This strategic plan guides the Community Action Team’s efforts from 2023 to 2026, focusing on service delivery, staffing, governance, funding, and partnerships. Each goal is accompanied by targeted strategies and progress indicators to measure success.
Goal #1: Integrate Service Delivery, Accountability, and Reporting
Strategies:
- Develop an effective management structure to support CAT’s work in all three counties and provide effective support for CAT’s sub-recipient agencies.
- Enhance leadership capacity to participate in key community planning and development efforts in all three counties.
- Enhance reporting to the Board and the community to reflect accomplishments and challenges in all three counties.
Progress Indicators:
- Identify support needs of CAT and sub-recipient managers in all three counties.
- Develop and implement plan to enhance support provided to CAT and sub-recipient managers.
- Establish clear metrics and benchmarks for measuring, need, access to services, and effectiveness and impact of CAT’s services in all three counties.
- Regularly report on progress towards these benchmarks.
- Track and report CAT’s participation in relevant planning and policy discussions and advocacy efforts in all three counties.
- Redesign the annual report to reflect CAT’s accomplishments and challenges in all three counties.
Goal #2: Ensure a Skilled, Motivated Workforce
Ensure that CAT has the skilled, motivated staff it needs to fulfill its mission, deliver needed services, manage effectively, remain financially healthy, and work collaboratively with its partner agencies to integrate and coordinate services throughout the 3-county region.
Strategies:
- Develop a comprehensive compensation plan that supports the recruitment and retention of outstanding staff, addresses market conditions, and ensures equitable treatment of new and continuing staff.
- Identify barriers to hiring and retaining staff and develop strategies to regain and retain full staffing as quickly as possible.
- Implement strategies to build funder willingness to provide support for the compensation levels CAT needs to offer to ensure recruitment and retention of qualified staff
- Provide effective training and support to ensure that CAT staff reflect CAT values in all interactions.
- Develop and maintain a positivework culture that is inclusive and reflects CAT’s core values and mission
Progress Indicators:
- Establish a compensation philosophy
- Obtain consultation on opportunities to revise CAT’s compensation plan to enhance CAT’s ability to attract and retain great staff.
- Identify other factors with major impact on staff recruitment and retention
- Measure and report recruitment outcomes.
- Track and report staff retention by level and program.
- Negotiate with funding sources to support increased compensation.
- Evaluate effectiveness of staff training on CAT values. Revise if necessary.
- Conduct annual staff surveys on inclusivity, values, and workplace culture.
- Review and improve staff leadership succession plan.
Goal #3: Strengthen the CAT Board of Directors
Strategies:
- Add representatives from CARE and CCA to CAT Board to ensure that the needs and experiences of all three counties are fully reflected in Board discussions and decisions.
- Enhance retention of low-income and community representatives.
- Support board members to play activist roles including advocating for CAT throughout the three-county region.
- Enhance engagement of public sector representatives.
- Increase Board understanding of the role of the board and expectations of board members.
- Increase Board understanding of finances and capacity to provide effective oversight and direction setting.
- Develop an effective succession plan for key staff and board leadership positions.
Progress Indicators:
- Develop an annual board work plan.
- Increase the number of Board members representing Clatsop and Tillamook counties
- Develop and implement a plan to recruit, retain, and engage low-income community representatives on the board. Track and evaluate tenure and participation levels.
- Identify priority roles for public sector representations and develop plan to prepare and support public sector participation.
- Develop and implement a plan to increase Board advocacy for CAT. Supply training and resource materials as needed.
- Track and report the number of times CAT board members play active roles in advocating for CAT in the three counties.
- Conduct annual Board self evaluation and discussion of Board roles and expectations of Board members. Develop annual Board workplan.
- Conduct annual Board discussion of CAT financial health and Board roles in financial oversight and direction setting.
- Develop a board leadership succession plan.
Goal #4: Seek and obtain resources needed to meet emerging needs in all three counties.
Strategies:
- Identify and prioritize capacity building needs, including IT and data integration needs.
- Conduct a feasibility study of options for increasing private support and developing additional governmental income streams.
- Evaluate the potential costs and benefits of making additional investments in seeking additional governmental, foundation, business, and or individual donor support.
- Based on cost/benefit analysis, prioritize efforts to seek additional resources.
- Make the additional investment in staff or consultants to expand CAT’s funding base.
- Review progress and evaluate return on investment in fund development efforts and redirect resources as needed.
Progress Indicators:
- Identify key capacity building needs and strategies.
- Engage a qualified consultant to conduct a feasibility study of options for increasing private support and developing additional governmental income streams.
- Conduct a board discussion of the findings and evaluate costs and benefits and decide whether to invest in seeking additional funding.
- Develop a comprehensive business plan to guide additional investment in obtaining funding.
- Measure progress toward increased funding goals.
- Refocus business plan strategies as need to increase program toward goals.
Goal #5: Seek out partnerships to develop additional affordable housing.
Strategies:
- Evaluate current housing needs and affordable housing development resources available in all three counties.
- Identify the most productive roles for CAT to play in increasing the availability of affordable housing.
- Establish clear criteria for entering into partnerships for affordable housing development.
- Evaluate potential partnership opportunities.
- Enter into housing development partnerships that meet the criteria.
Progress Indicators:
- Complete inventory of existing affordable housing development resources in the three counties.
- Analyze potential roles for CAT to play in the development of affordable housing.
- Develop and adopt criteria for selection of affordable housing development partners and for developing effective partnerships:
- Track CAT’s progress identifying and evaluating partnership opportunities.
- Develop comprehensive proposal for housing development partnership and obtain Board approval to proceed.
- Track the number of units of housing development undertaken through partnerships.