Nonprofits and the Promotion of Civic Engagement: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding the "Civic Footprint" of Nonprofits within Local Communities

ABSTRACT The literature suggests that nonprofit organizations provide civic benefits by promoting engagement within local communities. However, there exists minimal empirical evidence describing the ways in which nonprofits actually undertake this role. In order to address this omission, we conducted interviews with personnel of nonprofit organizations in one rural community in the United States. Our preliminary findings indicate that nonprofit organizations promote civic engagement through programs and activities that: 1) engage volunteers and donors; 2) bring community members together; 3) collaborate with organizations within and beyond the community; and 4) promote community education and awareness. Together, these findings help to develop a working model to understand the civic footprint of nonprofit organizations with methodological implications for future research that would seek to measure the extent to which nonprofits promote civic engagement. Il est normal de supposer que les associations à but non lucratif favorisent l’engagement du citoyen dans les communautés locales. Cependant, il existe peu de données empiriques sur la manière dont ces associations assument véritablement ce rôle. Pour combler ce manque, nous avons mené des entretiens semi-directifs approfondis auprès du personnel d’associations à but non lucratif dans une petite communauté rurale aux États-Unis. Nos résultats préliminaires indiquent que ces associations motivent les citoyens à s’impliquer quand elles offrent des programmes et des activités qui : 1) intéressent les bénévoles et les donateurs; 2) rassemblent directement ou indirectement les membres de la communauté; 3) collaborent avec d’autres associations tant au sein de la communauté qu’au-delà de celle-ci; et 4) encouragent l’éducation et la conscientisation communautaires. Ces constats aident à établir un modèle pour mieux comprendre la présence civique des associations à but non lucratif dans les communautés et indiquent une piste à suivre pour des recherches futures qui examineraient l’influence de ces associations sur le niveau de participation civique.

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¡Luego, luego!

Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts ◽

10.1075/ttmc.00020.lin ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 405-421

Author(s):

Holly Link

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Social Transformation ◽

Community Education ◽

Immigrant Families ◽

The United States ◽

Community Members ◽

Non Profit ◽

Profit Center ◽

Large Numbers ◽

Mexican Immigrant Families

Abstract This article is a reflection on my experience as a researcher and bilingual educator based in the United States who works, teaches and conducts research with the Latinx community in an area with large numbers of Mexican immigrant families. In my reflection, I draw from my work at a non-profit center dedicated to the empowerment of the Latinx community to consider how bilingual community education can serve as an ideological and implementational translanguaging space. I argue that acknowledging ideological and implementational aspects of translanguaging practice and pedagogy can be an early step on the path of social transformation in, for, and with language-minoritized communities. I end by calling for increased collaboration among educators, researchers, and community members in order to develop and explore translanguaging spaces with and for immigrant families, not just in the United States, but globally.

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Having Their Say, Leaving Their Mark

National Review of Black Politics ◽

10.1525/nrbp.2020.1.1.141 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 141-153

Author(s):

Adolphus G. Belk ◽

Robert C. Smith ◽

Sherri L. Wallace

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Political Science ◽

Black People ◽

The United States ◽

The Political ◽

Historical Documents ◽

Adverse Conditions ◽

The 1960S ◽

Independent Organization

In general, the founders of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists were “movement people.” Powerful agents of socialization such as the uprisings of the 1960s molded them into scholars with tremendous resolve to tackle systemic inequalities in the political science discipline. In forming NCOBPS as an independent organization, many sought to develop a Black perspective in political science to push the boundaries of knowledge and to use that scholarship to ameliorate the adverse conditions confronting Black people in the United States and around the globe. This paper utilizes historical documents, speeches, interviews, and other scholarly works to detail the lasting contributions of the founders and Black political scientists to the discipline, paying particular attention to their scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and civic engagement. It finds that while political science is much improved as a result of their efforts, there is still work to do if their goals are to be achieved.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Scientific integrity resource guide: Efforts by federal agencies, foundations, nonprofit organizations, professional societies, and academia in the United States.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.726871553.793526839 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

David Allison

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Nonprofit Organizations ◽

The United States ◽

Federal Agencies ◽

Scientific Integrity ◽

Resource Guide ◽

Professional Societies

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Fragments of the American Dream: Immigration, Race, and Medical Care in the Segregated South, 1929

Public Voices ◽

10.22140/pv.111 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

John R Phillips

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

American Dream ◽

Black Population ◽

The United States ◽

Single Woman ◽

Future Research ◽

Legal Doctrine ◽

Quarter Century ◽

History Of ◽

Sunflower County

The cover photograph for this issue of Public Voices was taken sometime in the summer of 1929 (probably June) somewhere in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Very probably the photo was taken in Indianola but, perhaps, it was Ruleville. It is one of three such photos, one of which does have the annotation on the reverse “Ruleville Midwives Club 1929.” The young woman wearing a tie in this and in one of the other photos was Ann Reid Brown, R.N., then a single woman having only arrived in the United States from Scotland a few years before, in 1923. Full disclosure: This commentary on the photo combines professional research interests in public administration and public policy with personal interests—family interests—for that young nurse later married and became the author’s mother. From the scholarly perspective, such photographs have been seen as “instrumental in establishing midwives’ credentials and cultural identity at a key transitional moment in the history of the midwife and of public health” (Keith, Brennan, & Reynolds 2012). There is also deep irony if we see these photographs as being a fragment of the American dream, of a recent immigrant’s hope for and success at achieving that dream; but that fragment of the vision is understood quite differently when we see that she began a hopeful career working with a Black population forcibly segregated by law under the incongruously named “separate but equal” legal doctrine. That doctrine, derived from the United States Supreme Court’s 1896 decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, would remain the foundation for legally enforced segregation throughout the South for another quarter century. The options open to the young, white, immigrant nurse were almost entirely closed off for the population with which she then worked. The remaining parts of this overview are meant to provide the following: (1) some biographical information on the nurse; (2) a description, in so far as we know it, of why she was in Mississippi; and (3) some indication of areas for future research on this and related topics.

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Questions

10.1093/oso/9780190865214.003.0007 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James L. Gibson ◽

Michael J. Nelson

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

African Americans ◽

Supreme Court ◽

Legal System ◽

Public Support ◽

The United States ◽

Future Research ◽

White Americans ◽

Two Factors ◽

The U.S

We have investigated the differences in support for the U.S. Supreme Court among black, Hispanic, and white Americans, catalogued the variation in African Americans’ group attachments and experiences with legal authorities, and examined how those latter two factors shape individuals’ support for the U.S. Supreme Court, that Court’s decisions, and for their local legal system. We take this opportunity to weave our findings together, taking stock of what we have learned from our analyses and what seem like fruitful paths for future research. In the process, we revisit Positivity Theory. We present a modified version of the theory that we hope will guide future inquiry on public support for courts, both in the United States and abroad.

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Introduction

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190248178.013.1 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Travis D. Stimeling

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Country Music ◽

Future Research ◽

Music Culture ◽

Rich Variety ◽

Ethnographic Studies ◽

Folklore Studies ◽

History Of ◽

The Rich

This chapter offers a historiographic survey of country music scholarship from the publication of Bill C. Malone’s “A History of Commercial Country Music in the United States, 1920–1964” (1965) to the leading publications of the today. Very little of substance has been written on country music recorded since the 1970s, especially when compared to the wealth of available literature on early country recording artists. Ethnographic studies of country music and country music culture are rare, and including ethnographic methods in country music studies offers new insights into the rich variety of ways in which people make, consume, and engage with country music as a genre. The chapter traces the influence of folklore studies, sociology, cultural studies, and musicology on the development of country music studies and proposes some directions for future research in the field.

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Secular Living as a Context for Moral Development

The Oxford Handbook of Moral Development ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190676049.013.35 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 612-628

Author(s):

Phil Zuckerman ◽

Kyle Thompson

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Moral Development ◽

Empirical Data ◽

The United States ◽

Future Research ◽

Philosophical Discussion

Despite widespread suspicion to the contrary, secular living can and does serve as an adequate, or even excellent, context for moral development. In this chapter, the authors present the contours of contemporary anti-atheist prejudice, with an emphasis on the United States. Next, they explore the empirical data showing that individual atheists and highly secularized societies, such as Sweden and Denmark, are often quite moral, which serves to counter and debunk anti-atheist prejudice. Then, the authors move to a philosophical discussion centering around secular morality itself, outlining general merits of atheistic morality specifically while simultaneously pointing out various problematic assumptions of theistic morality. Finally, the authors conclude and make recommendations for future research.

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Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 on College Campuses: Initial Efforts, Lessons Learned, and Research Needs

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18094455 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (9) ◽

pp. 4455

Author(s):

Sasha Harris-Lovett ◽

Kara L. Nelson ◽

Paloma Beamer ◽

Heather N. Bischel ◽

Aaron Bivins ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Information Needs ◽

Community Dynamics ◽

The United States ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Future Research ◽

Private Institutions ◽

Community Members ◽

Public And Private ◽

College And University ◽

University Systems

Wastewater surveillance for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an emerging approach to help identify the risk of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. This tool can contribute to public health surveillance at both community (wastewater treatment system) and institutional (e.g., colleges, prisons, and nursing homes) scales. This paper explores the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from initial wastewater surveillance efforts at colleges and university systems to inform future research, development and implementation. We present the experiences of 25 college and university systems in the United States that monitored campus wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 during the fall 2020 academic period. We describe the broad range of approaches, findings, resources, and impacts from these initial efforts. These institutions range in size, social and political geographies, and include both public and private institutions. Our analysis suggests that wastewater monitoring at colleges requires consideration of local information needs, sewage infrastructure, resources for sampling and analysis, college and community dynamics, approaches to interpretation and communication of results, and follow-up actions. Most colleges reported that a learning process of experimentation, evaluation, and adaptation was key to progress. This process requires ongoing collaboration among diverse stakeholders including decision-makers, researchers, faculty, facilities staff, students, and community members.

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