Download or read book Understanding the Strategic Engagement of Partner Organizations in Large Cross sector Social Partnerships Implementing Community Sustainability Plans written by Eduardo Ordonez Ponce and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability is a grand challenge that diverse communities of interest all over the world are currently focusing on at the local and global level. At the local level, thousands of cities have decided to address their sustainability goals through local cross-sector social partnerships, while at the global scale, governments of the world have agreed on the universal aim of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Cross-sector social partnerships have also been identified by researchers and policy makers as a way to address sustainability challenges, with partner organizations from across sectors playing a key role in the achievement of their sustainability goals. Organizations partnering for sustainability are the focus of this dissertation. Many researchers from diverse disciplines claim that organizations join partnerships for strategic reasons, and that sustainability is a strategic opportunity. Integrated literature on strategy, partnerships and sustainability, however, is sparse, and the strategic engagement of organizations in partnerships has been mostly assessed qualitatively. This dissertation draws on strategic management, cross-sector partnerships and sustainability literature to examine the strategic engagement of organizations partnering across sectors for community sustainability. Building on strategic management literature, this dissertation bases its research on three key variables: strategic goals represented as drivers for organizations to join sustainability partnerships, organizational structural features which reflect how organizations structure to implement the partnership's collective sustainability strategy, and organizational outcomes as what organizations gain from partnering for sustainability. Drivers and outcomes are studied through the management perspective of resource-based view (RBV), that is complemented with a community capitals approach often used in the public policy literature, and structural features are examined through contingency theory drawing from management literature. The questions this dissertation aims to answer are focused on the strategic engagement of organizations in sustainability partnerships through the understanding of organizational structures, the value organizations assign to drivers and outcomes to assess resources through RBV, the implemented structural features to examine contingency theory, and the strategic relationships among these variables. This research collects data through a survey from 224 organizations partnering in large cross-sector partnerships. Each of these partnerships has an approximate minimum of one hundred partners implementing community sustainability plans; these are found in: Barcelona (Spain), Bristol (UK), Gwangju (South Korea), and Montreal (Canada). The survey reached a response rate of 26% allowing findings to be generalizable, showing good reliability, and with unbiased responses across organizations, partnerships, and types of organizations. Within this data set are responses from 71 businesses on their drivers to partner, structural features for partnering, and partner outcomes, which was complemented with qualitative content analyses to study the relationships between businesses partnering for local sustainability, and the SDGs as a proxy to global sustainability. Findings from this research show that organizations implement structures when partnering for sustainability. However, the findings further reveal that structures do not affect the relationships between goals and desired outcomes, and being highly structured is not imperative for achieving valuable outcomes. Results also show that society-oriented resources such as contributing positively to environmental challenges or collaborating with society are the most valuable drivers and outcomes for organizations; informal structural features are the most implemented for addressing sustainability partnerships (for example implementing plans and policies, or partnering with other organizations); and organizations achieve the goals that drive them to partner. No statistically significant relationships were found between drivers and structures, nor between structures and outcomes. Finally, research on businesses shows a positive relationship between business' drivers and outcomes and the SDGs, representing an opportunity for businesses to achieve their goals and for business outcomes to contribute to global sustainability. Findings from this dissertation contribute to organizational strategic management, partnerships and sustainability literature by confirming quantitatively that sustainability partnerships are strategic for organizations. This dissertation also contributes to the strategy literature by highlighting the key roles of structures and context in the achievement of strategic goals, presenting a theoretical model that integrates different schools of thought. This research also contributes to the refinement of RBV by highlighting with empirical evidence how valuable societal resources are to organizations, and to contingency theory by confirming that informal structural features are how organizations address uncertain and complex environments such as sustainability. Another contribution from this research is to the partnerships literature by highlighting the power that large cross-sector partnerships have in the achievement of organizational goals. With respect to the business literature, this research also contributes to the understanding of businesses in the context of their engagement in local and global sustainability. From these specific contributions, two main conclusions and theoretical contributions arise. First is the relevance of large cross-sector sustainability partnerships, highlighting the contextual role they play, which together with organizational structures, lead organizations to achieve their strategic goals. And second is the value of societal resources, which can be considered strategic for organizations due to the importance that contributing to society has for organizations, and the way these resources are pursued through organizational engagement in cross-sector partnerships.

Download or read book Local Sustainability Partnerships written by Valentina Castillo Cifuentes and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The number of cross-sector social partnerships (CSSPs) has increased at both global and local levels. This is due to the benefits that they bring in solving complex problems such as unsustainable development, and to the organizations that partner in CSSPs. Current research has stated that partner organizations obtain positive outcomes when they join CSSPs. In this study, outcomes are understood through a Resource-based View approach. Moreover, past research has mentioned that structural features within CSSPs - such as communication systems, monitoring and reporting, partner engagement, renewal systems, among others - help partner organizations to achieve their goals. Nevertheless, there is still a gap in the literature about the relationship between the structural features and partners' outcomes in large CSSPs. This research studies three large CSSPs: Barcelona + Sustainable in Spain (B+S), The Gwangju Council for Sustainable Development in South Korea (GCSD), and Sustainable Montreal in Canada (SM). Each of these CSSPs has more than a hundred partners from civil society, public and private sectors. Through a mixed-methods approach, this research explores the relationship between the structural features of the three large CSSPs and the value given by the partner organizations to their achieved outcomes. Secondary data from three video interviews, and three follow-up interviews with the coordinators of the CSSPs about the structural features was analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Secondary data from 186 partner organizations of the CSSPs was collected through a survey, and it was analyzed through ANOVA Test with the purpose of finding differences in the value given by the partner organizations to their achieved outcomes. With both data sets, abductive analysis was conducted in order to analyze the relationship between the structural features and the partners' outcomes. The results from the structural features show that the CSSPs adopted similar structural features, however, there were some main differences in monitoring and reporting, partners' engagement, and the sector composition of the partners. The results of the ANOVA Tests for the partners' outcomes show differences in community capital outcomes achieved by the partners of Sustainable Montreal, as well as differences in the physical capital outcomes achieved in GCSD. In B+S, there were differences found in the public sector regarding the achieved outcomes on financial capital. The abductive analysis results indicate that the difference shown by the partners of Sustainable Montreal in the value of their achieved outcomes is likely due to the partners' engagement, decision-making mechanisms, as well as their monitoring and reporting systems. The difference for GCSD is likely due to their monitoring and reporting, along with their partner's engagement. Lastly, for B+S, the results are likely due to the composition of the partnership. In conclusion, this research offers seven structural features for large CSSPs that are implementing sustainable community plans. In terms of partners' outcomes, there were differences found outcomes across CSSPs, especially in GCSD and SM. However, it was not possible to find differences across sectors for each CSSP, with the exception of the public sector in B+S. Lastly, in terms of the relationship, the structural features that explain why partner organizations give different values to their achieved outcomes are partners' engagement, monitoring and reporting, decision-making, and composition of the CSSPs. Understanding the resources that partner organizations can achieve from partnering in a CSSP is crucial for engaging key partner organizations that can contribute with their resources skills to the achievement of the CSSPs' goals.

Download or read book Social Partnerships and Responsible Business written by M. May Seitanidi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cross-sector partnerships are widely hailed as a critical means for addressing a wide array of social challenges such as climate change, poverty, education, corruption, and health. Amid all the positive rhetoric of cross-sector partnerships though, critical voices point to the limited success of various initiatives in delivering genuine social change and in providing for real citizen participation. This collection critically examines the motivations for, processes within, and expected and actual outcomes of cross-sector partnerships. In opening up new theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives on cross-sector social interactions, this book reimagines partnerships in order to explore the potential to contribute to the social good. A multi-disciplinary perspective on partnerships adds serious value to the debate in a range of fields including management, politics, public management, sociology, development studies, and international relations. Contributors to the volume reflect many of these diverse perspectives, enabling the book to provide an account of partnerships that is theoretically rich and methodologically varied. With critical contributions from leading academics such as Barbara Gray, Ans Kolk, John Selsky, and Sandra Waddock, this book is a comprehensive resource which will increase understanding of this vital issue.

Download or read book Multi stakeholder Partnerships for Community Sustainability Plan Implementation written by Adriane MacDonald and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Worldwide, the prevalence and complexity of sustainable development challenges require coordinated action from actors in the private, public, and civil society sectors. Partnerships that embody inclusivity and heterogeneity are emerging as a way forward. Such partnerships build capacity by developing and leveraging the diverse perspectives and resources of the multiple stakeholders that represent all three sectors. Multi-stakeholder partnerships are designed to address and prioritize social problems and due to the number of partners, do not have the resources to negotiate the strategic interests of individual partners. Thus, it can be problematic to define the value proposition for partners involved in multi-stakeholder partnerships. Moreover, multi-stakeholder partnerships address social problems by building and leveraging the collective capacity of the partnering stakeholders; however, there are significant issues related to accessing the necessary resources at the partnership level. This dissertation uses resource-oriented theories to examine how resources are gained at both the partner and partnership levels of analysis. At the partner level, resource-based view theory is used to, i) identify which partnership resources are valuable, rare, and costly for competitors to imitate, and ii) identify how partners can organize to capture value by creating internal implementation structures. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between individual implementation structure and four types of partner capital: physical/financial, human, organizational, and shared. At the partnership level, relational view theory is used to understand how the processes of knowledge-sharing and collaborative decision making work together as subcomponents of structures to develop partnership capital. Two separate surveys were used to collect data for this dissertation: the partner survey and the partnership survey. The partner survey collected data about partner-level implementation and outcomes. It surveyed 42 partners involved in multi-stakeholder partnerships implementing community sustainability plans across Canada. Findings from the partner survey indicate that partners prefer outcomes related to building relationships and gaining knowledge. The survey also found that partners who implement by creating internal structures for implementation, such as creating new sustainability-related positions or teams, experienced more learning and gained further knowledge, better relationships, and more cost savings than partners who did not implement in this way. The partnership survey collected data about partnership-level implementation and outcomes. It surveyed 94 local authorities leading the implementation of community sustainability plans through partnerships from around the world. Findings from the partnership survey indicate that collaborative decision making has a positive effect on communication and renewal systems, which has a positive influence on a partnership's capacity in the areas of knowledge and learning, relationships, and adaptability. The findings in this dissertation contribute to the social partnership literature by indicating that plan implementation can occur concurrently at two levels: the partner and the partnership level. Moreover, it finds that based on partner perceptions different approaches to implementation at each level may result in varying outcomes for partners and the partnership. The overarching implication of this research is that while multi-stakeholder partnerships and local sustainable development challenges are embedded in complex social, ecological and economic systems, and are themselves complex, there may be aspects within the control of the partners that can contribute to realizing desirable outcomes.

Download or read book Business and the Ethical Implications of Technology written by Kirsten Martin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-12-11 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on how firms should engage ethical choices in developing and deploying digital technologies. Digital technologies are devices that rely on rapidly accelerating digital sensing, storage, and transmission capabilities to intervene in human processes. While the ethics of technology is analyzed across disciplines from science and technology studies (STS), engineering, computer science, critical management studies, and law, less attention is paid to the role that firms and managers play in the design, development, and dissemination of technology across communities and within their firm. This book covers the topic from three angles. First, it illuminates diverse facets of the intersection of technology and business ethics. Second, it uses themes to explore what business ethics offers to the study of technology and, third, what technology studies offers to the field of business ethics. Each field brings expertise that, together, improves our understanding of the ethical implications of technology. Chapter “A Micro-ethnographic Study of Big Data-Based Innovation in the Financial Services Sector: Governance, Ethics and Organisational Practices", chapter ”The Challenges of Algorithm-Based HR Decision-Making for Personal Integrity" and chapter “Female CEOs and Core Earnings Quality: New Evidence on the Ethics Versus Risk-Aversion Puzzle" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license via link.springer.com.

Download or read book Scaling Social Innovation Through Cross Sector Social Partnerships written by Thomas G. Pittz and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-23 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is designed to illuminate the features of cross-sector partnerships that make them powerful vehicles to drive social change. Partnerships across market sectors, involving for-profit, non-profit, and government entities, work because they leverage the advantages of each type of organization to arrive at novel solutions to social problems.

Download or read book A Future for Everyone written by David Maurrasse and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-04-02 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The original essays in this timely collection discuss the many ways to foster innovative and unprecedented collaborations leading to more effective partnerships between major institutions and corporations to poor and disenfranchised communities. Many of today's pressing issues are covered in-depth: bridging the digital divide; community reinvestment; university and corporate partnerships; and corporate responsibility.

Download or read book Evolving Partnerships written by Jem Bendell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By bringing together their respective competencies and resources for the greater good, governments, business, civil society and multilateral agencies have been seeking innovative ways to work together to respond to the myriad global challenges of our time: the impact of climate change; human security; the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases; the generation of new investment, entrepreneurship and employment; and financing for development. The appetite for such partnerships appears strong. Over 90% of corporate executives responding to a World Economic Forum survey felt that future partnerships between business, government and civil society would play either a major role or some role in addressing key development challenges. This trend will only be increased by the Western financial crisis and the retreat of the state from many areas of societal concern. In the last 15 years, many new partnerships have been formed, and many new people exposed to partnership ways of working. There have been remarkable successes, but also a range of concerns about effectiveness and accountability. Partnerships can work, but can they work better? Many practitioners are now asking how they can achieve a greater scale of impact to match the magnitude of the social and environmental challenges we face. When considering how to equip their organization or programme with the necessary skills to engage with companies in new ways, many leaders of NGOs or UN agencies hire staff from the private sector. Although such staff exchanges are important, it is not sufficient to rely on private-sector staff to develop and implement strategic forms of engagement. Rather, engaging business for social change is a specialism in itself. This book seeks to distil some of the author's 15 years of experience and key learnings on the advanced strategic planning of partnerships for people who work within civil society or public-sector organizations and who already partner with companies. Much of the research focus to date has been on operational issues, rather than on the strategic challenge of evolving partnerships to achieve a greater scale of impact. Rather than helping the reader with moving on from partnerships, this guidebook is intended to help with moving up to a greater scale of impact. The author identifies three generations in the evolution of cross-sector partnering and draws insights from the latest biological evolutionary theory on how complex systems can sustain themselves over time, translating this into a method for understanding and assessing partnering practice. Evolving Partnerships provides a rich and accessible mix of commentary, boxes for clarification, and 11 exercises to help the reader evolve partnering to achieve a wider level of impact – a level that responds to the scale, depth and urgency of the challenges we face today. Written by one of the world's leading authorities on partnerships and a key architect of global partnerships, including the Marine Stewardship Council, Evolving Partnerships will be essential reading for all those involved in cross-sectoral partnerships.

Download or read book Understanding the Influence of Money Variables on the Outcomes of Sustainable Community Plans written by Yushuo Cai and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globally, there is a growing popularity among local governments to apply Cross-Sector Social Partnerships (CSSP) to implement Sustainable Community Plans (SCPs). The aim of this study is to understand the link between the distribution of resources and plan outcomes, and to examine the roles of five plan and structure variables (i.e., oversight by government; collaborative oversight; partner engagement mechanism; number of partners; and community-wide actions) as mediators and moderators. A quantitative method has been used to analyze the data collected from 106 communities worldwide. The main findings of this study indicate the importance of contributed resources (internal, partnership structural, community-wide) on the implementation of SCPs. The results also highlight the critical role community-wide actions play in mediating the relationships, and the significance of collaborative oversight, partner engagement mechanism, and number of partners have in mediating the relationship.

Download or read book Putting Partnerships to Work written by Michael Warner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg clearly identified the corporate sector as one of the key actors in the delivery of national and international poverty reduction targets in developing countries. "Partnerships" between government, civil society and business were proposed as one means whereby these poverty reduction targets were to be achieved. Despite the rhetoric, there was less consideration of how such partnerships could work in practice, the outcomes that could be achieved, or the relative merits of partnerships over other, more traditional approaches to development. This book is about partnerships between the private sector, government and civil society. Its objective is to share practical experiences in establishing and implementing such partnerships and to show how partnerships work. The focus is on the oil, gas and mining industries, as these sectors have tended to be the primary drivers of foreign investment in developing countries. These corporations increasingly operate in regions characterised by poor communities and fragile environments. The more effective use of external relationships to ensure the effective contribution of these investments to poverty reduction and local environmental management is critical, for the companies, for government, and for the poor. Putting Partnerships to Work is based on the work of the Secretariat of the Natural Resources Cluster (NRC) of Business Partners for Development (BPD). This major research programme, which ran from 1998 to 2002, aimed to enhance the role of oil, gas and mining corporations in international development. The programme objective was to produce practical guidance, based on the experience of specific natural resource operations around the world, on how partnerships involving companies, government authorities and civil-society organisations can be an effective means of reducing investment risks and of promoting community and regional development. The programme encompassed partnerships in Colombia, Nigeria, India, Venezuela, Bolivia, Zambia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Tanzania. The specific projects that were implemented included not only "traditional" development projects such as the provision of water, healthcare or infrastructure but also themes as diverse as conflict prevention, regional development, micro-enterprise development and managing oil spill compensation. Based on the experience of establishing and implementing effective partnerships, the NRC identified good practice, and developed replicable guidelines, tools and training materials. This book is not only about good practice; it presents both the positive outcomes and lessons from the programme, as well as the risks and costs, and where things went wrong. It also provides evidence not only of the viability of partnerships (i.e. that partnerships "can work") but also evidence that partnership approaches can provide substantially better outcomes for all parties than can more traditional approaches to development or corporate social responsibility. For example, a road in India was constructed at 25% of the cost to government; it took just 11 months for a community health centre in Venezuela to become operational and with its long-term financial future assured; and primary education enrolment rates in the vicinity of a gold mine in Tanzania have jumped from a historic level of 60–80% to almost 100% (as a consequence of improved infrastructure and community awareness of the importance of education). These development and public-sector benefits have been accompanied by substantial business benefits, including significant reductions in the cost of community development initiatives and/or the leverage of additional resources, greater sustainability and viability of development projects and significant improvements to corporate reputation and their local "social licence to operate" with communities. The book argues that to achieve these benefits requires all parties to invest time and effort in first exploring the best design for the partnership, understanding the motivations of their potential partners and, once the partnership has been established, continuing to actively support the partnership and ensure its ongoing viability. Partnerships that engage the strengths of companies, government and civil society can, under the right conditions, yield better (and more sustainable) results for communities and for business than traditional approaches to development. The authors argue that, because it is built on the central idea of each partner "doing what they do best", the partnership approach offers an opportunity to rethink the way in which companies view they contributions to the livelihoods of local communities. Through partnerships it is possible that community development will be seen less as an "add-on" or "cost" to the company but more an integral part of business strategy providing significant commercial and other benefits. Perhaps most importantly, partnerships offer the potential for regional operating companies to change the perceptions of government and of civil society that the company will take the primary responsibility for local development. Rather, partnerships enable companies to locate themselves as one of (but not the only) agent of development in the local region. Partnerships enable communities to take charge of their own development needs, interacting with government to jointly design and maintain public services. They also allow government to play its proper role of fulfilling its public mandate, delivering necessary services and ensuring the quality and sustainability of development impacts. The challenges of poverty reduction in the developing world are so great that no one sector can address them on its own. Partnerships between business, government and civil society are a means of addressing this most fundamental of truths. It is hoped that this book will provide a road map for all those working towards making the elimination of poverty a reality.

Download or read book Enhancing the Effectiveness of Sustainability Partnerships written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-01-17 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable development-meeting human needs while nurturing and restoring the planet's life support systems-requires a continuous process of scientific innovation, new knowledge and learning, and collaborative approaches to implementing technologies and policies. To address these challenges, different stakeholder groups are increasingly seeking to ally themselves through partnership, in order to implement projects, deliver services, establish secure funding mechanisms, and achieve on the ground results. Advocates of this collaborative approach point to the failure of governmental regulations, international commitments, or business as usual. However, skeptics often question the effectiveness of partnerships at achieving sustainable development goals and, in the absence of demonstrated results, wonder where partnerships are adding value. A symposium held in June 2008 and summarized in this volume, attempted to advance the dialogue on partnerships for sustainability in order to catalyze existing knowledge and inform future efforts. Ideas that came out of discussions at the symposium will help leaders in government, the private sector, foundations and NGOs, and universities, both in the United States and internationally, as they develop and participate in new partnerships for sustainability.

Download or read book Sustainable Business Models written by Lars Moratis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a rich overview and takes a closer look at the current state of theory and practice in the field of sustainable business models. The chapters in this book examine and analyze existing and new approaches towards sustainable business models and showcase the implementation of sustainable business through both quantitative and qualitative studies, including several case studies and many practical examples. It approaches these issues from the standpoints of diverse business disciplines to yield new insights and ideas that are relevant from both an academic and professional perspective. In its essence, the book examines how firms’ value creation processes can be driven by sustainability and social responsibility and how this impacts business and society. Readers will find a range of sustainable business models that have been employed and are being pioneered in various industries around the globe – which are thoroughly investigated and discussed, and put into a comprehensive conceptual framework.

Download or read book Repertoires of Collaboration written by Kirk Leach and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fueled in part by fiscal challenges and structural shifts at the state and federal level, nonprofit organizations are increasingly relying on cross sector community partnerships to address wicked policy problems in areas such as community development, neighborhood revitalization, and health and human services. Cross sector community partnerships (CSCPs) blur sectoral boundaries by integrating the activities and modus operandi of organizations from the public, private, and civil society sectors. The literature on cross sector community partnerships has analyzed factors contributing to partnership success or failure, partnership growth, and more normatively, how crossing sectoral boundaries are an effective tool in addressing wicked community problems. Notwithstanding increased practical and empirical attention, cross sector community partnerships remain poorly understood and under-theorized (Googins & Rochloin, 2000; Selsky & Parker, 2005), particularly at the local level. Through a comparative case study of two New Jersey cities, this dissertation explores how local social, economic, and political institutional arrangements influence the formation and structure of cross sector community partnerships. Interviews, content analysis of media reports and partnership agreements, urban histories, and organizational documents are the primary data collection methods. Neighborhood and redevelopment plans provide additional data to develop the partnership narrative. I argue that variation in local institutional arrangements create community specific cross sector community partnership structures in response to demands from government and foundation funders. Several findings emerged from the study. First, the role of business remains muted and transactional. Second, nonprofits generally have an ad hoc internal vetting process to determine the viability of a partnership strategy. Third, although local government actors are present in cross sector community partnerships, their participation is largely symbolic. Finally, the role of nonprofit intermediaries is particularly salient, as they dominate partnership formation processes and structure. Understanding the formation and structure of CSCPs at a more local level assists in identifying what structures need to be in place in order to implement more democratic forms of community partnerships.

Download or read book Practice of Sustainable Community Development written by R. Warren Flint and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-10-17 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ordinary people, community leaders, and even organizations and corporations still do not fully comprehend the interconnected, “big picture” dynamics of sustainability theory and action. In exploring means to become more sustainable, individuals and groups need a reference in which to frame discussions so they will be relevant, educational, and successful when implemented. This book puts ideas on sustainable communities into a conceptual framework that will promote striking, transformational effects on decision-making. In this book practitioners and community leaders will find effective, comprehensive tools and resources at their finger-tips to facilitate sustainable community development (SCD). The book content examines a diverse range of SCD methods; assessing community needs and resources; creating community visions; promoting stakeholder interest and participation; analyzing community problems; designing and facilitating strategic planning; carrying out interventions to improve

Download or read book Communities in Action written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Download or read book Partner with Purpose written by Steve Schmida and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 21st century, businesses are increasingly faced with complex, "wicked" problems--challenges with social and environmental dimensions they cannot solve on their own. This is especially common in the frontier markets of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the former Soviet bloc. In many cases, the best solution is to create cross-sector partnerships with organizations from outside the business world--foundations, nonprofits, government agencies, and more. The resulting partnerships can generate business value as well positive social impact, thereby benefiting companies and communities alike. PARTNER WITH PURPOSE by Steve Schmida is a step-by-step guide to planning, launching, and successfully maintaining cross-sector partnerships, illustrated with vivid real-life stories from the author's work with companies around the world.

Download or read book Sustainable Solutions University Community Partnerships written by B.D. Wortham-Galvin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the role of the university? Current systems may stress research output, but Wortham-Galvin, Allen, and Sherman seek to re-establish the importance of teaching and service in the work of the 21st-century university. The Sustainable Solutions series shares Portland State University’s experience of community-engaged teaching and research. With a focus on sustainability, we see that such collaboration is vital to making Portland one of the world’s most sustainable cities.Volume 2, University–Community Partnerships, builds on the themes introduced in Volume 1, Let Knowledge Serve the City, to explore how these partnerships play out in practice. Covering 13 projects, which range from supporting local artisans and researching food access, to sharing Indigenous history and decolonizing perceptions of knowledge, readers receive pragmatic advice on working with community organizations. Authors also offer critical reflection on how theories of engagement have structured PSU’s work and how their findings impact our very understanding of partnership.This reader-friendly text provides an ideal introduction to anyone wishing to learn more about models of effective collaboration and how to put these into practice. Explained through the context of specific projects, the book offers both inspiration and practical guidance to anyone — in local government, academia, or the third sector — looking to set up productive community–university partnerships.