The Challenges of Partnering to Promote Health through Sport

Interagency partnerships and collaborations underpin a settings-based approach to health promotion in all settings, including sport. This study used an online concept mapping approach to explore the challenges that Regional Sports Assemblies (RSAs) in Victoria, Australia experienced when working in partnerships to develop and deliver physical activity programs in a community sport context. Participants from nine RSAs brainstormed 46 unique partnership-related challenges that they then sorted into groups based on similarity of meaning and rated for importance and capacity to manage (6-point scale; 0 = least, 5 = most). A six cluster map (number of statements in cluster, mean cluster importance and capacity ratings)—Co-design for regional areas (4, 4.22, 2.51); Financial resources (3, 4.00, 2.32); Localised delivery challenges (4, 3.72, 2.33); Challenges implementing existing State Sporting Association (SSA) products (9, 3.58, 2.23); Working with clubs (8, 3.43, 2.99); and Partnership engagement (18, 3.23, 2.95)—was considered the most appropriate interpretation of the sorted data. The most important challenge was Lack of volunteer time (4.56). Partnerships to implement health promotion initiatives in sports settings involve multiple challenges, particularly for regional sport organisations working in partnership with community sport clubs with limited human and financial resources, to implement programs developed by national or state-based organisations.

Assigning a Value to Volunteering in Requests for Proposals

The economic value of volunteering is an increasingly important part of volunteering management. It has become part of public policies. Some requests for proposals (RFP) enable nonprofits to include the value of volunteer time in compulsory co-financing. These RFP include the European Economic Area (EEA) Grants and Norway Grants. This article addresses the relationship in the value of volunteering, also called in-kind volunteering contributions. The research includes two case studies of finances from EEA and Norway Grants in the Czech Republic: the Czech NGO Programme, responsible for allocating grants between 2009 and 2014, and the Active Citizens Fund, responsible for allocating grants between 2014 and 2021. They share elements through the EEA and Norway Grants rules. However, they use different types of specialist replacement wages. The article summarizes the arguments for including in-kind volunteering contributions. It presents the possible values of these contributions in the selected cases, including the relationship between the type of volunteering and the number of hours necessary to achieve these values. The article defines the theoretical basis for calculating the value of in-kind volunteer contributions and illustrates this with real examples of allocations from EEA and Norway Grants.

Patient-partner engagement at the Centre de recherche du CHUS in the Province of Québec, Canada: from an intuitive methodology to outreach after three years of implementation

Background Medical societies and funding agencies strongly recommend that patients be included as partners in research publications and grant applications. Although this “top-down” approach is certainly efficient at forcing this new and desirable type of collaboration, our past experience demonstrated that it often results in an ambiguous relationship as not yet well integrated into the cultures of either patients’ or the researchers’. The question our group raised from this observation was: “How to generate a cultural shift toward a fruitful and long-lasting collaboration between patients and researchers? A “bottom-up” approach was key to our stakeholders. The overall objective was to build a trusting and bidirectional-ecosystem between patients and researchers. The specific objectives were to document: 1) the steps that led to the development of the first patient-partner strategic committee within a research center in the Province of Québec; 2) the committee’s achievements after 3 years. Methods Eighteen volunteer members, 12 patient-partners and 6 clinician/institutional representatives, were invited to represent the six research themes of the Centre de recherche du CHU de Sherbrooke (CRCHUS) (Quebec, Canada). Information on the services offered by Committee was disseminated internally and to external partners. Committee members satisfaction was evaluated. Results From May 2017 to April 2020, members attended 29 scheduled and 6 ad hoc meetings and contributed to activities requiring over 1000 h of volunteer time in 2018–2019 and 1907 h in the 2019–2020 period. The Committee’s implication spanned governance, expertise, and knowledge transfer in research. Participation in these activities increased annually at local, provincial, national and international levels. The Patient-Partner Committee collaborated with various local (n = 7), provincial (n = 6) and national (n = 4) partners. Member satisfaction with the Committee’s mandate and format was 100%. Conclusions The CRCHUS co-constructed a Patient-Partner Strategic Committee which resulted in meaningful bilateral, trusting and fruitful collaborations between patients, researchers and partners. The “bottom-up” approach - envisioned and implemented by the Committee, where the expertise and the needs of patients complemented those of researchers, foundations, networks and decision-makers - is key to the success of a cultural shift. The CRCHUS Committee created a hub to develop the relevant intrinsic potential aimed at changing the socio-cultural environment of science.

Madam C. J. Walker and African American Philanthropy in the Twenty-First Century

The epilogue examines the presence of Walker’s style of giving among African American donors of the twenty-first century, from Oprah Winfrey to the millions of black churchwomen, clubwomen, and giving circle members today. It presents Winfrey as an exemplar of Madam Walker’s gospel of giving by exploring the evolution of her philanthropy across her career. It reviews the fundraising campaign of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, which reflected Walker’s gospel of giving by creating multiple points of entry for donors of various abilities to give. A broad base of donors of all races, but especially African Americans, responded to the campaign by donating money, artifacts, and volunteer time at extraordinary rates. The chapter presents a brief overview of the current landscape of African American philanthropy as a reflection of Walker’s gospel of giving that includes the black church, communal forms of giving, giving circles, family foundations, black-led organizations and social movements, and professional affinity networks in philanthropy.

THE EFFECT OF OLDER ADULTS’ VOLUNTEERING ON THE SOCIAL SUPPORT

With increasing longevity, older adults need activities after retirement. Volunteering can be alternate for substituting role after retirement. Social capital is an important resource to start volunteering. Vice-versa, volunteering can increase their social network and social support. This study examined how the factors of volunteering affect emotional, instrumental and esteem support of older adults. This study used the 6th additional wave of the Korean Retirement and Income Study (2016). The sample size was 202 and target population were adults age 65+. Multiple regressions were used for data analysis.. Demographic variables (e.g. gender, age, etc) were controlled. Independent variables included volunteer time, how many places they volunteered at, whether volunteers were professionals providing pro-bono services or not, whether they were self-motivated or asked by others. For dependent variables, social support such as emotional, instrumental and esteem support were used. If volunteers were asked by others, emotional and esteem support were increased. If volunteers were self-motivated, it affected esteem support. If they were volunteering in multiple places, instrumental and esteem support were higher than volunteering in only one place. Length of volunteering time spent affected the instrumental support negatively. There were differences between those who were professionals versus nonprofessional volunteering affecting instrumental support. Nonprofessional volunteering affected instrumental support more than professional volunteering. These findings implied social support motivation, time, and whether the volunteer was a professional or not affected different kinds of social support differently. Findings show the importance of older adults doing volunteering to enhance social support.

Corporate Philanthropy

Corporate philanthropy refers to the allocation of organizational resources toward social causes, in the form of money (financial support), goods (in-kind donations), or time (employee volunteering). What is understood to constitute a social cause varies. Companies may support the provision of public goods, such as offering financial support to a museum or volunteer time to clean local parks, or the alleviation of social ills such as child leukemia or bilharzia, often by allocating resources to global NGO partners like the Red Cross. Corporate philanthropy is sometimes understood as a facet of a broader “corporate social responsibility,” or CSR, whereas others challenge this notion by differentiating between corporate philanthropy’s “one-off check writing” versus more systematic forms of companies’ social engagement, such as efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.

Organizational and Funding Options for Markup Vocabulary Creation and Maintenance

There are many ways to create a markup vocabulary and many forums in which it can be done. Creating and maintaining markup vocabularies requires significant ongoing volunteer time and effort, significant funding, or both. In light of this, it often makes sense for a multi-institution group to undertake the creation and management process, particularly when interchange is a goal. The community has examples of this consensus model, such as the TEI (which was created by a grant-supported project and is maintained by a consortium created for the purpose) and the STS (which was originally a derivative of JATS, further developed by ISO, and then donated to NISO for the establishment of consensus and for maintenance). Selection of an organizational home and source of funding can have marked effects on vocabularies. The organizational structure affects representation, who has a voice in the process, intellectual property concerns (e.g., patents, copyrights, other standards), and decision making policies. Costs involved in creating and maintaining markup vocabularies begin at conception and continue through development into maintenance and promotion. These costs include editing, hosting, publishing and distribution, and management of the standards process. Real-world examples of the organization and funding of successful markup vocabularies will provide patterns others may find useful.

Analysis of the grounding of the MV Rena in New Zealand, 5 October, 2011

The grounding of the general cargo vessel MV Rena near Tauranga Harbor in October 2011 was New Zealand’s worst environmental disaster. The ship hit an offshore reef, creating hazardous salvage conditions,and the consequent spill of 350 tonnes of fuel oil affected 50 km of coastline and many islands. Many containers fell overboard, creating hazards for other shipping, requiring additional salvage resources, and introducing toxins to the marine environment that are still washing up six years later. The community responded to the disaster by flocking to the beaches and cleaning up the oil by hand, giving well over 20,000 hours of volunteer time. Short- and long-term environmental consequences for wildlife and the inshore marine environment are reviewed, along with the effects on the local economy, the political context and the management response. There were significant economic effects during the summer immediately following the event, but the clean-up appears to have been remarkably successful. While the above-water superstructure of the ship was removed, much of the (broken-up) hull remains on or close to the reef today. The final (legal) decision on the removal of the wreck has enabled abandonment of the wreck. There appear to be few, if any, long-term wider environmental effects although elevated levels of some contaminants are still measurable close to the wreck in 2017.