A Message From the President 

Does it Work? 

The purpose of The Roundup newsletter is to illustrate through stories and pictures how our mission and values manifest themselves in our work with children.

This is very important, as we believe that you support our work because you are inspired by how we do it. Being on the ground here, it is easy for us to say about ourselves, “We are the best at what we do.” But then, how do we really know that? What types of things do we do to ensure that we remain on the forefront of what is really best for children?

Every year, for our Board of Directors, we present what we call the Year End Report. In essence, it is a summary of all of the profiles of children and families we serve, a report card on how they are doing in our programs and a check on how they fare once they leave our programs.

The report looks pretty intimidating. In fact, we are sometimes accused of being too scientific in our reporting, at least in terms of how it is articulated. The report includes numbers, acronyms, pie charts and graphs. But it is from this data that we draw conclusions about the profiles of our youth, the impact our programs have on them; and as a result of our interventions, were they better off when they left than when they came?

I can say from experience that in the field of work with children and families all things are not equal. We really do owe it to our supporters, as well as to ourselves, to show measures of what we do, how we do it, and to answer the question, “Does it work?”

I want Cal Farley’s to be known for being the best, not for just being different. We’ll continue to gather that data because it does matter. And, we’ll keep you updated by telling you the stories and showing you the pictures in The Roundup, because that is what really tells it all!

Sincerely,

Dan Adams,
President and CEO (Biography)