Social Sector Hero Spotlight: Maryland Governor’s Office for Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services

Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary social and public sector organizations that are making measurable differences in their communities. The following spotlight is an excerpt from “Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact” by Adam Luecking. You can download the book for free here and read all 16 Social Sector Hero Spotlights. 

September 22, 2022

In the mid-1990s, state governments across the USA began to unify their child-serving agencies. Lack of alignment among agencies manifested as a duplication of efforts, a lack of funding coordination, and poor communication. When this happens, service coordination is fickle, and too many children slip through the proverbial cracks. In Maryland, some Social Sector Heroes began converging to form their own fellowships — various partnerships, task forces, and offices aimed at improving service delivery to the State’s children and families. And like any effective fellowship, they needed a Common Purpose. 

To support the alignment that was already forming, Governor Parris Glendening created the Maryland Partnership for Children, Youth, and Families in May of 1998 (henceforth referred to as “the Partnership”). Glendening tasked the Partnership with devising a five-year State Plan for Children and Families that would illustrate how they would focus public and government attention on the needs of children, engage citizens in policy development, and distribute resources and funding in alignment with statewide goals for children and families. 

In addition, the Partnership was tasked with guiding Maryland’s agencies and 24 local jurisdictions (through Local Management Boards or LMBs) in implementing the five-year State Plan and producing the Results for Child Wellbeing publication. LMBs would identify community priorities and target resources for each jurisdiction. They would also serve as a coordinating entity and bring together local children’s services agencies, local child providers, clients of services, families, and other community representatives to empower local stakeholders in addressing community needs and setting priorities.

How did the Partnership plan to create that public focus and alignment? Led by Chair Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, they released their first budget priorities document in 1999 and announced eight Results (conditions of wellbeing for children and families) and 27 Indicators (measures to quantify the achievement of the Results). And bam! They had their Common Purpose. Today, the eight Results are:

• Babies Born Healthy
• Families are Economically Stable
• Children Enter School Ready to Learn 
• Youth will Complete School 
• Communities are Safe for Children, Youth, and Families
• Healthy Children
• Children are Successful in School
• Youth Have Opportunities for Employment or Career Readiness

You can access corresponding Indicators for each Result at SocialSectorHero.com/Resources (Chapter 2).

Dr. Nancy Grasmick served as State Superintendent of top-ranked Maryland Public Schools for 20 years (starting in 1991) where she helped steer a fleet of 24 school districts comprising 1,424 schools and 869,113 students. Due to this vast leadership experience, Nancy was also invited to become a leader in the creation of the eight Results and 27 Indicators. Bonnie Kirkland, Special Secretary for the Office for Children, Youth, and Families in 1999 led the rollout of the Common Purpose. Arlene Lee joined the effort in 2005 when the partnership became part of the Governor’s Office for Children and she gave it a reenergized focus with a “listening tour.” The tour involved convening all child-serving advocates in connection with the National Governor’s Association to reaffirm the value of Results and Indicators for children in Maryland. Countless local and state-wide leaders embraced the effort and coordinated resources for measurable change. 

To this day, the Maryland Governor’s Office for Children — now known as the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim’s Services (henceforth referred to as “the Office”) — utilizes the eight Results for Child Wellbeing, now with 40 Indicators to guide and fund Maryland’s 24 LMBs to implement planning for Children and Families. The Office promotes an overarching Common Purpose in addition to the eight Results, which is to “ensure all Maryland children, youth, and families live and prosper in healthy, safe, and thriving communities.” 

How did the Office aim to achieve alignment? To enact the Common Purpose through data-driven policies and collective solutions. As part of these data-driven policies, the Office now produces the Results for Child Wellbeing report in a digital format in Child Wellbeing Scorecards composed of data dashboards embedded on their website. You can learn more about these Scorecards broken down by jurisdiction at SocialSectorHero.com/Resources (Chapter 2).

The Office now spends around $16 million a year to fund initiatives serving children and families in the state. They also convene monthly meetings of Office staff and the Children’s Cabinet — an agency entity that coordinates efforts to award funds to Maryland’s 24 LMBs. 

What was the impact of creating funding alignment through a Common Purpose for children and families? According to Arlene Lee, former Director of the Governor’s Office for Children and chair of the Children’s cabinet, school readiness improved from 49 percent to 83 percent in Maryland over a 10-year period. The 2013-2014 Maryland School Readiness Report reveals several other measurable improvements, including:

• 94 percent of African-American children were school-ready in 2013-2014, up from 57 percent in 2001-2002 and 91 percent in 2012-2013. 
• The percentage of Hispanic children who were school-ready rose from 39 percent in 2001-2002 and 71 percent in 2012-2013 to 73 percent in 2013-2014.
• The percentage of children from low-income households who were fully school-ready rose from 34 percent in 2001-2002 and 76 percent in 2012-2013 to 77 percent in 2013-2014. 

You can download the full report at SocialSectorHero.com/Resources (Chapter 2).

How did they achieve such great success? Let’s work backward: Without the overarching guidance from the state’s eight Results, particularly “Children Enter School Ready to Learn,” there would be no coordinated effort to implement school readiness programming in the first place. The 24 LMBs may have been utilizing different Results or no Results at all. Without the Result, there would be no metric for kindergarten readiness. There would be no Results for Child Wellbeing Scorecard. The Results ensure the LMBs focus every action on improving the same Indicators and realizing the Common Purpose.

You can learn more about how to create your Common Purpose here.