The Capacity for Illinois Townships to Manage Increased Financial Assistance Caseloads during COVID

This study examines the change in demand for financial assistance from Illinois townships and the capacity of townships to meet the demands, with special attention to the collaborative capacity of townships. The results suggest that townships with greater collaborative capacity and larger staff resources were more likely to respond to the increased financial assistance needs in 2020 than other townships. As such, this study makes a meaningful contribution to the current governance capacity and intersectoral collaboration literature and practices by examining how the townships managed increased service demands during the first year of the COVID pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Current state and future directions for youth sport evaluation practices: an empirical study

Rationale: : The study purpose was to understand the current state and future directions of evaluation within the youth-serving sport sector, given the changing circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: : Using an exploratory approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 stakeholders who provide or support sport-based youth programming across community to national levels in the Canadian sport context. Findings: : Analyses revealed five themes related to evaluation practices before and amid the pandemic. First, an overview of the state of evaluation in the sport sector was provided. The three subsequent themes outlined how organizations pivoted their evaluation priorities and practices throughout the pandemic in planning, implementation, and dissemination. The final theme provides stakeholders' reflections on how to strengthen evaluation practices in the sport sector moving forward. Practical implications: : Findings are important for highlighting where the field of youth sport is moving toward evaluation and capacity gaps that remain. This research has and will continue to inform future knowledge mobilization and capacity-building opportunities of evaluation best practices. Research contributions: : This research advances the science of program evaluation by being the first to offer sport-specific perspectives on facilitators and barriers to evaluation both generally and during unprecedented times (e.g. global pandemic). © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Organizational readiness and innovation in the Jordanian telecommunication companies

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of organizational readiness (OR) dimensions (organizational culture, climate and capability) on three types of innovations (INs) (service, process IN and entering new markets) in telecommunication companies. The study also tests the mediating role of employee engagement (EE) in the causal relationship between OR and IN. Design/methodology/approach In the theoretical framework, a deep and broad review of the literature was presented to determine the study variables and hypotheses that were tested in the field study. The study sample consisted of 306 respondents distributed to the headquarters of the three companies (Zain, Orange and Umniah) working in the Jordanian telecommunications sector. The number of questionnaires retrieved and valid for analysis was 255 (83%). Findings Results indicate a positive effect of organizational climate and organizational capacity on process IN and entering new markets. While organizational culture had no significant effect on the three types of IN EE did not have a mediating role in the relationship between OR and IN. Research limitations/implications The results of this study are related to the telecommunications sector as a highly competitive service sector and more able to work remotely with regard to customers, so its results cannot be generalized to other sectors such as the industry sector, which has suffered in recent years from the epidemic more than other sectors. Practical implications The study of OR as a concept, dimensions and effects provides great experience for leaders and managers facing the challenges of competition and threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. This study also helps researchers to study OR in new areas and in relation to other concepts. Social implications The OR covers a wide field that includes the individual, the group and the company. Therefore, readiness includes a social experience that can extend from the company to the community. Originality/value The study gains an important value by revealing that organizational culture as a dimension of readiness does not have a significant impact on IN. With the readiness to respond quickly to challenges, culture can be more inclined to the status quo and the prevailing routine than to IN and change.

Factors Facilitating Academic-Community Research Partnerships With African American Churches: Recruitment Process for a Community-Based, Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

African American (AA) churches are valuable partners in implementing health promotion programming (HPP) to combat health disparities. The study purpose was to evaluate AA church characteristics associated with enrollment into the FAITH! (Fostering African American Improvement in Total Health) Trial, a community-based, cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a mobile health intervention for cardiovascular health promotion among AA churches. Churches located in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Rochester, Minnesota were invited to complete an electronic screening survey and follow-up telephone interview including the PREACH (Predicting Readiness to Engage African American Churches in Health) tool to assess church characteristics and infrastructure for HPP. The primary outcome was church enrollment in the FAITH! Trial. Key predictors included overall PREACH scores and its subscales (Personnel, Physical Structure, Faith-based Approach, Funding), congregation size, and mean congregation member age. Of the 26 churches screened, 16 (61.5%) enrolled in the trial. The enrolled churches had higher overall mean PREACH scores (36.1 vs. 30.2) and subscales for Personnel (8.8 vs. 5.6), Faith-based Approach (11.0 vs. 9.6), and Funding (7.3 vs. 4.8) compared with non-enrolled churches; all differences were not statistically significant due to small sample size. Twelve (75.0%) of the enrolled churches had >75 members versus six (60.0%) of the non-enrolled churches. Twelve (80.0%) of the enrolled churches had an average congregation member age ≤54 years versus six (67.0%) of the non-enrolled churches. AA churches enrolling into a community-based RCT reported greater infrastructure for HPP, larger congregations, and members of younger age. These characteristics may be helpful to consider among researchers partnering with AA churches for HPP studies.

Diabetes Prevention and Care Capacity at Urban Indian Health Organizations.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people suffer a disproportionate burden of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Urban Indian Health Organizations (UIHOs) are an important source of diabetes services for urban AI/AN people. Two evidence-based interventions-diabetes prevention (DP) and healthy heart (HH)-have been implemented and evaluated primarily in rural, reservation settings. This work examines the capacity, challenges and strengths of UIHOs in implementing diabetes programs. Methods: We applied an original survey, supplemented with publicly-available data, to assess eight organizational capacity domains, strengths and challenges of UIHOs with respect to diabetes prevention and care. We summarized and compared (Fisher's and Kruskal-Wallis exact tests) items in each organizational capacity domain for DP and HH implementers vs. non-implementers and conducted a thematic analysis of strengths and challenges. Results: Of the 33 UIHOs providing services in 2017, individuals from 30 sites (91% of UIHOs) replied to the survey. Eight UIHOs (27%) had participated in either DP (n = 6) or HH (n = 2). Implementers reported having more staff than non-implementers (117.0 vs. 53.5; p = 0.02). Implementers had larger budgets, ~$10 million of total revenue compared to $2.5 million for non-implementers (p = 0.01). UIHO strengths included: physical infrastructure, dedicated leadership and staff, and community relationships. Areas to strengthen included: staff training and retention, ensuring sufficient and consistent funding, and data infrastructure. Conclusions: Strengthening UIHOs across organizational capacity domains will be important for implementing evidence-based diabetes interventions, increasing their uptake, and sustaining these interventions for AI/AN people living in urban areas of the U.S.

Building organisational capacity for blended learning: An evidence-based approach

Blended Learning has become a vital part of Higher Education’s teaching strategy. The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need and demand to combine the best from online and face-to-face;synchronous and asynchronous. Simultaneously, it has exposed deficiencies in the sector’s capacity to deliver high-quality and effective blended learning. As a consequence, universities need a mechanism for identifying i) current capacity to deliver blended learning, ii) the work required to achieve the ideal state, and iii) a reliable measure of their progress towards it. Many models of blended learning have been proposed in the literature, along with numerous examples of good practice. However, there is no single framework that defines all the elements required to deliver a blended learning approach and allows Universities to easily benchmark their organisation’s capacity. This paper presents the rationale for such a framework together with a high-level design;it explores its possible use in the implementation and evaluation of an HE blended learning programme. By combining previous experience in use of an e-learning Maturity Model to assess organisational capability, with an extensive review of current literature, the authors propose an evidence-based framework for blended learning. The framework defines the key elements required, including the environment, the curriculum, the educators and the learners. By clearly defining the relationships between the elements, and capturing the attributes for each, the model can be used to assess an organisation’s capacity to deliver effective blended learning. The authors have curated and synthesised hundreds of good practice guidelines and quality criteria for blended learning and, drawing on their own experience in this area, have distilled them into a set of clear performance objectives for each element. This is presented as a checklist for organisations to determine their current state and provide clear goals to work towards. Regular monitoring and review of these objectives can be used to measure an organisation’s progress and its relative maturity as a blended learning provider. The paper concludes with some early examples of its use to develop organisational capacity in a UK University, together with recommendations for future development and application in Higher Education quality management. © the authors, 2021. All Rights Reserved.