Fostering Muslim Civic Engagement through Faith-Based Community Organizing

Muslims often encounter discriminatory practices similar to those experienced by other minority groups living in the United States. Such practices range from mass incarceration and anti-immigration efforts to racial and religious profiling. In response, a growing number of U.S. Muslim leaders are organizing their communities and collaborating with non-Muslims to address these issues through civic participation and political action. At the same time, several foundations throughout the country have begun asking how to promote civic engagement among U.S. Muslims. Although little is known about U.S. Muslim civic engagement and its outcomes, data from a national study indicate that faith-based community organizing is becoming a viable pathway for Muslim communities to (1) strengthen themselves internally by developing civic leaders and mobilizing everyday Muslims to address issues affecting their community and (2) strengthen their external ties by bridging religious and social differences and by promoting policies that also benefit non-Muslims

Moving the Needle: Evaluating the Impact of New Care Delivery Models on Hospital Profitability

Objective: To evaluate the impact of emerging care delivery models on hospital profitability. Data Sources/Study Setting: Data was collected from the 2014 American Hospital Association (AHA) survey. Study Design: We used binary logistic regression analyses to assess the relationships between historically significant and recent evolutionary hospital care delivery characteristics and profitability measures. We considered four profitability measures: operating margin, net patient revenues, net income and return on assets. Our independent variables of interest focused on hospitalist staffing, patient centered medical home and accountable care organizational development. Data: We had a usable sample of 2,049 hospitals from the AHA dataset. Principal Findings: Our findings suggest medical home development is significantly associated with improved financial performance across four profitability measures – operating margin, net patient revenue, net income and return on assets. Hospitalists are associated with improved operating margin and net patient revenue. Accountable Care Organizations were neither positively or negatively associated with any measures of financial performance. Conclusions: Hospitals that have progressively taken steps to adopt patient centered medical homes as a care delivery modality appear be well positioned to have stronger organizational financial performance. Additional organizational enhancements such as hiring hospitalists are associated with better financial performance

Space and Interaction in Civil Society Organizations: An Exploratory Study in a US City

Civil society organizations (CSOs) are sites for creating and strengthening social ties among participants. Ties are developed when participants in CSO convenings (meetings, events, activities) interact, but convenings vary in the amount of interaction they generate. Theory and research suggest that the physical spaces where convenings occur may impact participant interaction. However, previous methods lack sufficient scale to formally test related hypotheses. We introduce a method for collecting data at scale to examine how CSO convening spaces influence social interaction. The method—systematic social observation (SSO)—assembles comparable, quantitative data from many CSO convenings. As part of an exploratory study, we collected data from 99 CSO convenings from three organizations in Indianapolis, Indiana. For illustrative purposes, building on theories of spatial propinquity and configuration, we highlight two dimensions of spatial variation in CSO convenings—footprint and permeability—and examine how they relate to three indicators of participant interaction. Our findings suggest that controlling for the number of participants and other convening characteristics, medium‐sized spaces foster more interaction than small or large ones. More broadly, this study demonstrates the viability of the SSO method for collecting data at scale and provides a model for future work on space, interaction, and networks

Empty pews take a financial toll on many US congregations

Most Christian churches were relying heavily on 'collection plates' to pay their bills before the pandemic struck. And less than half were doing any online fundraising as of 2018.Lilly Endowment Inc

Building Bridges, Building Power: Developments in Institution-Based Community Organizing

Community organizing in America is alive and well and being vigorously practiced in the version we call institution- based community organizing.\u27 This national study shows that in the last decade institution- based community organizing has significantly increased its power base as it continues to bridge divides that deeply be- devil American politics—-divides of racial and ethnic identity, religion, socio-economic status, geography, and immigrant-na- tive background. This study details the dynamic expansion of the field over the last decade, outlines the impres- sive \u27bridging social capital\u27 it generates, discusses ways it has overcome the strategic limita- tions that previously undermined the field, and identifies some of the ongoing challenges that remain. We argue throughout that institution-based community organizing is poised to be an important strategic partner in the democratic renewal of America.\u2

Organizing Together: Benefits and Drawbacks of Community-Labor Coalitions for Community Organizations

Community-labor coalitions unite grassroots community organizations and hierarchical labor unions with the promise of increasing the effectiveness of each. Little is known, however, about whether and how community organizations benefit from such partnerships. We analyze survey data from the National Study of Community Organizing Organizations and field data from community-labor coalitions in Chicago to identify benefits and drawbacks for community organizations collaborating with unions. We find that community organizations that have unions as members generate more media attention, possess a broader tactical repertoire, and are more likely to mount state-level advocacy campaigns. Those benefits, however, come at the expense of grassroots mobilizing and result in less neighborhood-level organizing, fewer volunteers, and smaller turnouts at protest actions, all of which are vital to community organizing. Understanding these benefits and drawbacks can help advocates adjust strategy, tactics, and goals to ensure the long-term viability of community-labor coalitions

National Trends in Food Insecurity and Congregation-Based Food Provision between 1998 and 201

This is an accepted manuscript, postprint version that has undergone peer review.Food insecurity has been a persistent problem in the U.S., and yet over the past three decades, federally funded food programs have become more restrictive. Scholars and policymakers have inquired whether the nonprofit sector is increasing its food provision activities to address this unmet need. This study analyzes data from the U.S. Census and a nationally representative survey of religious congregations in the U.S. to examine trends in food insecurity and congregation-based food provision between 1998 and 2012. The objective of the study is to investigate the extent to which congregation-based food provision fluctuated with national food insecurity prevalence for the overall population, and for subgroups vulnerable to this condition. Results show an over-time correspondence between the prevalence of food-insecure households and the prevalence of congregations that provide food. Parallel patterns are observed between food insecurity in disproportionately affected subpopulations (e.g., African-Americans and immigrants) and food provision in the congregations likely to serve those households. These findings indicate that congregations are helping meet the needs of food-insecure households. However, research suggests that congregations and nonprofits are not an adequate substitute for federally funded programs. Policy recommendations include expanding access to federally funded programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to more immigrants and other groups vulnerable to food insecurity, as well as providing more systematic financial or federal support and quality control of congregation-based efforts

A novel design for a cryogenic Fabry-Pérot interferometer

The sensitivity of state-of-the-art superconducting far-infrared detectors is such that astronomical observations at these wavelengths are limited by photon noise from the astronomical source unless a method of restricting the spectral bandpass is employed. One such method is to use a high resolution Fabry-Pérot interferometer (FPI) in conjunction with a lower resolution, post dispersing system, such as a grating spectrometer. The resonant wavelength of an FPI is typically tuned by changing the spacing or medium between the parallel reflecting plates of the etalon. We present a novel design in which the wavelength is tuned by scanning the angle of incidence, which simplifies the cryo-mechanical design, actuation and metrology. The effects on the spectral response as a function of incident angle have been simulated and shown to be manageable

Survey Data Collection Methods and Discrepancy in the Sociological Study of Religious Congregations

This is a postprint, accepted manuscript version that has undergone peer review.Surveys of religious congregations are a mainstay of sociological research on organized religion in the United States. How accurate, reliable, and comparable are the data generated from the disparate methods used by researchers? We analyze four congregational surveys to show how two components of data collection—sampling design and survey response rate—may contribute to differences in population estimates between the surveys. Results show that in three populations of congregations (all religious traditions, Catholic parishes, and Hispanic Catholic parishes), estimates of key congregational measures, such as head clergy characteristics, congregational size, and Hispanic composition, are susceptible to differences in data collection methods. While differences in sampling design contribute to some of the variation in variable estimates, our unique analysis of survey metadata shows the importance of high response rates for producing accurate estimates for many variables. We conclude with suggestions for improving congregational data collection methods and efforts to compare survey estimates