Forty-five percent of cuts in welfare reform were related to immigrant communities. The issue and our view is not necessarily power, but the issue of common ground. As an example, he cited the Children's Mental Health Consortium, which works with severely emotionally disturbed children. This program came about in recognizing that there was a need for more community-based agencies of color to come together and to parallel those services that were being provided to the mainstream. Bethke also said there has been a major change in outcome-based evaluation.
University students help the agencies further develop outcome based evaluation capabilities.
He noted that United Way of St. Paul has undergone a major change in looking at outcome-based program services. What I think this all speaks to from our standpoint are principles of stewardship, accountability, and responsiveness to the needs of community. I do want to underscore the point that stewardship, accountability, and responsiveness are certainly the guiding principles that I think have worked well with nurturing a very important relationship with Ramsey County. She also discussed the process and importance of forming community partnerships and espoused optimism about community ownership and partnerships. In Ramsey County we would like to move to a place where we encourage the development of such partnerships with all the providers with whom we deal.