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The community assessment methodology adopted by The Coordinating Council of Broward (CCB) in mid-1997 identifies the need for a countywide resource inventory as an integral part of the community assessment process. The role of the inventory is to provide an information base to complement quality-of-life indicators and goals in the identification of critical issues and priorities for action by the CCB, the network of service funders and providers, and the community. The assessment of how resources currently are allocated to health, public safety, education, economic and human services in Broward County is essential to the development of strategies to address priority needs identified by the periodic review of progress toward the County's goals.

The creation of a consistent, comprehensive source for information about which services are provided, by whom, when and where in Broward County, subject to what eligibility criteria, ensures that funders and providers alike will be able to target scarce resources at high-priority needs. In addition, by gathering this data through a single, coordinated survey, in conjunction with the county's information and referral service, and making the information available to meet the needs of a broad user base, there will be a substantial reduction in duplication of effort by providers and funders in filling out forms with this information.

As proposed in the Countywide Resource Inventory Methodology (1998), key features of the resource inventory are:

  • use of standardized organizational profiles for both funders and providers to collect information annually about services and the resources allocated to those services;
  • use of a common classification system (taxonomy) for services as the "common language" for both the inventory and the CCB's shared information system;
  • a memorandum of understanding among CCB members strongly encouraging funders and providers to complete the standardized organizational profiles as a pre-requisite for funding, and to accept the profiles in fulfillment of similar information required for each grant application, survey and monitoring report;
  • integration of the resource inventory with the directory of services maintained by Broward County's information and referral service, First Call For Help, the designated host agency;
  • integration with the resource inventories and asset mapping undertaken as part of the CCB's neighborhood pilot projects; and
  • integration with the Broward Information Network (BIN) as it is implemented.

In July, 1999, at the end of the first year of implementation, the CCB's Countywide Resource Inventory provides information about 20 funders of health, public safety, education, economic and human services in Broward County responsible for $125 million in funding, and 275 providers accounting for over $500 million dollars in services in 1998-99. This information is available in a searchable database that includes a set of standard reporting capabilities.
 
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