Fostering Successful Communities of Collaboration Through Educational Partnerships

There is an undisputable need to form collaborative partnerships between schools, families, homes, and communities across the nation. Collaborative educational partnerships are the cornerstone for student success. With increasingly diverse student populations, schools must communicate and collaborate with families and communities to bridge the wide gap that exists between home and school. With a dominant Spanish-speaking population of Mexican descent, as that of children living in the Southern tip of the Texas-Mexican border, known as The Rio Grande Valley, barriers such as low social economic status and limited English proficiency may impede much-needed communication between schools, homes, and communities. These barriers that negatively impede student success must be replaced with strong bridges that support student achievement. Recommendations are anchored in opportunities to increase academic and social partnerships among schools, families, homes, and communities. The premise for establishing educational partnerships is ultimately student achievement and success.

Blue Carbon in Emissions Markets: Challenges and Opportunities for Mexico

Mangroves are ecosystems made up of trees or shrubs that develop in the intertidal zone and provide many vital environmental services for livelihoods in coastal areas. They are a habitat for the reproduction of several marine species. They afford protection from hurricanes, tides, sea-level rise and prevent the erosion of the coasts. Just one hectare of mangrove forest can hold up to 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide, more than tropical forests and jungles. Mexico is one of the countries with the greatest abundance of mangroves in the world, with more than 700,000 ha. Blue carbon can be a novel mechanism for promoting communication and cooperation between the investor, the government, the users, and beneficiaries of the environmental services of these ecosystems, creating public–private-social partnerships through mechanisms such as payment for environmental services, credits, or the voluntary carbon market. This chapter explores the possibilities of incorporating blue carbon in emissions markets. We explore the huge potential of Mexico’s blue carbon to sequester CO2. Then we analyse the new market instrument that allows countries to sell or transfer mitigation results internationally: The Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM), established in the Paris Agreement. Secondly, we present the progress of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) to standardize the methodologies to assess their stock and determine the magnitude of the blue carbon sinks. Thirdly, as an opportunity for Mexico, the collaboration with the California cap-and-trade program is analysed. We conclude that blue carbon is a very important mitigation tool to be included in the compensation schemes on regional and global levels. Additionally, mangrove protection is an excellent example of the mitigation-adaptation-sustainable development relationship, as well as fostering of governance by the inclusion of the coastal communities in decision-making and incomes.

Change through chaos: using bricolage in cross-sector social partnerships

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore bricolage as the missing link in understanding how cross-sector social partnerships form and operate in response to grand challenges. It is proposed that the weaving together of resources employed by members of cross-sector social partnerships (CSSPs) is bricolage in action and can be linked to Gray's (1985) facilitating conditions for collaboration. While existing research examines bricolage primarily at the individual level, this research studies collective bricolage, as implemented by a cross-sector social partnership in its process to address a grand challenge.Design/methodology/approachThe authors follow the evolution of a Midwestern initiative aimed at the grand challenge of generational poverty. The deductive case study approach identifies the mechanisms of bricolage being employed in the initiative's evolution and ties these to Gray's (1985) seminal paper on interorganizational collaboration.FindingsThis case study has implications for academics conceptually struggling to understand grand challenges and the role of entrepreneurial initiatives in the public and nonprofit sectors, as well as practitioners currently involved in collaborative efforts to address said challenges.Originality/valueThis study enriches the discussion and enhances the link between the CSSP literature and new notions of social entrepreneurship that embrace the collective as their unit of analysis. This is the first work of its kind to link bricolage to a nascent CSSP and demonstrate how the entrepreneurial concept of bricolage is an inherent part of CSSP formation and operation.

How multinational corporations and nonprofits collaborate for sustainability: assessing social partnerships from China

Purpose This paper aims to understand the characteristics, factors and contingencies of social partnerships between multinational corporations (MNCs) and nonprofits in the context of sustainability that enable or impede the value creation outcome of the collaboration. Design/methodology/approach A multi-case study with 12 social partnerships operating in China was investigated considering their relative representativeness and different value creation outcomes. Findings The author presents a snapshot of the current state and unique differences of social partnerships in China, whereas the existing literature has mostly addressed the topic from a Western context. Moreover, the author highlights the key determinants and contextual features that influence the value creation outcome of social partnerships in China. Research limitations/implications This study concentrates on the social partnerships in the largest emerging country context of China, and the representativeness of data collected from a small sample may be challenged. Likewise, the 12 social partnerships studied are similar in design but vary in sustainability focus. To test the validity of the theorizing, the study calls for future research to apply the proposed theoretical framework across various contexts across both developing and developed world. Practical implications The paper provides guidance to corporate managers and nonprofit decision-makers on how to improve their social partner initiation, operations and governance so as to generate greater collaborative value out of social partnerships in the Chinese market. Social implications This study contributes to the social partnership literature, which has been dominant in the Western context, by offering case evidences from China. Originality/value The study shows that social partnerships are increasingly initiated and sustained in the context of sustainability and corporate social responsibility, with the majority oriented toward “satisficing” instead of “optimizing” and represented mostly with a “philanthropic” and “transactional” approach. The author particularly notes the salience of social exchange, with social partnerships serving as an indirect relational instrument for MNCs to navigate stakeholder relationships in the Chinese market, especially with the dominant resource holder such as the government.

Fostering Successful Communities of Collaboration Through Educational Partnerships

There is an undisputable need to form collaborative partnerships between schools, families, homes, and communities across the nation. Collaborative educational partnerships are the cornerstone for student success. With increasingly diverse student populations, schools must communicate and collaborate with families and communities to bridge the wide gap that exists between home and school. With a dominant Spanish-speaking population of Mexican descent, as that of children living in the Southern tip of the Texas-Mexican border, known as The Rio Grande Valley, barriers such as low social economic status and limited English proficiency may impede much-needed communication between schools, homes, and communities. These barriers that negatively impede student success must be replaced with strong bridges that support student achievement. Recommendations are anchored in opportunities to increase academic and social partnerships among schools, families, homes, and communities. The premise for establishing educational partnerships is ultimately student achievement and success.

How to Do CSR with Dialogic Meeting Talk: A Conceptual Framework for Managing Change in Cross-Sector Social Partnerships

Within the theoretical framework of Cross-Sector Social Partnerships [CSSPs], strategic communication and dialogue and by use of an example drawn from a case study of a CSSP, this article argues that Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR] initiatives are best developed in partnership-wide meetings involving relevant stakeholders. Importantly, it proposes a framework for analysis. Following a theoretical discussion of the interconnectedness of CSSPs, strategic communication and dialogue, the article outlines a framework for analysis. It delineates the potential of the framework through an analysis of a partnership-wide dialogue conducted in a local CSSP at a seminar/meeting dealing with the creation of common understanding for a social inclusion project among internal and external stakeholders. The analytical findings support the main argument and the conceptual endeavor by illustrating how common understanding of the need for social inclusion is constructed through a partnership-wide meeting organized as dialogue.

Well Homes Initiative: A Home-Based Intervention to Address Housing-Related Ill Health

Background Six thousand children are hospitalized each year in New Zealand with housing sensitive conditions, and 86.2% of these children are rehospitalized during childhood. The Healthy Homes Initiative, set up by the Ministry of Health, and implemented in Wellington through Well Homes, carries out housing assessments and delivers a range of housing interventions. Method Housing assessments were carried out by trained community workers. Philanthropic funding was received for the interventions through a local charitable trust. Results Well Homes saw 895 families. Mold in the home was the most commonly recorded area of poor housing quality, in 836 homes (93%). Partial or complete lack of insulation was also common, with 452 records (51%) having a documented need for further assessment and either an upgrade or full installation. Eighty-three percent of homes had insufficient sources of heating. A total of 5,537 interventions were delivered. Bedding, heaters, and draft stopping were delivered over 90% of the time. In contrast, insulation and carpets were only delivered 40% of the time. Interventions were least likely to be delivered in private rental housing. Discussion Targeted interventions using social partnerships can deliver housing improvements for relatively little health spending. Well Homes provides immediate and practical interventions, education, connection with social agencies, and advocacy for more substantial structural home improvements to help families keep their home warmer, drier, and healthier. This approach will be strengthened when combined with a new regulatory framework to raise the standards of private rental housing.