From Isolation to Collaboration: African American Faith-Based Partnerships & Local Community Development

Historically, when community organizations engaged in community and economic development activities, they worked alone. Now, partnerships have become the new standard for the implementation of community and economic development initiatives. More specifically, faith-based partnerships are seen as the new frontier for addressing the dearth of social and economic problems in many African American communities. My research explores the questions: under what conditions do partnerships form between local faith-based organizations and secular organizations? Are the terms and dynamics of the partnership different depending on the type of partnership? Does the kind of partnership affect the type, scale and output of community development activities? I seek to develop a substantive theory on the formation of faith-based partnerships using the grounded theory approach and the constant comparison method to analyze the data—i.e., interviews with pastors, staff, and congregation members; secondary data such as budgets, proposals, and informal written correspondence as well as participant observation. I employ a comparative case study analysis of a Christian School, which grew out of an African American Baptist church, an African American church partnering with a county wide food depository, and a predominately African American ministerial group working with a bankers’ council. As policy makers, community development practitioners and academics continue to laud faith-based partnerships; thus, it becomes imperative to understand how and why these partnerships form and how the different types of faith-based partnerships affect the type, scale, and output of community development activities. Implications for social action, public policy, and future research are also discussed.