How to Use the Case Study Model.. And Why?

1. How to Use the Case Study Model.. And Why? A description of what a case study can do for you, and what they do for Faith-Based and Community Initiative researchers William H. Wubbenhorst Non-resident Fellow Institute for Studies of Religion/Baylor University Project Manager FaithService Forum, Macro International Inc. Faith & Works: A Call for Evidence of Action San Antonio, TX October 27-28, 2008 Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27

2. What a Case Study isn’t: What a Case Study is: What’s a Case Study, anyways? Curricula used for teaching (i.e., case study method); Story-telling for policy wonks; A way for capturing promising practices; A vehicle for peer learning (i.e., a community of practice) Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27 PR material (no spin, no air-brushing); Journalistic, ‘Human Interest’; Empirical (although it does report outcomes and evaluation data) – ‘Evaluation lite’;

4. Why Do a Case Study: What’s in it for you Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27 “Entry-level Evaluation”: The ability to articulate, measure and report what you do (quantitatively and qualitatively) is becoming more important (and often required) from both public and private funders; This is a good way to get started; Another set of Eyes: The process of telling your story to an ‘outsider’, and learning more about what you do that you didn’t know you did (pro bono consultation); Doesn’t require any additional data collection, per se (although it’s best if there is some existing data to work with); Sets the table for future, more rigorous studies (see my colleagues presenting after me)

5. Why Do a Case Study: “You owe it to the FBCI movement” Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27 • Efforts to document and report the outcomes and results of FBCOs are ESSENTIAL to legitimizing, maintaining and increasing public support for the FBCI and the federal, state and local level: • Overcoming institutional biases against non-credentialed, non-certified, staff who just happen to be very effective; • Developing programs strategies that are built from the ground up, not top-down, re-positioning policy-makers and academicians as facilitators, not a formulators; • Developing alternative funding strategies (including the “v” word) that better assure effectiveness and responsiveness to community needs, and avoid church-state entanglements.

6. What Have We Learned Thus Far? Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27 FBCI Case Study Trivia Questions: • How long after the Ohio Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was established did they hold their first outreach event?; • For the Texas Demonstration Project (operated by One Star Foundation and Cornerstone Consulting), what happened to FBCO sub-grantees’ TA priorities after they went through an Organizational Assessment? • What was the High Tech/High Touch strategy used by the Latino Coalition for Faith and Community Initiatives for managing 57 FBCO sub-grantees in 22 cities across 6 states from two different grant sources? • What was the Center for Neighborhood Enterprises looking for in barbershops in various neighborhoods in Milwaukee?

7. 50% 44% 45% 40% % of total priorities 35% 30% 25% Self-Assessment 24% 25% 23% Final TA Priorities 22% 20% 17% 17% 15% 13% 12% 10% 5% 3% 0% Leadership Org. Development Program Svcs/Quality Funding Comm Engagement Capacity-building areas OneStar Foundation: Texas Demonstration Project: Changes in T/TA Priorities Following Organizational Assessment Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27

8. Future Challenges: What we’re doing and what we need to do more of Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27 • Understanding and Advocating for Intermediary Organizations: i) Why they are important for involving FBCOs; ii) Making government procurements more “intermediary-friendly”; iii) Developing outcomes to monitor intermediary performance. • A Better understanding for how faith works, implicitly and explicitly, in FBCOs (whether they are called FBOs or not); • Comparing the efficacy of funding alternatives to direct funding (i.e., grants); • Using outcomes and evaluations to counter-act organizational and professional barriers

9. Conclusions: It’s not just about the money It’s not the money that determines whether a project succeeds or fails…You can give the same amount of money to two different groups and one will do wonders with the amount, and the other group can experience total failure. (Linda Leatherman, Pima County Faith-Based and Community Coordinator) Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27

10. Conclusions: Much work ahead… Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27 Dan Eckstrom, retired Pima County Supervisor and active supporter of the Pima project, summed up how collaboration with FBCOs can and should work at a local level: So we’ve come a long way… but there’s still a long way to go. The problem is that you have to get people to understand that it’s not as hard as you think it is… everybody gets hung up on the details of the separation between church and state… that’s the problem with us… we always take the two or three things that we disagree on and forget about the 450 things that we do agree on… and we let those two or three things separate us. This is one of the things that I think we’ve done a good job on… just getting people to come together…

11. Final Thoughts Faith and Works: A Call for Evidence: 10/27 “The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37) From Evaluators to Practitioners: “[FBCOs], I think [hope] this is the start of a beautiful friendship.” Humphrey Bogart (with editorial license)