Suchergebnisse

Research has found that collaboration is important for family service agencies, and community coalition building is a common form of collaboration. Guided by Community Coalition Action Theory, this article analyzes a community coalition convening around health and housing in a resource-challenged, large Midwestern metropolitan area. Implications for practice are discussed, describing initial lessons learned from the coalition kick-off event for community coalition convening. Using theory to anticipate coalition challenges and barriers, looking beyond simple meeting agenda objectives to identify specific coalition tactics, and asking hard questions about coalition capacity at kick-off are ways to strengthen health and housing interventions within family-based services.

Using Kingdon's (1995) multiple streams framework, this article analyzes the processes of problem definition, policy proposal, and political decision-making in the passage of civil union legislation in Illinois in 2009–2011. Prominent problem definitions emphasized family vulnerability in the health care system, eclipsing the concerns of religious organizations that the existence of civil unions violated their religious liberty. Political factors which permitted both civil unions and same-sex adoption protection included disorganized and detached opponents; a state attorney general who served as a policy entrepreneur for family rights; and postelection, strategic bipartisan negotiation which opened a narrow window for policy change. Implications for family policy issues are discussed.