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e Mr. Downes said in the past two years, the steering committee has been attempting to build the community's capacity to deal with the significant need for human services. Continuing this community capacity development effort will require developing a permanent structure--an organization with adequate funding to provide needed leadership for human services in Lane County. The steering committee would like to see the creation of the Lane County Human Services Coordinating Council. Mr. Downes said the coordinating council would be governed by a volunteer board of directors with a limited staff, and would continue to update needs assessment information as necessary, undertake additional information-gathering activities, assist agencies funding human services in Lane County in setting funding priorities, sponsor management training and other staff development activities for human services agencies--particularly for nonprofit ones--provide technical assistance, advocate for needed changes in the human service system and for additional resources, and so on. Ms. Bascom said there is emerging research that distinguishes between those human service programs which are effective and those which are not. She asked how the City can get this type of information. Mr. Downes said one way to get effective services would be for the agencies funding human services to put out Requests For Proposals which specify how the program should be run. He felt this would be a more effective way of allocating funds. Ms. Bascom said it is not realistic for the coordinating group to ask for more funding; she stressed the importance of carefully assessing programs and increasing productivity. e Mr. Rutan said he found the report very helpful. He asked how Lane County compares to other counties. Mr. Downes said that formal research on this question has not been conducted. He estimated that Eugene is probably in better shape than most counties, but there are probably areas in which we are worse than other communities as well. Mr. Downes said in many counties it is typical to have large human service areas that are completely ignored. Mr. Rutan suggested that the high number of people with substance abuse problems are escalating the number of people who cannot meet their basic needs. Mr. Downes does not feel this is the case. He said drugs are no longer expensive and did not feel there are a high percentage of people who spend money on drugs rather than food. In response to a question from Mr. Holmer, Ms. Eaton said the steering committee feels no single agency has been able to, or will be able to, accomplish the agenda for action set forth in this report. For this reason, committee members are hoping the Lane County Human Services Ccoordinating Council can be formed. She said the steering committee is not proposing that allocations be made by this entity, but that there would be a regular, ongoing discussion of needs and that funding agencies would set priorities based on needs identified in the report. Ms. Eaton felt the exact parameters of the coordinating council should be set by agencies funding human services. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 5