January Hot Topic: Faith-based Initiatives

Happy New Year! CYFERnet brings in the new year with a look at faith-based initiatives for children, youth, and families at risk. In 2001, the president of the United States led an initiative to strengthen and expand the role of faith-based community organizations in providing social services. This Hot Topic takes a look at programs that include faith-based community organizations, issues in developing faith-based community organization partners, research, and government policy on faith-based involvement in social services for children, youth, and families at risk.

Existing Programs

Amachi: Mentoring Children of Prisoners in Philadelphia
A unique partnership of secular and faith-based institutions, Amachi recruits volunteers from congregations to mentor children of prisoners. During its first two years in operation, the program generated more than 550 adult-child matches. This report explores the implications of the Amachi experience for policymakers, funders, and others interested in starting similar programs. It describes the Amachi model and traces the steps involved in moving from plan to reality, focusing on approaches for recruiting children, pastors, and volunteers. It also examines mentors' successes and challenges, along with the program infrastructure designed to support and monitor matches. In addition, the report presents data on program quality and effectiveness.

Respite and the Faith Community
Historically, faith communities have been vital in supporting the community of which they are a part. In the early years of our nation, faith communities often provided the only existing social services, such as education and healthcare. Over time, however, this social involvement slowly diminished. As government increasingly met society’s social and economic needs, faith communities began to limit their focus to society’s spiritual needs. Today that focus is changing again, as a growing number of faith communities seek to serve not only the spiritual needs of their congregations but also the many different social needs in the larger community.

Positive Support: Mentoring and Depression Among High-risk Youth
This report describes the mentoring programs at the National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk Youth sites, discusses the relationships between mentoring and youth outcomes, and considers the challenges of implementing a mentoring program for high-risk youth.
 
Project HOPE (Hypertension Outreach Prevention Education)
Project HOPE (Hypertension Outreach Prevention Education) is a faith-based community partnership. It is an educational prevention and intervention project designed to reduce the risk of hypertension through diet, fitness and behavior modification. The project targets faith-based communities in Harris, Fort Bend and Travis counties in Texas. This program overview describes the goals and objectives of the project.

Developing Partnerships

Faith-Based Institutions and High-Risk Youth
Many of the highest-risk youth in poor communities are not reached by traditional youth programs, but are served by churches and other faith-based institutions that are both well-established and seriously concerned about the welfare of these vulnerable youth and their families. This report, the first in a series from P/PV's National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk Youth, provides an initial overview of strategies employed by faith-based institutions in 11 cities, including lessons learned about the distinct contributions of faith-based institutions to the work of civil society, and the challenges of building partnerships between faith-based groups and other institutions—law enforcement and juvenile justice agencies, foundations and philanthropy, local government and community organizations.
 
Moving Beyond the Walls: Faith and Justice Partnerships Working for High-Risk Youth
This report examines the development of partnerships among faith-based institutions and juvenile justice agencies in a national demonstration intended to provide mentoring, education and employment services to young people at high risk of future criminal behavior. Given the range of services–and the needs of the young people–collaborations are critical to the communities' efforts. The report addresses the following questions: Can small faith-based organizations work together effectively? Can they develop effective partnerships with juvenile justice institutions? What are the benefits and challenges of both types of partnerships?
 
Exploring Common Ground
Exploring Common Ground provides insights from staff at faith-based and youth development organizations about professional development efforts of both sectors and how they might, despite the challenges, be able to find common ground and strengthen their efforts for young people.
 
The John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities
The John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities represents a partnership between Stanford University and Bay Area communities to build new practices, knowledge, and capacity for youth development and learning. It acts on the conviction that whole communities--youth organizations, health and human services agencies, park and recreation departments, parents, faith-based institutions, and schools—are vital to better outcomes for youth, and that new knowledge, connections, and resources will foster the change necessary to achieving these goals. The website contains information and resources relating to youth development.

Learn and Serve America’s National Service Learning Clearing House Hot Topic on Faith-based Collaboration
This website provides a list of resources on faith-based service-learning and collaboration. Faith-based service-learning involves community religious-based organizations as partners.

Research

Faith in Action: Using Interfaith Coalitions to Support Voluntary Caregiving Efforts
Funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Faith in Action gives small grants to programs that provide informal care for those with chronic physical or mental disabilities. Program services are provided by volunteers, and programs are supported by coalitions involving diverse religious congregations and community-based agencies. This report presents findings from a national survey of 787 Faith in Action programs funded during the 1990s; it highlights their organizational practices, successes and challenges. It also outlines the practices linked with program survival, which include hiring directors with experience in key areas, implementing volunteer training and at least quarterly supervision, involving collaborators in fundraising and volunteer recruitment, and providing diverse services.

Faith and Action: Implementation of the National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk Youth
Public/ Private Ventures' long-standing interest in whether faith-based institutions could serve as vehicles for the delivery of social programming for youth who have committed juvenile or criminal offenses led to the development of the National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk Youth's Faith and Action. This report documents the efforts of the 15 faith-based organizations that participated in this initiative. These organizations entered into partnership with the justice community in order to recruit high-risk youth and provide them with services such as education, employment and mentoring. The report also documents the role that faith plays in the delivery of these services, and makes observations about the capacity of these organizations to implement programs for youth.
 
Outside the Walls: A National Snapshot of Community-based Prisoner Reentry Programs
This study provides descriptions of a broad array of prisoner reentry activity across the country, as well as briefing papers that discuss what is known about reentry as it pertains to employment, health, housing, family, faith, and public safety. The Urban Institute produced this report in collaboration with Outreach Extensions as part of the National Media Outreach Campaign, a new effort to encourage discussion and decision-making about solution-based prisoner reentry programs among local community and faith-based organizations. (Link to full report available in PDF)

Government Policy

White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth Action Center
This resource tracks the implementation of the task force's recommendations for developing a "comprehensive federal response" to the needs of disadvantaged youth; advocates for deeper implementation; and increases the participation of foundations, state and local policy makers, advocates, service providers, community and faith-based organizations, and young people in shaping the implementation of the recommendations.
 
White House Faith-Based & Community Initiative
Led by the president, this organization was created to strengthen and expand the role of FBCOs in providing social services. The US federal government has worked to accomplish this mission through an array of regulatory and policy reforms, legislative efforts, and public outreach to FBCOs.

Pew Forum Resources on Religion & Social Welfare
The Pew Forum offers a variety of resources that examine the relationship between religious organizations, social service providers and government, including reports, polling data, event transcripts and the latest news.

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