COMMUNITY ACTION PARTNERSHIP OF KERN

Community Action Partnership of Kern's 2021-2025 Strategic Plan

Goal #1: Increased access to healthy, affordable food to support the health of the communities we serve.

Goal #2: All families in the communities we serve have access to high-quality early learning and care choices to meet their diverse needs.

Goal #3: Advance economic empowerment and financial stability for low-income people in the communities we serve.

Goal #4: CAPK seeks to be an employer of choice and attract and retain a high-quality workforce to achieve the organization's desired results.

Goal #5: Increase utilization of data-driven decision-making processes to improve organizational capacity to achieve results.

Goal #6: Increase fiscal health and stability of the agency to properly align resources to support clients and build capacity staff.

Commitment to a continuous state of improvement. To accomplish transformative goals, CAPK began a long-term effort to establish goals and change the culture of CAPK. The Burning Platform was shared with the Board of Directors, all employees, CAPK's partners, and stakeholders in the community. CAPK Division Directors are engaged in continuous training to improve communication and work effectively as a cohesive group.

Investment in professional development. With over 800 well-trained employees who are committed to the Burning Platform, CAPK becomes a tremendous force able to positively impact the Kern County community. Head Start employees regularly participate in extensive training; CAPK volunteers were provided with training on the many programs offered to the community; and specialized supervisory training was provided to all managerial staff. An Employee Recognition Committee has been created to identify strategies to acknowledge outstanding employees.

Improvement of systems and policies. Improved the agency's core capacity by upgrading or adopting reporting, tracking and operational systems and software and reorganizing divisions and functions to improve efficiency. CAPK installed new accounting, human resources, and payroll software; streamlined and reorganized the procurement process; reorganized the Information Technology unit and services; adopted an indirect cost rate; updated finance policies and procedures; and strengthened annual audit controls.

Improvement of communication. Improved CAPK's communication capabilities by assigning an Outreach and Advocacy Manager to direct both internal and external communications, which increases the dissemination and consistency of information to employees, clients, stakeholders, and the community.

CAPK is moving forward to meet identified goals and our capabilities include:
• Staff are knowledgeable and committed to the service population.
• Board and executive leadership are strong.
• Programs have been flexible to changes in the environment.
• Organization is able to meet contractual obligations and has some systems in place to manage risk.
• Families receive high quality services.
• Organization is knowledgeable and responsive to the needs of families.
• Partnership with other service providers.
• Provision of services in rural and “hard to reach" populations where limited access exists.
• Long history of service to the community.
• Good contract compliance and strong relationships with funders.

External policies and funding do not sufficiently support the ability of individuals (service recipients) to achieve self-sufficiency or the organization (CAPK) to adequately respond to community needs. Advocacy that has been conducted has largely been responsive to possible cuts, positioning the organization to consistently function in a survival mode. Most CAPK services are dependent upon public and private funding, which is becoming more competitive and constrained, while the demand for services continues to increase. The organization does not have a proactive planning approach to diversifying its funding stream or a designated plan of action in the event that a major cut in funding were to occur. CAPK will improve our advocacy position in the community and with national organizations between now and 2022.

CAPK has not been able to provide highly accurate estimates of unduplicated service counts in the past. This is primarily due to certain programs operating in technical silos over time. In order to connect our customers to our other services, we need to make this a priority in the next few years. By 2019 we will improve our internal connectivity for existing customers and tie all of our services together through uniform databases that will allow us to report unduplicated numbers.

By immediately connecting customers to internal programs through a central intake system or connected databases, CAPK will increase our service efficiency.