The following are some examples of organizational development projects that University-Community Partnerships has recently worked on.
Building Technical Capacity in Detroit Mayors Time Program
Mayor's Time is committed to capacity and network development among organizations providing services and activities for Detroit youth. As part of the capacity development effort, Mayor's Time has contracted with University-Community Partnerships for training and technical assistance on the same Web-based service utilization tracking system being used for the Michigan 21st Century Community Learning Centers grantees. This will enable these community-based youth program providers to collect better information for program improvement and efforts to achieve sustainability. In addition, this project, in conjunction with UCP's work with the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative, will allow Detroit youth program data to be compared to data from Michigan after-school programs as a whole. Data will be linked to school outcomes data provided by Detroit Public Schools.
For more information contact: Laurie Van Egeren
Catholic Social Services/St. Vincent Home
This partnership involves building the capacity of Catholic Social Services/St. Vincent Home to enact an organizational shift to an asset/outcome model of operation where progress toward mission, by individuals and across programs, is continuously measured. This evolution involves shifting staff focus from an emphasis on problem resolution to a focus on enhancing the strength and resiliency of individuals and families. It also involves establishing an organization-wide approach to measuring consumer outcomes where the impact of 17 different programs, each with different target populations, services, and purposes, can be individually measured and simultaneously rolled up into an agency-wide understanding of overall impact.
For more information contact: Robert Brown
Child Welfare Collaborative (with Catholic Social Services of Lansing/St. Vincent Home)
Since the fall of 2000, University-Community Partnerships staff have facilitated meetings of the Collaborative to design, implement, and test the use of Catholic Social Services of Lansing/St. Vincent Home (CSS/SVH) as a "teaching agency" for social work students.
The Child Welfare Collaborative is an innovative application of a teaching hospital and a modification of grand rounds, as used in medical training, to a human service agency. The Collaborative provides MSU social work students with hands-on experience in CSS agencies. The students assist in Lansing-area CSS programs such as foster care, refugee services, and Ballentine's Stepping Stones, a transitional housing program for homeless mothers and children. The partnership directly affects 500 children, including those at St. Vincent's Home, a residential center for troubled wards of the court that serves 200 youths a year.
This Collaborative is also exploring and developing best practice and advocacy models for service delivery to children and their families. For example, one of the annual public conferences sponsored by the Collaborative created opportunities for young people to share thoughts about their experiences in foster care and in schools with educators, social service administrators, foster parents, and community leaders. The collaborative has published two anthologies of letters from foster children, "Dear Governor" (2002) and "Dear Teacher" (2003).
For more information contact: David Knaggs
Common Ground Sanctuary
The principal aim of this partnership is to institutionalize the use of best practices to achieve organizational excellence. At a program level, there is an interest in using best practices as a quality improvement tool for onsite psychiatric assessment for children and adults, and for telephone crisis counseling and referral. At an agency level, there is an interest in understanding the capacities, competencies, and actions needed to assure the utilization of best practices across the agency.
For more information contact: Robert Brown
United Way of Mason County
This partnership involves a multi-year transformation of United Way's community investment strategy -- their funding strategy that contributes to overall community well-being. United Way has engaged the community in considering how it might more effectively support progress toward a capable, healthy Mason County through a series of community conversations facilitated by University-Community Partnerships. They plan to use this information as a foundation for this transformation, based on citizen, provider, and volunteer views of what a healthy, capable Mason County looks like. In addition, United Way desires to be able to more clearly assess its impact. Using the Outcome-Asset Impact Model, University-Community Partnerships staff is facilitating the process which will enable United Way to attain this transformation.
For more information contact: Robert Brown
