Rethinking Human Service Information

RETHINKING HUMAN SERVICE INFORMATION
SYNOPSIS This white paper describes the work and findings of the Chicago MidSouth Community Resource Directory project, an effort funded over several years at the University of Chicago by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The project pioneered techniques and technologies to develop comprehensive, systematically organized, and exchangeable community resource information. It also revealed fundamental deficiencies in publicly-available human service information with an important bearing on our capacity to respond effectively to human needs. To address these problems, we need to engage in a fundamental rethinking of human service informationits sources, its users, and how it is designed and communicated. A new business modela novel configuration of organizations, resources, funding, and technologyis needed to generate high-quality human service information as a renewable resource. This paper proposes a design frameworka conceptual architecturefor human service information to meet these goals. Implemented effectively with contemporary information technology, the architecture can provide a comprehensive and unified view of human service information. In essence, such information supplies a virtual integration of complex and separate human service systems. This approach supports greatly improved use of the Internet as an information superhighway for human service information, thereby tapping the vast potential of the American public to help itself.
Copyright 2007 by Integer Research & Consulting, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In August of 2005, Americans watched their televisions in shock and horror as Hurricane Katrina roared toward New Orleans and tore a swatch of destruction across the historic city and much of the surrounding Gulf Coast. The disaster riveted public attention on an emergency response that was widely seen as inadequate in meeting the scope, urgency, and variety of human needs created by widespread devastation. The slow and arduous rebuilding of New Orleans during 2006 has kept this issue in public view, if not always on the front page, and has spurred leaders and the public to ask important questions about Americas ability to effectively plan for and respond to events like these. All agreed that there would be no undoing the tragedies that the nation had witnessed; most wondered if future calamities of this magnitude could be prevented. At the time the hurricane struck, we were completing a project on Chicagos South Side that had been funded over several years by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The work grew out of a ten-year public housing transformation affecting many thousands of families across Chicago. Our goal was to compile and distribute a comprehensive directory of resources in the MidSouth area to support public housing residents relocating to local communities while construction of their new homes was underway. As the project unfolded, we were struck by the difficulty of our task. We found that information on community resources was widely dispersed and often unreliable, and that only a fraction of potentially useful community organizations was listed. Material in published form or on the Internet was often too general and rarely provided the specific details and locations of available services. The MidSouth area contained a complex, rich web of resources, but there was no comprehensive, high-quality information resource for navigating this complicated human service landscape. This information gap was a handicap to individuals seeking help in the community as well as to government agencies, real estate developers, philanthropies, and community development organizations. Our project helped close the community resource information gap for a small area of Chicago on a one-time basis. We pioneered techniques and technologies to develop comprehensive, systematically organized, and exchangeable community resource information at reasonable thresholds of expertise, cost, and effort. We also framed preliminary thinking about how good information of this sort might be sustained as a renewable resource. Beyond this, the project revealed fundamental deficiencies in publicly-available human service information that have an important bearing on large-scale emergencies like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, and on the everyday emergencies of individuals and families as well. It is a given that Americans are served by a complex array of federal, state, county, city, and local agencies and by a diverse spectrum of nonprofit and for profit private providers. These constellations were not designed to function, nor do they function, as an integrated whole. This is unlikely to change. The core problem we identified is that the information about these resources is as disconnected as the systems themselves. Publicly-available human service information does nothing to resolve the complexity of the service environment; it reinforces it. Incredibly, this happens in the Age of the Internet, a time when Americans use their computers to access an astonishing and growing cornucopia of goods and services from companies worldwide. Americans readily shop for books, clothing, airline reservations, and rock concert tickets at any location equipped with a computer and Internet access. This is simply not possible when we need to access the resources of social service agencies, schools, health clinics, houses of worship, and other vital human service providers. As a public, we are strikingly ill-equipped to tap the network of community resources available to us because we are poorly informed about them. The presenting feature of this problem is often taken to be one of the availability and deployment of information technology. Unquestionably, there is a digital divide that needs to be closed. Furthermore, even a cursory look at the human service web sites on the Internet confirms that they lag well behind the technical and design capabilities seen on commercial sites. There is no doubt that effective use of information technology could make a huge difference in these areas. Yet the problem runs deeper than this. What is missing is a set of conventions for assembling and standardizing human service information across all the systems and organizations that provide them, and for sharing that information with the American public in a usable and consistent manner. A suitable architecture for human service information, implemented effectively with contemporary information technology, could provide a comprehensive, cross-system view of human service information to service consumers, community providers, system man-

agers, and many others. In short, sound information architecture and technology are capable of providing a virtual integration of complex human service systems. For this to happen, there will have to be a fundamental rethinking of how human service information is constructed, maintained, and shared in the United States. Otherwise, the promise of an information superhighway for human service information will not be fully realized, nor will the vast potential of the American public to help itself be effectively tapped. The purpose of this white paper is to invite discussion of human service information and of the need to rethink it. The paper briefly reviews our experience developing the Chicago MidSouth Community Resource Directory and the immediate and farther-reaching problems this work revealed. A new conceptual architecture for human service information is then proposed as a framework for resolving the structural deficiencies in human service information identified by the paper. Rethinking human service information in the United States is an essential first step toward improving the publics capacity to identify and access community services, wherever that community might be in America. Your thoughts on this important subject are invited and welcomed.
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BACKGROUND: A COMMUNITY SERVICE DIRECTORY PROJECT IN CHICAGO At the close of the 20th Century, the Chicago Housing Authority launched a ten-year project to bring transformative improvement to its public housing developments. Implementing wide-scale brick-and-mortar revitalization, the CHA also redesigned its model for delivering resident services. In the past, residents had received their services at CHA sites; henceforth, they would be required to access suitable help from organizations in the surrounding communities. The MacArthur Foundation provided extensive support to numerous organizations and projects associated with Chicagos housing transformation. Among these, it funded an initiative at the University of Chicago to develop a community service directory for CHA residents. Our project focused on the Chicago MidSouth area, a narrow rectangle of land along Lake Michigan in which a high concentration of the old public housing tracts had been located and where new mixed-income housing was being built. CHA residents were temporarily relocated to multiple neighborhoods within this area as construction proceeded, and it was here that they needed to secure human services, employment assistance, and other essential supports. As we started gathering data, we found that information on community resources was widely dispersed and often unreliable, and that only a portion of potentially useful community organizations was listed. Material in published form or on the Internet was often too general and rarely provided the specific details and locations of available services. A longstanding and essential information resource, the United Way Human Care Services Directory, was three years old; its future publication, under the auspices of a newly-formed nonprofit organization, appeared to be beyond the horizon line of our project. In light of these findings, we concluded that the only practical approach was to design and build the directory from foundation to roof. We used the Internet Yellow Pages to conduct a comprehensive sweep of basic information about community providers. Organizations that completed a detailed inventory of services, locations, and contacts were included in the directory. We employed powerful, low-cost database software to store, standardize, and output information, and an inexpensive mapping program to code providers and services with census tract and distance information. We explored three vehicles for disseminating service information, including a prototype web site, an electronic directory in Adobe PDF format, and a hard-copy publication. At the conclusion of the project, we published electronic and hard copy versions of the directory and distributed them to hundreds of MidSouth organizations. The directory database evolved over the course of the project into a de facto community resource information system. It enabled us to analyze, report, and map data on community providers, services, and demographics, and to supply data to other research projects, surveys of community resources, and planning exercises. Techniques and technologies pioneered by the project make it feasible to develop comprehensive, systematically organized, and exchangeable community resource information at reasonable thresholds of expertise, cost, and effort.

PROJECT FINDINGS Chicagos MidSouth area is supported by a complex, rich web of resources. These include well-known, highly visible public sector and private sector organizations that are published in directories or which have an Internet presence through one or more web sites. Many additional resourcessuch as churches, neighborhood associations, and public and private schoolsalso play essential roles, but are not included in directories or are less visible on the Internet.
Findings
The MidSouth is supported by a complex, rich web of community resources with diverse service portfolios There is no source of comprehensive, high-quality information on these community resources This information gap negatively impacts
service consumers, government agencies, Many MidSouth providers offer diverse portfolios of servcommunity organizations, and others ices. For example, neighborhood associations, churches, Our project closed the information gap and social service organizations all offered at least ten on a one-time basis. Producing highcategories of services ranging from advocacy to financial quality service information on an assistance to emergency meals to mental health care. An ongoing basis would require substantial important ramification of this variety is that consumers innovation and change. may have to search widely across the full spectrum of community providers to assemble a complete picture of available services. A parent looking for school age programs, for instance, would want to contact not only schools but also recreational facilities, associations, churches, and social service agencies. People seeking to rejoin the workforce would want to consult employment service organizations, and also to canvass neighborhood associations and social service agencies for suitable supports.
No comprehensive, high-quality information resource exists for navigating this complex human service landscape. Instead, the consumer must assemble a welter of information from the various public or private sector service providers, and from other sources, much of which is incomplete or outdated. At a time when the consumer urgently needs essential services, it is necessary to become an expert in finding them. Its important to note that people with computers and Internet access are not much better off than those without: the information they need is either not available on the Internet or is so general that contact with the service provider is still required. It isnt just the MidSouth residents who labor under these handicaps. In the course of our project we encountered government agencies, real estate developers, philanthropists, and community development organizations that were trying to assemble pictures of community resources suitable for their respective purposes. To some extent, we were able to support their efforts with the Internet Yellow Pages data we had assembled and with the MidSouth directory, but it was clear that many vital information gaps remained. Our intention in gathering detailed service information was not only to maximize access efficiency and effectiveness, but also to provide a basis for quantifying service capacity. While consumers need to know what services exist, where they are and how to access them, system planners and managers need to determine how many services can be delivered to a specific number of recipients over an interval of time. Sound capacity estimates would have helped determine how prepared the Chicago MidSouth was to meet the needs of the public housing residents relocating to the area. We found that many providers were unable or unprepared to quantify service capacity. It therefore appeared that the community lacked not only a good source of qualitative information describing what type of help was available to its citizens, but also the quantitative data to define how much of that help could be provided. We think that the root cause of many of these challenges lies in the complexity of the public and private service systems that support the people of the MidSouth. Residents are served by an array of federal, state, county, city, and local agencies and organizations, and by a diverse spectrum of nonprofit and for profit private providers. These constellations were not designed to function (and, indeed, do not function) as an integrated whole. Service information is often confined to the organization or systems providing or funding the services; there is no vehicle to extract this information from the dozens of silos where it is housed, to standardize it, and to integrate it in a form useful to the consumer. Nor is there a business or government process to generate comprehensive, high-quality service information on an ongoing basis. Fee-based directories typically serve only specific professional or geographic niches and carry

high price tags. Government and private provider web sites provide free information, but ongoing generation of reliable, up-to-date content depends on institutional policy and practice. The free information on the Internet Yellow Pages is periodically refreshed from underlying telephone company data, but there is no formal mechanism to drive updates of descriptive information about the listed organizations. Even funded projects like the MidSouth directory are hampered by modest rates of participation, possibly because the investment of time, resources, and expertise in supplying good information is more than community providers are willing or able to make. The MidSouth projects final report identified several critical success factors to make high-quality community resource information available on an ongoing basis. Several of these are summarized and amplified later in this document (A Conceptual Architecture for Human Service Information). POTENTIAL IMPACTS As our project findings crystallized, we considered the impact of inadequate community resource information on people and organizations both within and beyond the MidSouth. We formed a set of impressions on this subject over the course of several years based on contacts with people in the community, service professionals, developers, and government employees, and also based on our extensive exposure to publicly-available resource information. It was outside our scope to make a systematic evaluation of service information throughout or beyond the city of Chicago, as it was to evaluate the quality of service information used within service systems and out of the public domain. The following discussion makes no claim to be definitive. Nevertheless, we think there is substantial validity and importance in the following general observations about potential impacts. Potential Impacts of A significant potential impact of deficient information is Inadequate Human Service Information service access failureof the consumer not taking advantage of existing resources, or of doing so in a delayed Access and referral failures manner. This means that people may miss opportunities Negative effects on consumer health, to identify potential problems and take preventive action, social functioning, economic viability or to stem the development of conditions in a timely Reduced efficiency and increased cost manner before they worsen. Economic opportunities like of service processes returning to the workforce may be missed because a par Suboptimal system planning and ent is unaware of supportive community resources such management as child care or after school programs. People with limited financial resources may forego needed help because Suboptimal response to emergencies they didnt know that less expensive options were available, or they may pay too much for the help they do receive. Access failures may also impact individuals and families in farther-reaching ways over the course of time. For example, problems with health and social functioning may cascade as emergency room visits, the development of disabling conditions, the emergence of behavioral problems, loss of employment, and many other conditions. Inadequate information exerts another negative, if less obvious, impact. To the extent that individuals and families are not well informed about available services and how to access them, they become dependent upon service professionals and organizations to supply this guidance. Professional and organizational time and resources are better spent helping consumers answer higher-order questions than addressing lower-order details that could be resolved with good information. Reliance on professionals for basic navigation of service systems also may create an access bottleneck because the consumer must wait until this guidance is available before taking action. This issue takes on even greater gravity in emergency situations, such as natural disasters, when professional resources are indefinitely limited or unavailable. Significant, even catastrophic, losses might be reduced if individuals, families, and communities could mobilize more effectively and independently in emergencies through the use of suitable information resources. Deficient resource information negatively impacts the other participants in the service processservice professionals, community organizations, and service systems managers. An inappropriate referral resulting in access failure, for example, diverts a case manager into a rework process that drains time and reduces efficiency. Community organizations, in turn, experience a drag on efficiency and resources in handling clients that are inappropriately referred or who are not prepared with the necessary information.

More than service access and operational efficiency are at stake. As earlier mentioned, sound estimates of service capacity are the basis by which resources are planned and deployed. Better market intelligence on community services would help providers identify suitable opportunities to add service capacity and avoid adding unneeded capacity. System managers and funders would be better equipped to gauge system capacity against demand projections, whether for emergency shelter, employment-related services, health screenings, or child care. All system participants, we suspect, are hampered by the rigid and compartmentalized way in which service information is structured and maintained. Frequently it is clustered around defined categories of needs (such as substance abuse), defined populations (such as the elderly), and defined units of geography (communities, cities, counties). Such information is difficult to assemble and configure in response to complex individual needs that span multiple service systems, such as an elderly person suffering from depression who requires public aid. The same is true on a larger scale when planned, strategic developments like the Chicago housing transformation cross traditional community boundaries and introduce new service populations and new areas of service need into the planning process. Finally, unplanned, large-scale events like natural and man-made disasters define novel and unpredictable configurations of people, human service needs, and places, often with great rapidity. Here, the need is greatest to integrate information flexibly and quickly across service systems to define and guide intelligent response to crisis. We suggest that the current architecture of resource information may be wholly unequal to this task. A NEW ROLE FOR HUMAN SERVICE INFORMATION This brief discussion has raised some troublingeven frighteningconcerns about the state of human service information. The current structure of human service information mimics the complexities and disconnections of the very complicated service systems that serve the American public. In other words, information about the services provided by the silos remains inside the silos and is often of limited practical value. As a result, the vast potential of the public to help itself with good information remains largely untapped. Services that are not clearly identified cant be easily accessed; services that cant be quantified cant be measured; service processes that cant be measured cant be evaluated for effectiveness. Sweeping improvement is necessary, and the key is capitalizing on the power of contemporary information technologies. Americans will continue to be served by complex human service systems into the foreseeable future, and the prospects for a physical or organizational integration of these resources seems quite remote. However, information technology can provide a virtual integration of human service systems. That is, it can provide a comprehensive, cross-system view of all relevant human service information to service consumers, community providers, system managers, and many others. The fundamental information unit of the new model is services that can be clearly defined, measured, and communicated. In short, information technology can be used to present a simple and powerful view of the complex human service systems that serve us. However, information technology alone is not the answer. The technology needs to be designed and deployed according to an information architecture that supports the goal of virtual integration.

A CONCEPTUAL ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMAN SERVICE INFORMATION A conceptual architecture is a model of core structural components as they relate to each other and to the whole; it manifests the basic, underlying principles of design. It is also the basis for developing detailed blueprints that define how the architecture will be implemented in the concrete world of networks, databases, and computers. As shown in the diagram below, the new architecture is comprised of five building blocks, each of which reflects new thinking about the use and deployment of human service information. Conceptual Architecture for Human Service Information
SOURCES. In the current environment, information is fractured and separated by the various service systems.
This component of the architecture compiles comprehensive human service information across all the relevant systems and providers. As shown in the diagram, information would be drawn from sectors that normally do not integrate their informationvarious tiers of government; government and private agencies; for-profit and nonprofit organizations; healthcare and social service organizations; non-commercial and commercial establishments. The architecture offers the advantages of one-stop shopping for services in a virtual mode: since the needed services cant be co-located under one roof, at least information about them can be integrated in a single place. This architecture embodies a shift away from a provider-centric world to a consumer-centric environment. As later discussed, the consumer is broadly redefined to include all those with a legitimate need for service information. Another important aspect of cross-sector compilation is that it combines information that is normally separated into separate compartments of conditions (e.g., mental health) or populations (e.g., the elderly). As mentioned in an earlier example, integrated information makes it much easier to identify available resources for people whose needs span multiple silos (such as an elderly person suffering from depression who requires public aid). An unusual feature of this architectural component is the selective inclusion of for-profit and commercial entities. This offers a broader array of consumer choices. It also affords marketplace intelligence for system managers requiring a more complete supply-side picture than is currently available. The envelope of human services is stretched even more broadly to encompass organizations that provide goods and services that are essential under emergency conditions. It may sound offbeat to include in the domain of human services commercial bus companies, electronics companies with inventories of satellite telephones, enterprises with extensive floor space, and pharmacies with supplies of medications. The Katrina experience suggests otherwise.

DESIGN. This component of the architecture makes it possible to gather, standardize, and integrate concrete serv-
ice-level information from all participating information sources. The service-level information is specific and detailed enough to support service access by consumers and quantification of provider and system service capacity. For example, the general category of homeless services needs to be broken down into the deliverable and measurable services that comprise itemergency shelter, meals, case management, and transportation. Only at this level of specificity can a caseworker determine what supports are offered at a shelter, and a community be able to estimate its capacity in terms of beds, food, and busing to meet the needs of homeless people. Several kinds of standards are required to make data integration possible. A common set of definitional standards would supply the precise meaning of imprecise terms like mentoring and youth so that the exact nature of services and their intended recipients can be known. The various service silos define populations, providers, and services in a variety of ways; the common definitional standard makes it possible to translate and compile this information. This is not to suggest that service providers would be required to adopt these conventions in their own domains; they would simply have to define and maintain the crosswalks necessary for converting their data to the common standard. Quality standards are required to ensure the integrity and currency of service information.
COMMUNICATION. Typically service directories catalogue and deliver information about local organizations
within communities, cities, or metropolitan areas. Service information must be provided for a wider geographic area than thisat regional, state, and even national levelsfor several reasons. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how natural phenomena can spill over formal political boundaries, thereby creating a larger, irregular impact area of human service needs. Good information based on wider geographic areas can meet such needs efficiently; localized information cannot. It was necessary, for example, to look well beyond the Gulf Coastin fact, well beyond Louisianato find emergency shelter and supplies for residents relocated in the wake of the emergency. The Internet offers many examples of well-designed, powerful user interfaces that could serve as models for communicating human service information. The most relevant implementations are commercial web sites selling goods and services, the Internet Yellow Pages, and other similar applications that guide the user through a structured process of defining needs, identifying alternatives, and making choices. Human Service Information Interface: As suggested by the schematic, the Guiding the User Through a Structured Process human service interface would help the service consumer define essential factors such as the service need, the preferred location for service access, resources for service payment, and other relevant details. After these factors were clarified in a step-by-step manner, the consumer would be sufficiently informed to pick up a telephone (or send an e-mail) to request a service appointment with a specific provider. It would also be possible to print out search results, view maps and driving directions, or save search parameters for later refinement and reuse. Analogous structured approaches for retrieving information would also be available for other users such as service providers, system managers, community organizations, and researchers. This structured process would be incorporated into companion communications technologies. Kiosks offering this functionality could be installed in public libraries, schools, and municipal buildings in communities where computer and Internet technologies were scarce. Free-standing electronic files (like the PDF directory our project produced, and possibly e-books) would provide low-cost alternatives for computers lacking Internet access, and could be used to print hard copy directories for users preferring information in that format. Printed information would always be available for use when events like power blackouts precluded the use of other media.

Training, computerized help facilities, printed documentation, and telephone support services would all facilitate the rapid uptake and effective use of the information interface. With suitable investment in high-quality user support, the potential of contemporary information technologies would be optimized. Existing applications in the commercial world combine technology and human resources to guide consumers through complex decisions, an approach that would also be useful for a human service information interface.
USER COMMUNITY. There is no clear indication that sources of publicly-available human service information
have systematically defined the composition and needs of their diverse user community. The general, one-sizefits-all nature of current information does little to inform choice, support analysis, or drive decisions. The new architecture conceives of the information user community very broadly, encompassing service consumers, organizations and professionals that provide services, agencies that regulate and fund services, and philanthropies, researchers, and emergency responders with additional types of needs. While each of these user segments would draw upon a common data set, the specific data that would be made available would depend upon the segments needs. Service consumers, for example, would need all the particulars of service access but would not require detailed information on service capacity, while social workers and case managers would need both types of information. Customer satisfaction feedback supplied by individual consumers, after being compiled, consolidated, and processed for quality control, would be useful to consumers, service professionals, community providers, and funders. Commercial applications offer useful benchmarks of representative applications. For example, enterprises that sell products from outside suppliers often provide information on stock availability on their web sites and allow users to rate their satisfaction with a vendor after completing a purchase. In an analogous way, a human service information system might display whether services were available at a specific location, and might include a summary of customer satisfaction feedback. The complexities (and potential controversies) of providing such information are not trivial, but the potential for better serving all segments of the human service user community is a very significant offset.
BUSINESS MODEL. As earlier noted, existing business
and regulatory processes do not generate comprehensive, high-quality service information on an ongoing basis. Moreover, existing models impose a variety of constraints on the use and content of informationwhether by price or copyright, or by limitations on reliability and completeness. A new business model a novel configuration of organizations, resources, funding, and technologyis needed to surmount these obstacles.
Business Model
Supports ongoing generation of highquality human service information Eliminates constraints on information imposed by current business models Provides funding support Drives full provider participation in supplying needed information
Sufficient, ongoing funding would make significant in Incorporates mechanisms for information roads toward a solution, but even then several very imrenewal portant challenges would remain. Foremost among these Leverages existing information is ensuring that all participating service organizations supply detailed and accurate service information. The substantial investment of time and organizational resources to gather information may account for historically low rates of participation in voluntary projects. In the future, improvements in information technology will make it easier and more efficient to collect service information, but the process will always tax the resources of community organizations. Accordingly, it may be necessary to make information gathering a condition of receiving funding or of doing business. It would probably makes sense to incorporate a system of financial incentives into these new requirements. To the greatest extent possible, the new business design should identify and harness natural business mechanisms that serve to refresh existing information. Several existing models should be examined both in their own right and as a springboard for new thinking. For example, the Internet Yellow Pages data draws upon telephone company information that is regularly refreshed as telephone numbers come into service and are disconnected. Links are provided on the Internet interface for users to supply corrections to erroneous entries. Recurring regulatory processes, like the annual filing by not-for-profit organizations of the Form 990 Tax Return, should be evaluated as sources of updated information. The design goal should be to identify processes that prompt the regular updating of provider information, minimize effort, and maximize accuracy.

Finally, high-quality information of potentially great value already exists, and the new business design should take advantage of it. The Internet Yellow Pages, for example, already contain voluminous data on service provider locations, telephone numbers, and business categories. This information, while not perfectly comprehensive or accurate, could be an excellent building block for the foundation. Others like it should be identified and used. Reinventing the wheel should be scrupulously avoided. THE CASE FOR CHANGE More than a year after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Americans continue to share the lessons they learned from the experience. Our finding was that Katrina was a perfect storm, not only in literal terms, but also in terms of the rapidly-changing, large-scale demands it placed upon human service systems. We are convinced that the high-quality human service information envisioned by this essay could significantly improve responses to large-scale emergencies like Katrina and 9/11. Just as important, this information could enhance responses to smaller-scale emergencies in the everyday lives of individuals, families, communities, and cities. At the present, more obvious concerns like rebuilding levees and designing better mechanisms of emergency response are at center stage of government and public attention. The critical supporting role of human service information must be brought onstage from the wings; the question is how. Perhaps the most compelling case for rethinking human service information should be premised on the need for improved response to emergencies. It would be a major step forward to convince planners that good human service information could improve their performance and engage public participation during emergencies.
The Case for Change
Information as a key component of emergency planning and response Information as a driver for public empowerment and accountability Information as a driver for human service system improvement Information as a joint venture opportunity between government and industry
Another salient factor may be an emerging call for greater accountability in the American public. A key theme in the Chicago housing transformation has been making public housing residents responsible for securing the services they need in the community. On the eve of an emergency evacuation drill in downtown Chicago in September 2006, Mayor Richard M. Daley declared that being prepared for emergencies was everyones responsibility, and called for public cooperation. We think that Katrina demonstrated the need for the American public to be empowered as active agents in helping themselves. To do this, the public needs information of the caliber discussed in this essay. Traditional cost/benefit analysis should be incorporated into the case for change. The potential impacts sketched earlier imply substantial cost savings through process improvement, and more effective access to, and use of, available human services. If the financial impact of better information on the human services systems was even roughly quantified, we think the picture would be startling, perhaps even shocking. Even rudimentary improvements in human service information would yield significant dollar savings. Finally, the production of good human service information could offer very substantial commercial opportunities. A joint venture between government, telephone companies, and Internet Yellow Pages providers, for example, could leverage the investments already made in data and information technology to create a platform devoted to human service information. Possibilities like these will continue to grow as the Internet Age matures, and they should be exploited. If virtual integration is seen as a desirable goal, it makes good practical and business sense to harness the innovation of the commercial sector. CLOSING THOUGHTS

As stated in the Executive Summary, this white paper issues an invitation to engage in a fundamental rethinking of how human service information is constructed, maintained, and shared. High-quality information, supplied on the information superhighway, is central to the vision presented here of better service access, enhanced service measurement, and improved system management. In closing this discussion, it might be useful to reflect on the original superhighway in Americathe Interstate arteries of concrete and blacktop that linked all the major cities in the United States starting in the 1950s. The interstate system was designed to provide for the everyday transit of trucks and cars and also for extraordinary needssuch as troop movements and large-scale evacuationsthat might arise from public emergencies. The architecture of the system mandated design standards, guaranteed public funding, and ensured that Americans would be connected within their communities and across the United States in good times and bad. This overarching vision of serving the public seems like a great inspiration and model for moving the work ahead proposed by this white paper. If Americans are to be better served in the real world of towns and cities and roads, they need to be more effectively served on the highways of fiber optic cable. Good information design is the key to it all.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Grateful acknowledgement is made to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which funded the project described in the paper, and to Spruiell D. White, our senior program officer. Work was conducted at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and the Chapin Hall Center for Children over the period 2003-2006. Thanks are also extended to Professors Edward F. Lawlor and Mark E. Courtney for their support of the project, and to Jocelyn W. McClelland for helping make the Chicago MidSouth Community Resource Directory a reality. Others at the university and in the community offered support, insight and encouragement over the lifetime of the project and as this white paper evolved. Sincere thanks to Kerry Allen, Ellen Corley, Michael Darcy, Peter Freeman, Lela Gamble, Pamela Hamilton, Mark Joseph, Mary Jane Keitel, William Kennedy, George Lakehomer, Matthew Lusardi, Sandeep Nain, David ODonnell, Ray Rund, Cheryl Smithgall, Jamie Stanesa, and Eugene Zell. INTEGER RESEARCH & CONSULTING, LLC Based in Chicago, Integer Research & Consulting, LLC has led engagements for nonprofit, government and corporate clients in strategic business and information systems planning. The firm has developed detailed executive-level studies and recommendations and has managed projects for clients such as Haymarket Center, the Chicago Department of Human Services, Connection Resource Services of Lake County, Deborahs Place, and Northern Trust Company. Integer currently focuses on original research and strategic consulting in the area of Human Service Information Delivery (HSIDTM). The firm provides customized consulting services to government and nonprofit clients that are defining strategies and best practices in HSIDTM. HUMAN SERVICE INFORMATION DELIVERY (HSIDTM) PRACTICE During 2007, Integer conducted a Ten-City ScanTM of Americas ten largest cities to see how these communities are meeting the challenge of delivering human service information. The Ten-City ScanTM is a high-level review of human service content on the ten city websites and of eight online human service directories used in these communities. The Scan reviewed 30 websites, 150 root URLs, and several thousand web pages. To support this research, Integer developed a proprietary methodology for scanning, reviewing and assessing human service information. The methodologys Scanning Phase supplies a framework for appraising six interlinked components of human service information delivery: information sources, users, accessibility, content, quality, and processes. The Scans first analysis and report, the Accessibility Analysis, completed in December 2007, focuses on the component of information accessibility. Three accessibility factors were evaluated at each website included in the study: ease of finding, information organization, and information linkage. The Accessibility Analysis identifies key techniques that facilitate human service information accessibility, evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and highlights emerging good practices. Findings are documented in a 120-page report which contains more than 140 hyperlinks to web pages discussed in the report or presented as good practice examples. Detailed findings of the Accessibility Analysis are presented to participants who enroll in a fee-based seminar and who may be asked to enter into a nondisclosure agreement.
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MARK H. NEUFFER, PRESIDENT After graduating magna cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in English, Mark Neuffer worked in the financial services industry as an office automation consultant and director. At a leading computer manufacturer, he supported business, legal, medical, and government organizations in professional productivity applications. As a management consultant, he led engagements in the nonprofit and government sectors and in the manufacturing, publishing and financial services industries. After receiving a Masters degree from the University of Chicagos School of Social Service Administration, Neuffer conducted special projects for the School's leaders and senior faculty. He led projects funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to survey community resources in Chicagos MidSouth area and to publish an electronic directory of human services. His work pioneered methods of surveying, acquiring, compiling, and using community resource data. PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS MidSouth Resource Directory Copies of the Chicago MidSouth Community Resource Directory in Adobe PDF format may be requested directly from Mark Neuffer at m-neuffer@earthlink.net. At this writing, the PDF file may be downloaded from the web site of the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago at http://www.chapinhall.org/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1421. MidSouth Resource Directory Project: Final Report to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation This final report to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on the Chicago MidSouth Directory Project reviews project findings and envisions how better community service information can be provided to Chicagos residents. Copies of the report in Adobe PDF format may be requested directly from Mark Neuffer at m-neuffer@earthlink.net. Ten-City ScanTM Accessibility Analysis Highlights Presentation and Fee-Based Seminar The Accessibility Analysis findings are highlighted in a high-level PowerPoint presentation of about 25 pages in length which is available for selected audiences. Detailed findings of the Accessibility Analysis are presented to participants who enroll in a fee-based seminar. Depending on the circumstances, presentation and seminar participants may be asked to enter into a nondisclosure agreement. COPYRIGHT Copyright 2008 by Integer Research & Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of Integer Research & Consulting, LLC. CONTACT For additional information, please contact: Mark H. Neuffer, President Integer Research & Consulting, LLC Chicago, IL 312-504-1067 markneuffer@integerconsult.com http://integerconsult.com
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