Nonprofit organizations and innovation: a model of neighborhood-based collaboration to prevent child maltreatment.
Public policymakers increasingly are contracting with nonprofit organizations (NPOs) for innovations in the creation of new service systems in low-income communities. Interorganizational collaboration and cooperation are essential to such innovation. Neighborhood-based institutional arrangements require social work practitioners to work across multiple systems simultaneously--skills that most are not trained to possess. This article develops a theoretical and conceptual framework for neighborhood-based collaboration by NPOs; analyzes the main concepts of innovation in the design and implementation of a collaboration to prevent child maltreatment in an undervalued neighborhood; and draws implications for social policy, social work practice, and social work research.
Mulroy
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School of Social Work, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu 96822, USA. mulroy@hawaii.edu
Shay
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D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009939:Organizations, Nonprofit / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011640:Public Policy; D012947:Social Work / Q000458:organization & administration*