Track and Measure Your Progress
Client tracking:
Client tracking:VOCA wants to know that the funding they gave you is accomplishing something. You will need to track data to show them “how well” you are doing – whom you are serving, how, how often, and how effectively. To that end, VOCA established performance measures to assess your work. Some states also have free software to help you track the information.
Number of crime survivors/victims’ families you are serving: you must keep track of every person and/or family served by date and activity. For example, if you provided victim compensation assistance to a crime survivor, and also enrolled the survivor in a group therapy session, you need to document both services and track the attendance of the crime survivor at each group therapy session.
This can be a bit tricky. You cannot duplicate clients in your count. So if a client received three separate services, you can only count the client once in your total quarterly client count, but you can separately track how many times you offered a specific service. The actual number of services provided may be significantly higher than the number of crime survivors served, if people are receiving multiple services.
Remember, VOCA only funds victim services. So if some of your clients are not crime survivors, you wouldn’t include them in your reporting to VOCA, even if they are receiving the same types of services.
Number of new clients served for the first time during the quarterly reporting period: VOCA wants to know not only the number of clients, but how well your program is accessible to the larger community.
Civil Rights/Demographic statistics: VOCA requires tracking of these demographics for each crime survivor served during the reporting period: Race, national origin, age, sex, disability
Types of victimization: document each victimization type. If one person has experienced multiple victimizations (sexual assault and homicide of a family member for example), include all of the types in your tracking.
Types of services: document each service that you provide to each crime survivor. For example, if you have one client that received crisis counseling, assistance with filing a compensation claim, and they participated in a biweekly support group, you must track each service provided.
Other Special Classification: This includes other specific populations in which you work, such as deaf/hard of hearing, homeless, LGBTQ, immigrants, etc.
How to track this?
How to track this?Create or edit an existing intake form that captures all of the information you will need about each client. Keep each client’s form in a different client file and make sure the information is protected (for example in a locked drawer).
Client Database: If you already have a client database for your organization, add custom fields that will reflect the VOCA performance measures listed above.
What if I don’t have a database? No worries. There are many low-cost client databases that may help you manage client activities. Look into your options. Two commonly used options are Salesforce and Apricot.
If a database is not affordable right now, you can create an excel spreadsheet that will help you track each item. The spreadsheet could include a tab for each performance measure, with columns that will tally services provided, demographics, types of victimization, etc. You can enter the data from your client intake forms on a regular basis.
A sample client tracking spreadsheet is included in the Appendix.
Volunteer and/or Staff Tracking:
For every volunteer and/or staff position funded under VOCA, you must keep accurate records of all job descriptions, hiring documents, and attendance records. For volunteers, if you are utilizing their mileage as matching funds or incorporating it into the VOCA budget, you must maintain accurate records for that also. Set up a file for each staff member and volunteer so you can house copies of these documents in one place for each person.
A sample attendance sheet is included in the Appendix.