Implementing the Affordable Care Act

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides a great deal of policy discretion to states within the broad framework established by the federal government. A new paper, Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Strategies for Successful State Implementation of the Affordable Care Act, provides information regarding the circumstances under which implementation of the ACA is occurring, the key policy issues at stake, and proposes a specific strategy for successful implementation. The report was released by Community Catalyst and was written through a collaboration including Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Families USA, the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, Health Care for America Now, and Trust for America’s Health. The report proposes strategies in three areas for successful implementation of the ACA:

• Creating the best possible environment for implementation through work on both the national and state levels
• Creating sufficient state capacity and infrastructure to support implementation through an investment strategy that maximizes effectiveness across a number of states with varying environments
• Investing in the capacity of national organizations to allow them to support state implementation and effectively coordinate implementation efforts among and between national and state organizations

For a Framework for Policy Success.

Parent Engagement: A New Resource from CSSP

The Center for the Study of Social Policy recently released a resource, Growing and Sustaining Parent Engagement: A Toolkit for Parents and Community Partners. The toolkit, commissioned by First 5 LA, provides a quick and easy guide to support and sustain parental engagement. While this tool serves as a great resource for parents and the service providers that they work with directly, it is also a good resource for policy makers and agency staff looking to ensure parental engagement in decision-making, leadership and advisory roles.

Parental engagement, and broader community engagement, is critical to ensuring results. For more on engaging parents and the community in the implementation and accountability process visit PolicyforResults and investigate our Sustaining Success sections.

Free Webinar Series on Results-Based Accountability in Place-Based Policy Initiatives

The Results Leadership Group is offering a series of free webinars for leaders seeking to implement Results-Based Accountability™ in place-based initiatives.

Why Use Results-Based Accountability™ for community and place-based initiatives?

Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 2 – 3 p.m.

Defining Community Change: Selecting Results and Indicators for your neighborhood or community

Tuesday, February 22, 2011, 2 – 3 p.m.

Results-Based Planning: Turning the Curve™ and Improving Community Indicator Data

Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 2 – 3 p.m.

Prioritizing Community Strategies and Selecting Measures of Success

Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 2 – 3 p.m.

Personal Accountability and Collaborative Leadership

Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 2 – 3 p.m.

Next Steps: Developing an Implementation Plan

Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 2 – 3 p.m.

Register here for the webinar series.

Check out PolicyForResults.org’s webinar on results-based public policy.