works
Each year the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) provides supplemental funding
to over 12,000 agencies in more than 2,500 communities across the country. Additionally,
EFS staff conduct site visits and training workshops and meet with numerous agency staff
members each year.
Through this exchange of ideas we have seen the creativity and innovation that many
local boards and local recipient organizations have brought to this program. The
purpose of the Technical Assistance Manual, What Makes Sense: What Works,
is to share some of those ideas and practices with you.
Around the nation EFSP local board members and staff and recipient organization staff
have taken the framework of our guidelines and expanded them into administrative and
service delivery systems that have increased community-wide participation - with
fairness in application and targeting to those in need as the two key considerations.
The EFSP at times suffers from its simplicity. Because the administrative
allowance is small, no one, not a city or county government nor one non-profit agency,
really "owns" this unique program. The work and thought that is put into it can only be
equal to the initiative and commitment that local communities bring to it. In a
fundamental way, the EFSP's statue and success mirrors the very real efforts
and concerns of people at the local level who have chosen to help homeless and hungry
people.
What Makes Sense: What Works is a compendium of the genius and dedication
that have made this program work. The entries here are written by the participants
themselves. And we've included contact points with each piece if you wish to follow
up form more information.
About the title - we named this Technical Assistance Manual What Makes Sense: What
Works because that is how many of the EFSP local boards and local recipient
organizations invariably explain how they arrived at some of their best ideas and
solutions. It is exactly that sense of the practical, that local boards are in the
best position to assess needs and monitor programs in their communities, that is the
basis of the EFSP.
The ideas that appear here are not mandated but they are outstanding
practices that are worthy of replication. Some of the examples will not be a perfect
fit for every community; either regarding local board practices or how agencies
target client eligibility. That is why we have tried to include a broad
cross-section of communities, both in size and location.
Yet though these exemplary examples are different, they are all rooted to the same basic
tenets: that we, in order to husband our limited resources, have to make tough choices on
who is helped rather than providing help on a random basis, and making those difficult
decisions while striving to maintain fairness in the operation of the program.
The manual contains three categories: one, Rent/Mortgage Assistance; two, Local Board
Composition and Operations; and three, Local Board Coordination of Rent/Mortgage/Utility
Assistance.
While the categories are organized separately, some of the approaches overlap; the need
for broad inclusion in decision-making, the necessity of cooperation among agencies,
and the stress on focusing on real emergency services. In reviewing these various
write-ups keep in mind that while some comprehensive plans may not be suitable for
your needs, some pieces and parts of various approaches could be useful. Our
challenge is to be as creative as the people who have written these chapters and
developed these methods and ideas.
It is the EFS National Board's intention to add to this in the future on other topics
of interest and as other fine programs and local boards are brought to our attention.
We would welcome your input in that regard.
If you have comments, ideas, suggestions for future subjects, or any other thoughts
regarding this manual, please send them to:
What Makes Sense: What Works
Emergency Food and Shelter National Board
701 N. Fairfax Street, Suite 310
Alexandria VA 22314-2064
An ongoing dialogue of this kind benefits all of us. Most importantly those we are
ultimately seeking to serve. We appreciate your service and trust you'll find this
document helpful.
These documents are published in PDF format which require the use of Adobe® Acrobat®
Reader®. This is a free software and is available from Adobe.
© 1998-2009 United Way Worldwide. All rights reserved.
Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program
701 North Fairfax Street, Suite 310
Alexandria, Virginia 22314-2064
Tel. 703-706-9660 Fax. 703-706-9677
