The Short Answer
1. For a community that wants to do this, use the mainstream political structures in a broad based partnership.
2. For a community that doesn’t want to do this, use existing, or if necessary, new advocacy organizations or coalitions to get started, and seek mainstream political support.
Full Answer
Much of the long answer can be found in the answer to question 1.4 “Where do I start?” – which offers choices about starting points and tracks of work, and boils down to “start where you are.”
Given the answer to this question, a community that “wants”to do this is more likely to have the mainstream support of government, and it will be possible to craft broadly based sponsorship that includes the executive and/or legislative branches of government. It will be possible to proceed simultaneously on all or most of the parallel tracks discussed above.
Where states, counties, cities or communities “don’t want” to do this, it is probably necessary for advocacy organizations, alone or in combination, to start the work and later bring in governmental partners.
Some starting points for the legislative branch can be found in the “11 Things a Legislature could consider to advance Results-Based Accountability.”
