How to Show Success: Developing Performance Measures for Anti-Poverty Programs

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) is one of New York City’s largest human service agencies, providing thousands of New Yorkers with critical services and assistance in their fight against poverty. As part of an organizational effort to expand the way in which it presents its community-based work, the Capstone team helped create a set of performance metrics that measure the long-term benefits to Met Council’s clients. Working with Met Council staff, the team examined academic literature on performance measurement, and put together a set of measurements that could be used immediately by the Crisis Intervention and Housing programs. These indicators will be used by the organization when communicating with a variety of partners on the utility of their programs in fighting poverty. The team also provided Met Council with a framework that can be used moving forward when measuring other programs within the organization.