Partnering with faith-based and community-based organizations
Abstract
There is great interest in the U.S. Congress and at the White House in increasing the number of faith-based and community-based organizations accessing services and resources of the Corporation for National and Community Service. This includes expanding partnerships with AmeriCorps. The newness of this effort creates an opportunity for growth and a need for successful models. This effective practice from David Chaney, HOPE worldwide was developed from a session at the AmeriCorps*National Direct Best Practices Conference held February 2002 in San Diego, CA, and describes successful AmeriCorps partnerships in this area. A panel of experts representing several faith-based and community-based organizations contributed to this practice.Issue
Faith-based and other community-serving groups have traditionally been distant from government because these grassroots and small-scale programs, both sacred and secular, have unique strengths that government cannot duplicate. Expanding the role of social services within these groups through partnerships with governmental agencies creates an exciting opportunity for a new paradigm of service.
Action
This effective practice from David Chaney, HOPE worldwide was developed from a session he moderated at the National Direct Best Practices Conference held February 2002 in San Diego. The Faith-Based & Community Initiatives Panel included two leaders in the faith-based arena and three representatives from AmeriCorps National Directs that serve in metropolitan and rural areas as faith-based and community-based organizations attempting to empower AmeriCorps members to affect change in our nation's neighborhoods at the grassroots level. These partnerships benefit both the AmeriCorps member (by emphasizing the service ethic) and the host agency (by supporting the areas of recruitment, training, and provision of services).
Effective practices from three partnerships between the Corporation for National and Community Service and faith-based and community-based initiatives include:
Sister Katherine Corr, Executive Director, Notre Dame Mission Volunteer Program
- Sister Katherine Corr represents a faith-based organization that increased in size from six to 194 AmeriCorps members plus 90 Education Award Only members in just seven years.
- This rapid growth was made possible because AmeriCorps was the catalyst that had faith in Notre Dame that it could manage and nurture AmeriCorps members to effectively help others.
- She says the key is having a belief in self that every individual can make a difference and having a heart to help the poor and needy.
- Sister Katherine Corr also suggests taking advantage of technical assistance that AmeriCorps can provide and working with local ministers to affect change.
- A community-based organization, AFOP has effectively used AmeriCorps members to enhance and expand local program capacity in rural communities especially among migrant farm workers.
- AFOP has effectively recruited farm workers, many of whom know very little English, and trained them in pesticide safety.
- This training not only protects the interest of the farm workers and the health of the communities but it has enhanced their opportunities to become community leaders and given them professional skills that will benefit them later in life after AmeriCorps.
- Glen O'Gilvie of the RFK Fellows Program places 16 AmeriCorps members in each of the following cities: Washington DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
- The AmeriCorps members work with other small community-based organizations to encourage volunteerism through community service while providing leadership and educational development through extensive employment and life-skills training.
- RFK has effectively established an internal communication and reporting process that has increased ownership of the program and responsibility.
Rev. Mark V. Scott, Co-Chair, Task Force on White House Faith-Based & Community Initiatives, Corporation For National & Community Service
- Rev. Mark V. Scott stressed the importance of both faith-based and community-based organizations engaging in service, emphasized the importance of AmeriCorps in this growth, and emphasized the importance of collaboration and the spirit of giving in this movement of service
- Rev. Michael Mata emphasized that the efforts displayed from faith-based and community-based organizations within AmeriCorps are a gold mine of opportunity for capacity building, an emphasis on values towards caring and giving, and a means to effectively evaluate and identify what assets exist within each partnership that is forged between two organizations.
Context
The White House Task Force on Faith-based and Community Initiatives includes the Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation) and the five faith-based centers located in the Departments of Labor, Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. Two staff from the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives are assigned to the Corporation: Rev. Mark Scott and Lisa Cummins.
FACES (Faith and Communities Engaged in Service) is the acronym for the Corporation's portion of the initiative. The Corporation supports faith-based and nonprofit groups through AmeriCorps, the National Senior Service Corps, and Learn and Serve America.
Outcome
Notre Dame Mission Volunteer Program, Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, and the Robert F. Kennedy Fellows Program all experienced value as described above from their association with the Corporation for National and Community Service.
National service volunteers helped support the organizations' missions and assisted with recruiting, training, and supervising additional volunteers.
Posted On
April 1, 2002For More Information
Related Practices
Related sites
Faith-based and Community Initiatives (White House)
National Service and Faith-based Organizations (CNCS)
National Crime Prevention Council