Research and Outreach

 

Forthcoming Research: Japan

Colleagues Max Stephenson Jr., Deborah Milly, Associate Professor for the Department of Political Science, Wolfgang Natter, Director of ASPECT and professor for Political Science, and Betsy Taylor, Senior Research Scholar for ASPECT have partnered to explore potential research bases and site selection in Japan. Possible concepts include reviving community and economy in depressed coal mining areas, eco-towns and economic revitalization, and how innovative entrepreneurship for high-tech industries contributes to local communities.

This forthcoming US-Japan comparative project is part of a grant proposal through the interdisciplinary doctoral program Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT).

Forthcoming Research: Belfast Peacelines, Belfast, Ireland

Intrigued by the Belfast Wall during their recent visit to Belfast, Ireland for the Foundations for Peace Network – sponsored Victim Empowerment conference in May 2008, Max Stephenson Jr. and Laura Zanotti have begun research surrounding the continued existence of the Wall ten years after the Peace Accords and despite proposed (and underway) (re) development of many of the Army garrisons the UK had in East Belfast for decades.

Together Drs. Stephenson and Zanotti will edit an issue of the Journal of Architectural Planning ans Research entitled, "Building Walls, Securitizing Space and Making of Identity."

Community Based Peace Building

Community foundations and community-based philanthropies play increasingly significant roles in efforts to mediate and build social capacity for the mitigation and management of long-lived conflicts in the societies of which they are a part. Drs. Max Stephenson Jr. and Laura Zanotti are exploring this little-studied phenomenon by examining the conflict amelioration and management role(s) of three such foundations in three diverse nations. They hope to develop a contextualized analysis of the emergent roles of these foundations in peace building and the mechanisms they employ to pursue these newfound responsibilities by exploring the effects of the interaction between global and local organizations and their intended and unintended consequences. They will compare and contrast the efforts of our sample organizations against their own aspirations, against international strategies for making peace, against the strategies they have adopted and against the goals afforded by FFP for the diffusion of alternate modes of conflict management and mediation. Comparative case analysis should yield a strong overview of how these institutions are proceeding in what for them is a new arena of activity as well as what range of strategies they are employing and the rationales they offer for selecting and pursuing those.

Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A Guide for Charities and Foundations

VTIPG is a signatory to Independent Sector’s Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A Guide for Charities and Foundations. The Guide represents the first time that charities and foundations reflecting a broad cross-section of the American nonprofit community have come together to develop principles of ethical conduct, accountability, and transparency that they aspire to and encourage all organizations to follow. The Guide outlines 33 practices designed to support board members and staff leaders of every charitable organization as they work to improve their own operations.

For more information visit http://www.nonprofitpanel.org/

 

Spring 2008 Graduate Scholar Society Seminar

Under the leadership of Dr. Max Stephenson Jr. and Marcy Schnitzer, a group of graduate students examined literature on violence and peace building as part of the spring 2008 Graduate Scholar Society. The group examined violence and conflict at the local, state, and international/systemic levels and the moral and ethical implications of each through reading three books: “We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families: Stories from Rwanda” by Philip Gourevitch, “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide” by Samantha Power, and “The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace” by John Paul Lederach. Discussions centered on issues such as the will to power, morality, the nature of evil, history, memory, identity and difference and their effects on reconciliation and peace-building.
 
The Graduate Scholar Society was formed with the purpose of creating an environment for graduate students to engage in transdisciplinary discussions on various topics of choice. Students gain personal and educational self-enrichment and make connections with fellow graduate students with diverse backgrounds and fields of study. Each semester new discussion groups are formed. Students are required to meet at least five times throughout the semester and produce a final presentation to share with the other discussion groups at the end of the semester.

For more information on the Graduate Scholar Society visit http://filebox.vt.edu/users/mefford/Graduate%20Scholars%20Society/Graduate%20Scholars%

20Society%20Home.html

Collaboration between New River Valley Nonprofits

Facilitated by VTIPG, various nonprofit organizations in the New River Valley area gathered at the April 2008 Blacksburg Town Hall meeting to discuss common needs of the sector in service delivery effectiveness, advocacy and grassroots activity, and public awareness and support.  

Collaboration spawned from the efforts of the Virginia Network of Nonprofit Organizations (VANNO) to unite Virginia nonprofits and connect their resources and practices to meet community needs.  

For more information on VANNO visit www.vanno.org/index.htm

Southside Virginia Community, Economic and Leadership Development

The IGA provides leadership for catalyzing research and outreach efforts in the Southside region of Virginia. VTIPG works in collaboration with the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) and Virginia Tech's Outreach and International Affairs Southside Implementation Team (SIT) to develop research and outreach programming that would advance the community development goals of the region. VTIPG is working with nonprofit organizations in the region and is in the beginning of an ambitious grassroots leadership development initiative involving multiple universities in the region.

Fairfax County's Consolidate Community Funding Pool

Fairfax County, Virginia pools Federal, State and Local government funds to support the work of nonprofits serving the residents of the county. Decisions funding Fairfax-based nonprofit organizations equaling near $9 million dollars are made by a citizen's committee and approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. An IPG Project Associate served on that 2004-2006 funding cycle selection committee.

World Bank-Civil Society Joint Facilitation Committee

The World Bank-Civil Society Joint Facilitation Committee (JFC) is a consultative body that seeks

  • to produce a guiding framework for World Bank-civil society engagement; and
  • to establish transparent, accountable and democratic mechanisms for further engagement

Virginia Network of Nonprofit Organizations

VTIPG has played a critical role in the founding of the statewide association for nonprofit organizations in the Commonwealth of Virginia . We have joined a coalition of nonprofits, consultants and nonprofit academic research centers from across the state to build this new organization. VANNO will provide forums for sharing expertise, experience and best practices, as a central information and resource exchange and gives Virginia's nonprofit sector a statewide voice, policy forum and collective advocacy arm.