Search: Amy Sherman

Using the MA Family Self-Sufficiency Scales and Ladders Assessment Form

by Amy L. Sherman (FASTEN, 2007)

Resource Type: article with guidance for churches and Christian ministries working with low-income families on how to apply/use/adapt this helpful assessment tool

Audience: Pastors and lay leaders wanting an excellent overview of the principles and practices of church-based holistic ministry

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This group of assessment forms, though designed for use by social work professionals in the Massachusetts social welfare system, makes an excellent tool for faith-based groups to adapt and use in their work with low-income youth, adults, or families.

The forms cover several key life arenas, such as employment, education, transportation, health, family development, and housing, among others. Each offers indicators for five different levels of health/well-being, ranging from in-crisis to thriving. Each also breaks down the particular topic into subcategories, for a more nuanced and specific assessment. The employment form, for example, includes the subcategories employment type, wages, benefits, and skills/work history.

These assessment forms can be used in several ways.

First, they can be used in an initial interview with a program participant, in order to establish a baseline of where the person is at in terms of his/her condition in the different life arenas. This use would be helpful for a program director seeking initial funding for a program, as a way of accurately summarizing to potential grantors the life conditions of the potential program beneficiaries.

Second, they can be used as the foundation for an outcomes based program evaluation. In this scenario, program staff (or trained volunteers) would interview participants at the outset of the program and complete the appropriate forms (i.e., those that cover the life arenas affected by the program. An ESL program with no particular emphasis on job skills or job placement would not use the employment form, for example.) Then, at specified intervals (such as mid-way through the program and at its conclusion), participants would be re-interviewed and the forms again completed. Then the various forms would be analyzed to measure the participant?s level of improvement in the varying life arenas. Reports based on this analysis would then communicate the number and percentage of program participants who improved from one level to another on the ?ladders? in the different assessment arenas. The reports could also indicate group performance, such as: ?86% of program participants were found to be ?in crisis? or ?at-risk? in five life arenas at the outset of the program. At the program?s conclusion, only 32% of program participants remained in the ?at-risk? level and only 5% remained in the ?in crisis? level.?

Third, they can be used with program staff, simply to give them a vision of how to define progress in different arenas (what to be looking for) and help them to monitor and track participant progress by observation (even if a formal interview is not conducted with the program participant). Similarly, the forms could be shown to volunteers (such as mentors) working with program participants, to help them understand the variety of ways that the program is attempting to help the participant grow.

For the greatest accuracy, I recommend using these forms in a face-to-face meeting with program participants, using an interview format. That is, a staff person would frame questions using the wording on the forms as cues and then determine which box to check based on the participant?s response. For example, for the Employment Form, the staff person might ask:

(Employment Type): Are you currently working? Is that part-time or full-time? Is this a temporary or seasonable job? Is this job in a career field that is of interest to you?

(Wages): Considering the wages you make from the job(s) you?ve just told me about, would you say that your wages are

• inadequate to meet your (and your family?s) basic expenses for food, clothing, and shelter?
• adequate to meet your (and your family?s) basic expenses for food, clothing, and shelter ?
• more than what you need to meet your (and your family?s) basic expenses for food, clothing, and shelter?

(Benefits): Do you receive any benefits through the employers you have told me about, such as health insurance or dental benefits? If you do not receive benefits, how do you meet your need for health care, dental care, and vision care?

(Skills/Work History): Tell me what you feel are your marketable job skills. Would you say that you have ?job mobility? ? that is, if you were to leave your current job, would you have the skills required to take on some other job that you might enjoy more? Do you feel that at your current employer you have an opportunity for job advancement? Let?s talk a little bit about your work history. Have you been more or less continually employed for the past 3-5 years? Have you experienced long periods (more than three months) of being unemployed? How often, if ever, have you been fired from a job?

If conducting face-to-face interviews with program participants in order to gather the information is not possible, you could consider creating a questionnaire, based on the indicators used in the forms, for program participants to complete on their own. This will require some time and effort, as the questionnaire will need to be carefully worded, written at a level understandable to participants who may have limited education or English skills, and organized in a user-friendly, easy-to-understand manner. To keep the questionnaire as short and simple as possible, it may be necessary to write it in such as a way as to reduce the number of levels of health (currently there are five levels on the ?ladders? and you may need to reduce that to two or three, such as ?in crisis,? ?safe? and ?stable?).