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What is OHATS?
OHATS is an organized and systematic way for a group, program or network of community
organizations to record, observe, analyze and report contributions and key events that influence progress toward its
mission and goals. For example, one can use OHATS to track
accomplishments and results, organizational procedures, lessons and best
practices, critical external events that influence the work, and service
delivery details and statistics.
The idea behind OHATS is simple and proven
throughout history: if a community group tracks actions, events, lessons and results important to their
success then they can learn from them and be more successful.
OHATS
simplifies the collection and organization of data to increase:
- the number of organization staff and stakeholders who document important
actions and events
- the number and type of
actions and events reported (such as lessons and best
practices), and
- the rate of exchange of such intelligence. OHATS uses a set of core
measures for all participating organizations and can include specific measures
to best capture the work and mission of your organization, group or network. Events and actions described in OHATS can be
organized and presented in a variety of
formats and can be grouped
and analyzed in order to identify graphical patterns of progress over time.
OHATS
addresses a need present in every
organization, but more acute in networks and
collaborations.
It allows any organizational
stakeholder to document and see what he/she
does to achieve the organization’s mission,
while demonstrating the cumulative impact of
actions across stakeholders.
It categorizes accomplishments and
lessons (across time, goals, location, and
other user preferences) so progress can be
analyzed using charts and graphs.
OHATS is Internet-based so it can be
used anytime, anywhere, without database
software or skills.
OHATS
fulfills two objectives:
To
enable staff and any stakeholder (such as program volunteers
and clients, business and civic leaders, philanthropic
organizations, social researchers, and policy makers) to document
what they do to achieve the mission and objectives of the community
organization or network, and
To
enable clearer and easier exchange of documented ideas, lessons and
best practices within and outside community organizations and networks.
Why use
OHATS?
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OHATS
can be used to fulfill one or multiple
purpose. Some of these are described
here.
History
& Knowledge Database:
Social welfare and grassroots efforts
often lack resources (time, money, skills) and stable staffing to create
habits and use tools to regularly examine what they do in a way that
leads to useful discovery and program improvement.
In most community organizations intelligence and wisdom stay and
die with individuals and organizations.
This hurts not only individual organizations and their
stakeholders, but also entire community efforts that are sustained
through collaboration and exchange. The absence of useful tools to track
and reflect on progress leads many community organizations and
initiatives to repeat preventable problems, struggle to identify their
needs, lessons and best practices, and to share them with peers, and be
unable to demonstrate neither daily impact, nor cumulative impact over
years of service. These
problems weaken all community work, and contribute to the extinction of
organizations and community improvement initiatives.
Tacking actions and
events important to a group's success can help to identify what works,
what does not, and how to better reach goals and produce desired outcomes. This
tracking process produces a history that staff and
stakeholders can share and learn from.
Such a history of accomplishments and challenges is
critical for organizations working to improve social outcomes that often are not
changed for years and for which it is difficult to capture the day-to-day
contributions toward those more distal outcomes.
Evaluation
& Research:
Each day, groups of people in every
community stimulate and implement changes to improve their surroundings
and circumstances. As these organizations and programs work toward
this mission, their contributions can
improve themselves, other organizations and
the broader community.
OHATS enables an organization to document their actions and events important to its mission in systematic method. By "systematic" we mean that data can be collected in the same way over time and across different reporters. Such systematic measurement permits the prospective, longitudinal study that is demanded by community initiatives that are dynamic (changing to best adapt to the conditions that arise) and that seek outcomes that take longer to reach (5 to 10 years) and interventions that must be sustained across generations.
OHATS can help
identify positive and negative trends over time and to examine
results and progress.
Network
Building & Collaboration:
Traditionally, documentation and exchange occurs through personal calendars, journals, newsletters, and, increasingly, on static websites and email discussion lists. By simplifying data collection and organization, OHATS increases the number of stakeholders who document actions, the number and type of lessons and best practices reported, and the rate of exchange of such information.
Such intelligence can be emailed directly
from OHATS data forms and reports to key
stakeholders in order to raise awareness and
gain support for the work of an
organization. Organizations that use
OHATS to display key events and
accomplishments publicly can invite others
to participate in and collaborate on current
and upcoming events.
How do I use OHATS?
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OHATS is on the Internet so that it can be more easily
found and used by any tutor/mentor organization or program that wants to track,
share and improve its progress. T/ME
seeks to make OHATS easily
available for the broader tutor/mentor
community so that individuals and groups can
co-learn and support each other. Please
contact us to quickly set up your own
OHATS.
Some
illustrations of OHATS and its application:
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An
Illustration of OHATS Results Used in a
Report
Actions and Accomplishments Facilitated by
the Tutor/Mentor Connection of Chicago to
Increase the Number, Effectiveness and
Survival of ALL Tutor/Mentor Programs and
Support Networks, September 2000 thru
March 2002
An
Illustration of OHATS
For Internet Explorer 5.0/ Netscape
6.0 and above (best view)
For
all other Internet browsers]
Evaluation
Tools on the Web
Review the new T/MC OHATS For more samples of how OHATS is used, please visit:
OHATS for the Tutor/Mentor Connection.
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