Some Great Examples of Service Excellence Assessment Tools/Programs

We are working to arrange access to our Diigo resource, an annotated online service that connects you to over 200 assessment tools related to programs, facilities, parks, community building and management.  In the meantime, here's a short list of some examples that have impressed us:

• Cultural Competency - the Minnesota Department of Health Services has developed an organizational self-assessment tool using 56 competencies in five categories (service delivery and quality management, human resource practices, governance/community relations/marketing, administration and policy, organizational culture) http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased&dDocName=id_016429 
• Excellence Framework for Sport and Recreation Services - A Sport England initiative.  A performance managment framework for sport and recreation services that helps local governments assess performance based on four levels (poor, fair, good and excellent).  Criteria and indicators are provided in eight areas: leadership, policy and strategy, community engagement, partnership working, use of resources, people management, standards of service, performance measurement and learning. http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/4433678 
• National Occupational Standards for Community Development - Lifelong Learning UK lists practice guidelines in seven key areas: understand and practice community development, understand and engage with communities, take a community development approach to group work and collective acction, promote and support a community development approach to collaborative and cross-sectoral working, support community learning from shared experiences, provide community development support to organizations, manage and develop community development practice. http://www.ukstandards.org.uk/Admin/DB/0030/Community%20Development%20S1%20to%20S8.pdf
• New York AfterSchool Network Program Quality Self-Assessment Tool - organized around ten essential elements of an effective afterschool program, all of which come from evidence-based practice, with quality indicators for each element: environment/climage, administration/organization, relationships, staffing/professional development, programming activities, linkages between day and afterschool, youth participation/engagement, parent/family/community partnerships, program sustainability/growth, measuring outcomes/evaluation. http://www.nysan.org/userfiles/file/nysan/overview_QSA_tool.html 
• New Zealand Recreation Facility Management Guidelines - The New Zealand Recreation Association has published very detailed guidelines in the following areas: people, communication and promotion, financial management, asset mansgement, risk management, monitoring and evaluation, planning, customer care, programs and events, facility design, contract and lease management, governance. http://www.nzrecreation.org.nz/Default.aspx?section=organisation&page=projects 
• Review of Current Approaches to Performance Measurement in Protected Area Management - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service has developed performance indicators for: parks systems, mangement systems, protecting individual species, ecological habitat and ecosystem monitoring, fire management, pest and weeds, habitat rehabilitation, human use and recreation. http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/publications/best-practice/pubs/perf-measurement.doc
• Seattle Parks and Recreation, Best Management Practices - a series of very deailted best maangement practices focused on landscaped and natural parkland and the assets located in those areas.  Themes include: construction site management, greenhouse operations, integrated pest management, irrigation management, natural areas, nursery operations, plant bed management, turf management. http://www.cityofseattle.net/Parks/projects/bmp.htm
• Service Excellence Program, Government of South Australia - The Department for Families and Communities has developed a Service Excellence Program that supports two achievement levels.  Critical elements and a performance check list for each are provide in several key categories: sound management, leadership, communication, working together, consumer satisfaction, service outcomes, contracting, people.  In each category there are two sections: essential minimum and organizational learning. http://www.dfc.sa.gov.au/pub/default.aspx?tabid=267