"If the [White House faith-based] initiative was going to have an impact on the local community, you had to begin to think of the initiative in local terms." – Brad Yarbrough, Director of the Oklahoma Office of Faith and Community Initiatives Charitable Choice and other faith-based initiatives attempt to provide faith-based organizations (FBOs) easier access to public funds for social service delivery in the community. Five years after Charitable Choice was included in the federal welfare reforms of 1996, President George W. Bush introduced the White House Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives in order to expand partnership opportunities between federal agencies and FBOs. The Bush administration actively recruited religious groups to apply for public dollars that would fund local social programs. The actions in Washington mirrored similar movements that took place in many states during the mid to late 1990s. Since then, so-called "faith-based social services" have received their share of media attention and public scrutiny. Much of the attention has been on political-philosophical debates and the legal challenges to church-state separation. Research by Bartkowski and Regis (1999), Kennedy and Bielefeld (2001), Gomez (2003), Vanderwoerd (2004) and Sager (2006) depict the efforts of individual states to implement Charitable Choice policies and the attitudes of FBOs towards partnerships with government. However, there has been inadequate research on the experience of local governments who engage faith-based providers on a daily basis. Much more can be learned about the themes that shape current collaborations between local social service agencies and the faith community in Virginia. Using a collective case study design, this research captures the experiences and perspectives of local public managers who have formed partnerships with FBOs mostly through non-financial means. The data shows that federal and state faith-based initiatives have little influence on the way local social service agencies in Virginia conduct their work. The typical partnerships with FBOs are the result of pre-existing, informal and non-financial relationships that have been fostered and sustained long before welfare reform or without the impetus of any faith-based initiatives. / Ph. D.

Submitted by Mirtha Oquendo (mio2101@gmail.com) on 2012-08-14T18:22:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MirthaOquendoDissertation.pdf: 1360694 bytes, checksum: 72bc8866bc1105aaeddaf1380dab58c2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2012-08-23T12:44:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MirthaOquendoDissertation.pdf: 1360694 bytes, checksum: 72bc8866bc1105aaeddaf1380dab58c2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2012-08-23T18:49:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MirthaOquendoDissertation.pdf: 1360694 bytes, checksum: 72bc8866bc1105aaeddaf1380dab58c2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-08-23T18:51:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MirthaOquendoDissertation.pdf: 1360694 bytes, checksum: 72bc8866bc1105aaeddaf1380dab58c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-06 / This study seeks to evaluate how enterorganizational and interpersonal trust affects the degree of State interference in the operations of public-nonprofit partnerships (PNPs). We conducted a qualitative case study in two Brazilian PNPs, Projeto Guri and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, through documental analysis and semi-structured interviews. Content analysis of the data yielded a trust framework that begins to explain how a variety of factors, including the protective qualities of the management contract and the strength of the board, moderate the relationship between interpersonal and interorganizational trust in PNPs. The study reveals that unlike Zaheer et al (1998), interpersonal trust had a unique and prominent effect on State interference and types of collaboration in PNPs. Parting from the suggestions by previous authors to contextualize PNP literature findings, the framework takes into account the highly personalistic qualities of Brazilian culture as well as historical and institutional context while highlighting the crucial role of interpersonal trust in Brazilian PNPs. / Este estudo busca avaliar como a confiança interpessoal e a confiança interorganizacional afeta o grau de interferência estatal na operação das parcerias estabelecidas entre o Estado com o terceiro setor. Conduzimos um estudo de caso qualitativo em duas organizações sociais brasileiras (OS), Projeto Guri e Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, por meio de análise de documentos e entrevistas. A análise dos dados coletados gerou um modelo que explica como uma série de fatores, incluindo as qualidades do contrato de gestão e o poder dos conselhos das organizações sociais, moderam a relação entre confiança interpessoal e interorganizacional nas parcerias. O estudo revela que ao contrário de Zaheer et al (1998), a confiança interpessoal influenciou expressivamente o nível de interferência do Estado e o padrão de colaboração observado nas parcerias do Estado com o terceiro setor. Outros autores sugerem que as teorias sobre parcerias com o terceiro setor sejam contextualizadas. Desta forma, o modelo considera o contexto histórico e institucional do Brasil. Além disso enfatiza a importância do personalismo na cultura brasileira ao mesmo tempo em que destaca a proeminência da confiança interpessoal.

In recent years, tremendous growth in the older adult population has prompted the US Federal government along with state governments to fund programs and organizational structures that can help meet the needs of older adults. Further, organizations such as the National Council on Aging, as well as the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), and nonprofits such as the United Way also partner in these efforts. This project seeks to analyze the content of American state and federal policy as well as nonprofit programs in order to identify the policy priorities that are currently being supported. Do current policy efforts promote “aging in place” strategies as a way to maintain quality of life and older adult health? An analysis of public policies and nonprofit program structures in the United States since 2000 will help to identify policy priorities that impact aging adults, and will hopefully pave the way to prepare our society for further actions and needs in order to continue to serve them in the next several decades.