FACES State Commission Toolkit

Implementing the President’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative
at the Corporation for National and Community Service

Background
Programs within the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) have a long and valued history of partnering with and distributing resources to community organizations (both secular and faith-based). With the signing of Executive Orders and the establishment of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, President George W. Bush has made it a priority of the Departments of Justice, Labor, HHS, HUD, Education, Agriculture, and the Agency for International Development. (See Appendix A.) CNCS is charged with enhancing its outreach and engagement of these two target populations, not through a separate initiative, but as part of the way CNCS does business. Faith and Communities Engaged in Service (FACES) is the CNCS implementation of the president’s initiative.

Starting with the Glass Half Full
The most important step to implementing this initiative is to start with the glass half full. Very often in the past, concerns about the separation of church and state have caused government funders, faith-based organizations (FBOs), and community-based organizations (CBOs) alike to avoid working together. Do not assume something cannot happen. Rather, begin by asking the appropriate questions and seeking solutions that fall within the law. Try to be fair and equitable, but take a problem-solving approach; there is a way to make a partnership work. For help with knowing what to do when an issue is close to the line, seek guidance from legal counsel. Check out state requirements as well as federal and CNCS regulations. (See Appendix C.)

What the Initiative Is and Is Not
The Faith-Based and Community Initiative (FBCI) seeks to level the playing field, to provide faith-based, community, and grassroots organizations equal access, the eligibility to compete on the same basis as other organizations for public funding. “Unlevel Playing Field,” the report issued by the White House in August 2001, details the barriers and inequities in funding experienced by community organizations (both secular and faith-based) when trying to compete for government resources. (See
Appendix D.) This initiative does not propose special treatment or special advantage for these groups such as reducing administrative or fiscal requirements, nor does it seek to create funding resources set aside specifically for these groups; rather it seeks to remove existing barriers in order to allow such organizations to compete equally and fairly.

Building Social Capital, Mobilizing Volunteers, Solving Community Problems: The Connection between the Faith-based and Community Initiative and CNCS
Community organizations, faith-based and secular, play a critical role in strengthening the social fabric of neighborhoods and communities, mobilizing residents to address community issues, promoting volunteerism, and delivering direct services across a broad spectrum to address critical unmet human needs. These organizations serve to enhance the development of social capital and infrastructure within neighborhoods. They tend to be staffed by residents and members who reflect the diversity of the community, who have shared experiences, who have walked in their neighbor’s shoes. Services delivered by these organizations tend to:

respond to the felt needs of the community they originate from
grow out of a desire to serve others, particularly the less fortunate
solve problems present in the population they serve
mobilize residents or members as volunteers for service delivery
be physically present in the neighborhood
better represent the ethnic and language diversity of the neighborhood
build relationships in addition to delivering services

Research demonstrates the positive contributions of FBOs specifically to public safety, public health, and well-being measures in America. A handout is provided that outlines the statistics on the contributions of FBOs to a civil society, building social capital, mobilizing volunteers, and solving community problems. (See Appendix E.)

Definitions
Defining the key terms for the Faith-Based and Community Initiative has been challenging. The 2004 AmeriCorps guidelines offer the following definitions.

Community-Based Organization, Small
Following Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines, the Corporation defines a small community-based organization as an organization where its headquarters or service location shares the same zip code as the clients served.

Faith-Based Organization
Following the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines, the Corporation defines Faith-Based Organizations to include: (1) a religious congregation (church, mosque, synagogue, temple, etc.); (2) an organization, program or project sponsored/hosted by a religious congregation (may be incorporated or not incorporated); (3) a nonprofit organization founded by a religious congregation or religiously-motivated incorporators and board embers that clearly sites in its name incorporation, or mission statement that it is a religiously motivated institution; or (4) a collaboration of organizations that clearly and explicitly includes organizations from the previously described categories.

Intermediary Organization
National, regional, state, or local organizations that agree to provide the technical and financial support to assist community or faith-based organizations that do not have the capacity to perform these functions. Intermediaries serve as the legal applicant for a Corporation grant, thereby ensuring that the systems to manage a federal grant are in place. Successful new applicants and continuing programs will be those that demonstrate partnerships with these community organizations, through such mechanisms as subgrants, use of host sites, or partnering for volunteer recruitment.

The Challenges
The challenges facing community organizations (secular and faith-based) include:

Lack of experience/capacity in dealing with the fiscal, administrative, and supervisory responsibilities associated with applying for, accepting, and utilizing government and private funds.
Concern about the implications of government intrusion or monitoring.

Questions raised by State Commissions about implementing this initiative have included:

What are the expectations for State Commissions in implementing this initiative?
How are community organizations (secular and faith-based) being defined?
How do State Commissions establish a baseline and measure progress?
What is the role of the State Commission in connection with other agencies in the state related to this initiative?
Who are these community organizations (secular and faith-based) and how can we best engage them?
What are effective strategies to build the capacity of this target audience?
How best to manage the increasing expectation for monitoring and accountability with the capacity-building needs of community organizations (secular and faith-based)?
What other resources exist to support this initiative and these organizations?
How to manage the time-intensive demands on the part of staff with this initiative?

The challenge of granting more small awards vs. a few large ones is the same challenge being undertaken by other local, state, and federal agencies seeking to level the playing field for community organizations (secular and faith-based). Examples of emerging strategies to deal with these challenges include using intermediaries or existing coalitions to serve as grantees to manage and distribute members to community partners (secular and faith-based); issuing planning grants to prepare applicants for the process; and using dispersed site-management strategies to implement the initiative.

The Benefits
Anticipated benefits or outcomes for this initiative include:

Equal access for community organizations (secular and faith-based) to CNCS resources.
An increase in direct services being developed and delivered at a grassroots level.
An increase in the outreach to and diversity of volunteers at a grassroots level.
An impact on the infrastructure of neighborhoods and communities.
An impact on the quality of life at the individual and community level.

The Toolkit
This Toolkit seeks to provide State Commissions and other grantees with the information, tools, strategies, outputs, and resources (see Appendix G and Appendix H) that will make the integration of Faith-Based and Community Initiative into the way they do business more effective, efficient, and rewarding.

The Toolkit is organized into seven components:

The format for each section includes a description of the component; the challenges and benefits of implementing the component; and specific strategies, outputs, and tools to implement the component. Input into the design and content of the Toolkit has been drawn from 12 State Commissions for this initiative: Arkansas, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Ohio, and South
Carolina.

Do you have input, comments, or suggestions?
The contact information for the FACES Initiative is FACES@ncpc.org or 1-866-78FACES. You are encouraged to contribute effective practices, tools, or resources from State Commissions or grantees. In addition, please use this information to ask questions, request materials, or to provide suggestions.

RESOURCES

Title: Executive Order, The White House, George W. Bush, January 2001
Tool Type: Policy
Purpose: This Executive Order outlines the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiative.
Location: Appendix A
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/01/20010129-2.html

Title: Executive Order 13198, The White House, George W. Bush, January 2001
Tool Type: Policy
Purpose: This Executive Order outlines the agency responsibilities with respect to Faith-Based and Community Initiative.
Location: Appendix A
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/01/20010129-3.html

Title: Executive Order, The White House, George W. Bush, December 2002
Tool Type: Policy
Purpose: This Executive Order outlines the equal protection of the laws for faith-based and community organizations.
Location: Appendix A
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021212-5.html
Introduction

Title: Executive Order, The White House, George W. Bush, December 2002
Tool Type: Policy
Purpose: This Executive Order outlines the responsibilities for the Department of Agriculture and the Agency for International Development.
Location: Appendix A
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021212-6.html
Introduction

Title: White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiative
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: Home page for the White House's FBCI initiative. This includes information about upcoming conferences, grant opportunities, related legislation, and the other cabinet Centers for the FBCI.
Location: www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci

Title: Corporation for National and Community Service
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: Latest news for CNCS including the Faith-based and Community Initiative.
Location: www.nationalservice.gov/for_organizations/faith/index.asp

Title: Department of Housing and Urban Development
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: HUD's Center for Faith-based and Community Initiative.
Location: www.hud.gov/offices/fbci/index.cfm

Title: Department of Health and Human Services
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: HHS's Center for Faith-based and Community Initiative.
Location: www.hhs.gov/fbci/

Title: Department of Labor
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: DOL's Center for Faith-based and Community Initiative.
Location: www.dol.gov/cfbci/

Title: Department of Education
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: DED's Center for Faith-based and Community Initiative.
Location: www.ed.gov /offices/OIIA /faithandcommunity/

Title: Department of Justice
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: DOJ's Center for Faith-based and Community Initiative.
Location: http://www.usdoj.gov/fbci/

Title: FAQ and CNCS Civil Rights Statement, Office of General Counsel
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: These documents clarify the CNCS policy for recruiting AmeriCorps members into faith-based organizations, prohibited activities, and how antidiscrimination protections should be applied in CNCS programs.
Location: Appendix C

Title: Guidance to Faith-Based and Community Organizations
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: This document offers guidance to community organizations on partnering with the federal government.
Location: Appendix C

Title: Government Partnerships with Faith-Based Service Providers: The State of the Law Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, December, 2002
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: This document outlines the results of an in-depth look at the state of the law including the Establishment Clause, state constitutional law, the law of employment discrimination, federal programs that invite FBOs, and state social service contracts.
Location: www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/guidance/index.html

Title: Unlevel Playing Field: Barriers to Participation by FBOs / CBOs in Federal Social Service Programs, The White House, August 2001
Tool Type: Study
Purpose: This report summarizes the initial findings from the five cabinet centers on barriers impeding religious and grassroots organizations seeking to serve the common good in collaboration with the federal government. Some of the findings include the following:
-Small FBOs receive very little federal support relative to the size and scope of the social services they provide.
-There is a widespread bias against FBOs/ CBOs in federal social service programs.
-There are needlessly burdensome administrative creations required of FBOs.
-Charitable Choice has been almost entirely ignored by federal administrators.
-Some FBOs/ CBOs do receive financial support.
-An outline of the 15 barriers found between the federal system and FBOs/ CBOs.
Location: Appendix D

Title: Contributions of FBOs
Tool Type: Handout
Purpose: This handout highlights key findings of nearly 700 studies citing benefits of FBOs. It includes statistics on charitable giving; volunteer service; and positive impacts on heath, safety, and well-being measures.
Location: Appendix E

Title: Developing Definitions for FBOs and CBOs
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: This document offers helpful background to assist the Commission to develop its own definitions of community organizations (secular and faith-based).
Location: Appendix F

Title: Summary of Studies and Articles
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: This summarizes studies related to the Faith-based and Community Initiative including those from Working Group, Hudson Institute, and Public and Private Ventures.
Location: Appendix G

Title: Background Resources
Tool Type: Reference
Purpose: This list provides additional contacts for policy, research, and university studies as well as topical reading suggestions.
Location: Appendix H

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