Facing the Futures: Building Robust Nonprofits in the Pittsburgh Region

The Pittsburgh region faces tough questions as it faces the futures ahead. Will it, for example, find a way to stop its young people from leaving or slip further into the profile of a "weak market" city, with all that means for the erosion of jobs and talent? Will it close the gaps between its citizens on education, health, earnings, and poverty, or will it continue to be listed as a city of disadvantage for African-Americans? And will it play an aggressive role in helping Pennsylvania rebuild its aging economy or eventually eclipse North Dakota and West Virginia as the state with the slowest growing economy in the nation?No one knows yet just how these futures will play out. It could be that the Pittsburgh area is on the cusp of a great revival as it continues to make the turn from an industrial-age economy to an "eds and meds" future. It could also be that the area has reached the maximum range of its geographic spread, thereby signaling an end to the hollowing-out of its inner city. It could even be that the area's young people are starting to see the vibrant opportunities embedded in urban renewal and a low-cost of living, not to mention an expanding arts community, access to some of the nation's greatest educational institutions, and the chance to revel in the return of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the yellow towel industry that goes with it

The Nonprofit Quarterly Study on Nonprofit and Philanthropic Infrastructure

Examines trends in the nonprofit sector's support network and financing system and their capacity to address the impact of the financial crisis on small and midsize nonprofits, share organizational survival strategies, and connect them to resources

The Capacity Building Challenge: A Research Perspective & A Funder's Response - Executive Summary

Investments to enhance the organizational capacity and performance of nonprofits have increased dramatically in recent years. Yet, despite the popularity of the concept, relatively little research is available that clearly demonstrates the value of nonprofit capacity building or links it to improved program outcomes.What is needed are more comparable and comprehensive findings about the outcomes of capacity building, both to ensure the ongoing commitment of funders to support this work and to demonstrate what kinds of capacity building efforts have the greatest effects and when. This paper proposes a system for understanding the various approaches to capacity building and a strategy for measuring the outcomes of capacity building activitie

Saturation Spectroscopy of Iodine in Hollow-core Optical Fibre

We present high-resolution spectroscopy of Iodine vapour that is loaded and trapped within the core of a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HC-PCF). We compare the observed spectroscopic features to those seen in a conventional iodine cell and show that the saturation characteristics differ significantly. Despite the confined geometry it was still possible to obtain sub-Doppler features with a spectral width of ~6 MHz with very high contrast. We provide a simple theory which closely reproduces all the key observations of the experiment.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Strengthening Families Through a Re-envisioned Approach to Fatherhood Education

Fatherhood education has the potential to affect not only fathers\u27 nurturant behaviors but also multiple dimensions of family life. The weGrill program blends fatherhood, youth development, and nutrition education, with food grilling as the focal activity. Grounded in multiple learning theories, the program helps fathers and their adolescent children learn broadly about family life topics, planning for the future, and nutrition and healthful food behaviors. The program represents a re-envisioned approach to fatherhood education

Levels of fatigue and distress in senior prostate cancer survivors enrolled in a 12-week randomized controlled trial of Qigong

Fatigue is a commonly reported symptom by prostate cancer survivors and is associated with significant distress and declines in quality of life. Qigong is a mind-body activity that consists of both physical activity and meditative aspects. This 12-week Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) examined the feasibility and efficacy of a Qigong intervention for improving older prostate cancer survivors’ levels of fatigue and distress

Ethics and the Public Administrator

This article provides an overview and analysis of the practical problems of developing and implementing a code of ethics for public administrators. The article addresses three key issues: (1) What are public ethics and where do they come from? (2) What are the central ethical issues facing public administrators? and (3) Are there practical tools and guidelines to assist public servants to be both ethical and effective public managers? The article concludes with a plea for consideration of ethical issues, and it presents five general ethical principles for public administrators