Blog Post 14 - Preliminary Research Project - Q+A for #1&2

RESEARCH PROJECT – V.2 -Updated 040821

 

Student’s Name: Lawrence E. Feirman

State & Local Government, 2021

 

Research Project & Paper (PRELIMINARY)

 

Title:  The Future of Youth Justice: 

Exploring Community-Based Alternatives to Youth Incarceration

 

            Please develop a question that can be answered through a small primary research project. Quantitative research is preferred; however, some qualitative research projects will be approved where this form of inquiry is most appropriate. Your project should be designed such that the results of your research might be of use to your Community Partner. Your Community Partner contact will be invited to join us when you present your results via Zoom.

            Your final paper should be 8 double-spaced pages in length with standard font and font size.  Margins no greater than 1 inch, please.  Your final paper MUST include proper in-text citations and a Bibliography. Any paper that does not include them will be returned unread.

            Include the following required sections:

1) Introduction & Background. Provide background and context for your project. Include in this section the problem to be solved, the question you have posed, any assumptions that structure your inquiry and your initial hypothesis.

RESPONSE:  

My Community Partner Project is a very important and vital part to my final year of education at NDNU.  Non- Profit Organizations (NPO’s) play a vital role in developing healthy communities.  They provide critical services that contribute to economic stability and mobility and that are either overlooked or do not receive funding so that they may thrive. They also strengthen communities in other important ways. 

Many times, nonprofit leaders are the voice of the people they serve. These leaders can see the obstacles, issues and shortfalls within their communities.  The strength of these individuals are normally a formidable understanding, strong relationship and intimate local knowledge of their communities.   These organizations often understand better than anyone else their communities’ concerns, needs and the smartest ways to meet them. When well-resourced nonprofits are connected to the decision-making infrastructure in their communities that can catalyze growth and opportunity.

I chose to reach out to two (2) Nonprofit organizations in my community of Redwood City, CA.  Although they are both non-profits, their models and funding are somewhat different, but equally important. What they do have in common is the services they supply the community; roles that were once performed by the town, city, state, or Federal government.  More and more these services are outsourced or completely forgotten.  Exploration of a pay for services model would also be a consideration in the survey.

Although they differ, both share a similar dilemma.  A good portion of the time spent by the NPO’s management and staff is dedicated to fund- raising and responding to grantors for dollars that will benefit their respective causes.  Contest for funds can be  very competitive, and alignment with the funder and funded requires a perfect alignment of mission and vision.  It is an arduous process for the NPO’s and more often than not the funded are not successful.

My proposition, my inquiry and the survey that will follow this semester is this:

1.)   In an attempt to increase the success and productivity of your community, to enrich the lives of the citizens of your municipality, would the inhabitants be agreeable to a dedicated tax that would support an agreed list of community services that were once performed by local government, schools, or government funded agencies?  Would a requirement ( whether actual time spent of a financial equivalent) for all residents of a community volunteer part of their time to community well-being?

2.) Another consideration that will be explored and surveyed would be how residents would support a reallocation of state and local taxes, (ballot measure) traditionally apportioned to youth prisons, detention centers and instead earmark those revenues to local community non profits that support juvenile initiatives.

Review of the Literature. What have other people already written about your topic? 

RESPONSE

The following websites (below) and others will be  used to explore what alternatives there are to traditional non-profit fund-raising.  There are some organizations that are looking to shorten the response time to for grants and increase the success rate of getting funding by using artificial intelligence, automated processes that identify key

Phrases, wording, and requirements.  This is just one way of improving an existing process/protocol. 

There are other practices being used to organize funding more quickly and in a less formal process, although the largest funders usually have the deepest pockets and endowment.  The “Friends For Youths” non-profit I am working with is having me work on a number of operational processes and practices to devise alternatives to traditional funding.

1.) https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesnonprofitcouncil/2019/02/14/seven-tried-and-true-alternative-forms-of-funding-for-nonprofits/?sh=639719c27182

2.) https://www.jstor.org/stable/23608324?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

3.) https://ssir.org/articles/entry/ten_nonprofit_funding_models

4.) https://www.cpajournal.com/2019/06/05/using-ratio-analysis-to-manage-not-for-profit-organizations/

5.) https://www-jstor-org.webinfo.ndnu.edu:8080/stable/pdf/1880754.pdf?ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A1309cbfc4ffb900873b182c64a1e3e31

6.) https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays

7.) https://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem

8.) https://www.ocregister.com/2017/05/07/using-property-taxes-to-fund-public-schools-prompts-inequities/

9.) https://www.google.com/search?q=social+enterprise+youth+development&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS858US859&oq=social+enterprise+youth+development&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160j33i299l2.12758j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

10.) https://www.google.com/search?q=redirection+of+state+funds+from+youth+prisons+to+non+profits&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS858US859&oq=redirection+of+state+funds+from+youth+prisons+to+non+profits&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i10i160.21258j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

11.) https://www.google.com/search?q=alternative+uses+of+funds+for+youth+incarceration&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS858US859&oq=alternative+uses+of+funds+for+youth+incarceration&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160.21959j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

12.) https://www.aecf.org/work/juvenile-justice/jdai/youth-detention-survey-during-covid-19/

13.) https://witnessla.com/california-community-non-profits-get-1-3-million-to-push-for-juvenile-justice-policy-change/

14.) https://blog.fundly.com/fundraising-ideas-for-schools-and-education/

15.) https://fconline.foundationcenter.org/sample/professional

16.) https://www.nonprofitimpactmatters.org/

17.) https://www.unit4.com/blog/8-challenges-for-nonprofit-organizations

18.) https://www.charitywater.org/about/scott-harrison-story#:~:text=Meet%20the%20Founder&text=Watch%20how%20a%20radical%20decision,without%20access%20to%20clean%20water.