Public/Private Teaming

Public/Private Teaming

(John Orr, Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the Universityof Southern California, 2004.)

At a recent meeting of Los Angeles County human services representatives, the county’s Chief Executive Officer announced that it was one of his highest priorities to encourage cooperative relations among public and private human service organizations. Clearly in this count, public agencies—even those without a track record in working with community-based groups--are experiencing political pressures to be more collaborative. As a result, public/private teaming is becoming increasingly common. Public agencies are working with private agencies--including faith-based organizations—to provide coordinated support services for low-income participants. Faith leaders and agency personnel regularly communicate and view each other as day-to-day allies. Indeed, public/private teaming with faith-based organizations is becoming almost routine in Los Angeles. And it’s been successful.

Recruiting Foster Parents

A collaboration between a Christian nonprofit agency and the Children’s Bureau of South California (a nonprofit that works under a county contract), for example, is addressing the “crisis-level” shortage in foster and adoptive families in the county. “It’s very difficult to recruit foster parents,” a spokesperson for the Children’s Bureau, says. “Very difficult. The number of foster parents is declining, and it’s hard to find them.”

The Christian nonprofit, however, has had remarkable success in recruiting foster and adoptive parents within the county’s faith communities.  Using a small staff and many volunteers, this organization makes presentations in Catholic and Protestant worship services. It invites interested families to consider whether foster and adoptive parenting might become their “ministry” or their “calling.”

When families indicate interest in foster and adoptive parenting, the Christian nonprofit connects them with agencies that interpret what is involved in their potential commitment. Then the Children’s Bureau, working as the certified agent of the county, offers training related to the legal side of foster and adoptive parenthood. It also leads recruits through licensure procedures.

Throughout the whole process, the Christian nonprofit cultivates close, day-to-day relationships with public agency personnel.  “We don’t make decisions where the children will live.  We don’t place the children,” the Christian nonprofit’s director observes.  “So we have to have a real good relationship with the powers to be, like the social workers.”

When families receive their foster or adoptive children, the Christian nonprofit offers a peer support network. It surrounds the families with continuing education opportunities, friendship, advice, prayer, and legal information.

Empowering Latino Immigrants

Another partnership in the County is preparing Latino immigrants to participate in the region’s mainstream economy through an innovative job training and micro-enterprise program. The program engages participants in street vending--a commercial activity that is familiar in their countries-of-origin. It then provides the knowledge and skills through which street vending can become a bridge to other small business enterprises.

The program engages several partners. The Universityof Southern California, a private university, provides the micro-enterprise education. City agencies and departments provide technical assistance and training for the street vendors. The program also cooperates with the Los Angeles Police Department around issues related to law enforcement in the park where the vendors operate. The mayor’s office is also involved, having made the vendors program a part of the overall community development plan for the area. All the organizations included in this public/private team have a visible stake in the program’s success. Each depends on the others.

Free Health Care in South L.A.

In South Los Angeles, a partnership between a Muslim student association and the Schoolof Medicineat one of the region’s largest public universities has made possible the only free medical clinic providing health services for low-income community residents.

The clinic got launched when a local Congressman assisted the Muslim student association in locating facilities and in securing funding from city agencies and departments. Faculty members, residents, and interns from two university-based schools of medicine (one public, one private), and from regional hospitals, provide the bulk of professional services.  Medical quality assurance is provided by members of the universities’ faculties and by members of the free clinic’s board. 

Medical services at the free clinic are available to all comers—all ethnicities, all races, all religious traditions.  Muslim symbols, however, are prominently displayed. A tapestry hanging on one wall, for example, quotes the Koran: “God does not change the condition of a people until they change the condition of their own souls.”

The clinic is, in every aspect of its work, a public/private team. And all team members are enjoying a win-win situation.  The schools of medicine and hospitals gain a well-managed, free clinic in an urban setting for their student interns and residents.  City departments and agencies secure services for a low-income, medically underserved region. The sponsoring Muslim student association successfully models Islam’s commitment to compassion and justice. It also displays Islam’s eagerness to provide leadership in Los Angeles’s array of faith-based human services.

Tips on Public/Private Teaming

Sometimes public/private teaming programs like these depend on publicly-funded contracts.  But, with or without public funding, they require informal ties, nurtured through many, many phone calls, e-mails, and committee meetings.  “Constant communication--that’s important,” says the director of the free clinic. “Make sure that there is a constant exchange of information….”

When teaming appears to be a reasonable strategy, go for it! Teaming makes sense when, working together, each one of the team’s organizations increases its capacity to fulfill its mission or to secure its organizational interests.

Here are some tips about how best to become more involved in public/private teaming: 

• Identify which public and private agencies have programs that complement what your own. This takes work, because—at least in many cities—there are very few up-to-date sources of information about the human service programs being offered by public and private agencies. Try searching for information on the internet since many agencies have internet sites. Select an internet search engine (e.g., www.google.com), and type in the name of your service and the name of your city. Or, try some phone networking, using a branching technique.  Start with one agency whose services complement yours.  Ask an administrator in this agency to recommend others that you might contact. Then keep branching out.
• Once you have identified some potential partners, consider how collaborating with them could benefit both them and you. Some agencies barter equipment and, occasionally, space. Some are willing to provide services for each others’ participants. Some refer participants to each other.  Some even build each other into their budgets. 
•  Be sure to establish inter-agency relationships that are  based on trust and candidness. Other agencies are not competitors. They are sources of valuable resources. But these resources will never be shared in the absence of candid and regular communication among administrators.
• Finally, budget time for strengthening and building collaborative ties.  The process takes time, and collaboration will flourish only if it is assigned a high priority in a program administrator’s weekly schedule.

____________________________________________

This is part of a series of Thumbnail Case Studiesauthored by the FASTEN research team and released by Baylor University School of Social Work as part of a 30-month research project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.  This project is designed to identify the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in addressing challenges of urban poverty.  The Baylor School of Social Work is leading this research team with members from BaylorUniversity’s business school, the schools of social work at the Universityof Pittsburghand VirginiaCommonwealthUniversity, and the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the Universityof Southern California.

This essay represents some of the findings from the FASTEN research project that are relevant to the planning and delivery of services by faith-based organizations.  The piece was authored by John Orr (with the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the Universityof Southern California) with the FASTEN Research Team.  He can be reached at jorr [at] usc [dot] edu.