Faith and Collaboration: A Qualitative Analysis of Faith-Based Social Service Programs in Organizational Relationships

As faith-based organizations and congregations are increasingly relied upon for social service provision in the United States, the collaborative relationships formed for human service purposes regularly include one or more faith-related organizations. Despite the growing attention on faith-based organizations and their history of participation in social service delivery, research concerning their interaction with others in the public and private sectors remains quite sparse. This article describes the findings of a qualitative post hoc analysis of a national study examining fifteen diverse faith-based social service programs. Findings emerged in three categories: partners, purposes, and relationships. KEYWORDS: collaborationorganizational relationshipsfaith-based organizationsfaith-based social servicescongregations Notes An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Society for Social Work Research in January 2005 in Miami, Florida. This project is funded by a generous grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts. Special appreciation to members of the Faith & Service Technical Education Network (FASTEN) Team at Baylor University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Southern California, and Virginia Commonwealth University who collected the data in phase I on which post hoc analysis is conducted. The findings of the first phase are the foundation for a quantitative national survey designed to determine the extent to which the grounded theory that emerges in the project's first phase can be applied nationally across the diversity of faith-based social services in the United States. The Hudson Institute and the Center for Faith and Service of the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), Baylor's partners in this project, are disseminating the findings of this research through FASTEN.