Strengthening Out-of-School Time Nonprofits: The Role of Foundations in Building Organizational Capacity

Placing nonprofits in the larger context of city, state, and national policy, explores the capacity-building support nonprofits running afterschool and summer programs need to provide high-impact networks of learning and developmental opportunities

"Positive Youth Justice Initiative Phase I Implementation Evaluation"

Sierra Health Foundation launched the Positive Youth Justice Initiative (PYJI) in 2012 with the goal of supporting California counties to change the way they approach and work with justice-involved youth. Through an integrated model that invests in youth, treats trauma, provides wraparound service delivery, and strengthens local infrastructure, PYJI seeks to reduce barriers to crossover youths' successful transition to adulthood, including structural biases that exacerbate the over-representation of youth of color in the juvenile justice system. The two-year external evaluation of the implementation of systems change reforms in Phase I of PYJI— which included interviews, focus groups, and surveys with staff, youth, and caregivers in participating counties—explored the successes and challenges of the four counties (Alameda, San Diego, San Joaquin, and Solano) who have been implementing this far-reaching and ambitious initiative. This brief summarizes the key areas of progress and areas of challenge in PYJI implementation; facilitators of and hurdles to successful implementation; notable impacts of PYJI thus far; and areas for consideration as counties move forward in their efforts to achieve reforms that are both impactful and sustainable

An emerging user-led participatory methodology: Mapping impact pathways of urban food system sustainability innovations

This chapter presents an emerging effort to develop a participatory mapping methodology that will illuminate the pathways through which sustainable urban food systems achieve lasting impact. Carried out in collaboration with Està (Economia e Sostenibilità), the UNESCO Chair in World Food System (at Montpellier SupAgro), CIRAD (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) and the LCSFS (Laurier Center for Sustainable Food Systems), this initiative aims to provide an alternative to quantitative tools that lack precision at the local level, and to qualitative approaches holding a narrow focus that may obscure broader systemic dynamics. This URBAL project focuses on innovations in consumer practices, value-chains, and governance by examining 12 case studies in eight cities in the Global South and North

Sustainability and Spread of Community-based Initiatives: A case study of Community Cares, a Children’s Hospital’s 16 year effort to serve its community

The sustainability and spread of innovations is often elusive, presenting continuous challenges to clinicians and healthcare leaders. Somewhere between 33 - 70% of all innovations are reportedly not sustained, and even fewer are spread beyond the original team, or to other units within an organization. In plain language, sustainability is defined as locking in progress, while continually building upon that foundation, while spread is the exchange of knowledge and experience to others beyond the original implementing team. The literature supports the concept that sustainability is both multi-dimensional and multi-factorial and has several characteristics and pre-conditions. Tax-exempt, not-for-profit organizations in the USA must provide measurable community benefits to the populations they seek to serve. Many of these community benefits take the form of locating necessary services closer to or directly within the communities being served in order to enhance access. A case study of a 16 year effort to provide a medical home-oriented primary care model to underserved children in Houston, Texas Children’s Pediatrics’ Community Cares, is presented as illustrative of such a community benefit. Many of the characteristics and preconditions essential to a model for sustainability and spread are highlighted and the Community Cares case study is discussed from the standpoint of this framework

Sustaining the Promise: Realizing the Potential of Workforce Intermediaries and Sector Projects

Reviews the outcomes of sector-specific workforce development projects run by intermediaries with a comprehensive, long-term approach. Outlines the challenges of and recommendations for securing sustainability in financing, infrastructure, and operations

End Games: The Challenge of Sustainability

Examines how funders and grantees approach the challenge of supporting the continued progress and survival of a community-based initiative, after the completion of the project. Offers insights and suggestions to funders and communities

A Framework for Integrating Transportation Into Smart Cities

In recent years, economic, environmental, and political forces have quickly given rise to “Smart Cities” -- an array of strategies that can transform transportation in cities. Using a multi-method approach to research and develop a framework for smart cities, this study provides a framework that can be employed to: Understand what a smart city is and how to replicate smart city successes; The role of pilot projects, metrics, and evaluations to test, implement, and replicate strategies; and Understand the role of shared micromobility, big data, and other key issues impacting communities. This research provides recommendations for policy and professional practice as it relates to integrating transportation into smart cities

The Impact of Environmental Risk Exposure on the Determinants of Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Does the increasing awareness of environmental risk exposure also affect intentions to create enterprises which address these social and environmental failures? Besides economic explanations that social and environmental needs and market failure create opportunities for sustainable entrepreneurship, it is less clear how cognitive processes and motivations related to sustainable entrepreneurship are shaped by its context. This research integrates environmental risk exposure as a contextual variable into the theory of planned behavior and uses data gathered in the course of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. We provide empirical evidence for the impact of environmental risk exposure on the determinants of sustainable entrepreneurial intention and contribute to a deeper understanding of the formation of sustainable entrepreneurial intention.DFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2019 - 2020 / Technische Universität Berli

On the Frontiers of Finance: Scaling Up Investment in Sustainable Small and Medium Enterprises in Developing Countries

Outlines the economic, social, and environmental benefits of investing in sustainable small and medium enterprises; the lending practices of financial intermediaries; and barriers. Includes case summaries and recommendations for sectoral growth