City charity workermeets US theorist

A LONDONDERRY charity worker devoted to teaching local parents how children develop and learn was in Belfast recently for a workshop with internationally renowned author and social policy expert, Mark Friedman, who is famous for preaching the need to turn hard work into results.
By The Newsroom
Published 7th Oct 2012, 12:46 BST

Dr Pauline McClenaghan, from Lifestart Foundation in Londonderry attended the workshop at the Stormont Hotel on outcomes based approaches that improve community quality of life.

Celine McStravick, of organisers Director of National Children’s Bureau (NCB) NCB NI said: “We are delighted that Mr Friedman, who directs the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute (FPSI) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and who has provided training and consultation on Outcomes based accountability in over 40 states and countries around the world joined us in Northern Ireland to share his knowledge and expertise in this area”.

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Celine added: “Outcomes based accountability is about understanding the impact of our decisions when we are planning services for communities. In times of austerity it is particularly important to understand what works and the only way to do that is to measure by results.

“Mark will challenge us all to understand what we want to achieve for our communities, how we are going to achieve that and then how do we know it has worked!”

Mr Friedman is also author of the book Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough which is used by government and non-profit agencies in over 40 states and countries around the world, including the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Chile, New Zealand and Australia.

Using clear plain language, Mr Friedman’s framework presents step by step methods for states, cities and communities to turn around quality of life conditions for example health, safety, clean environment, and children ready for school and step by step methods for agencies to improve services for their citizens.

Related topics:Belfast