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An association of over 300 rescue missions has embarked on a landmark study to identify how faith works in faith-based social services.
The Association of Gospel Rescue Missions (AGRM) announced their plan this month to expand its pilot research project – the results of which were revealed in June – to "help translate faith into measurable research indicators."
"Despite all the publicity about faith-based initiatives, the truth of the matter is that the faith component in these programs is not well understood," said Karen Woods, project director, in AGRM’s announcement this month. "The [project] points us in the right direction for a better understanding of how faith works in social service agencies."
For the National Recovery Initiative Pilot Project, a self-selected group of seventeen AGRM members, or GRMs, from across the United States were instructed to examine factors such as the significance of faith in substance abuse recovery and how faith may help a person recover from addiction.
The research involved working with the leadership and staff of the GRMs to engage in a process to help define and measure the faith-motivated help provided to homeless and drug-dependent persons. The aim of the research was to document the nature of the GRMs’ work and to lay the foundation for testing program effectiveness.
According to the researchers behind the pilot project, the results suggested that faith elements can be measured, and people who seek help from faith-based programs show clear evidence of change.
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However, while the NRI Pilot Study achieved its goals for measurement development and feasible data collection protocols, the researchers said data quality suffered from understaffing and the tendency among many GRMs to employ the graduates of their treatment programs before persons with better qualifications.
Furthermore, as the researchers pointed out, not all faith-based services are the same.
“ In fact, faith-based service interventions and treatments vary considerably depending on the choices inherent in their faith frameworks as well as the specific treatment modality used by a program,” they stated.
Still, the researchers said the NRI Pilot Study was able to lay a preliminary foundation for more rigorous evaluation research by highlighting the need for greater conceptual clarity, specificity, and operationalization of key measures of programmatic faith.
“The answer to how faith program components actually contribute to individual outcomes begins to be found in greater specification of the faith-conditioned service or treatment,” they noted.
Following the conclusion of the Pilot Project, the research is now being expanded to a National Demonstration Project based at Grand Valley State University's Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership.
Researchers hope the results will help guide the debate over federal faith-based initiatives, now in their seventh year of expansion under the Bush Administration.
Both presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have voiced strong support for faith-based initiatives.
Critics, however, have questioned the effectiveness of the initiatives and have also warned against “entanglement between religion and government.”
“This [faith-based] initiative has been a failure on all counts, and it ought to be shut down, not expanded,” stated the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, after Sen. Obama revealed a proposal to expand faith-based funding earlier this summer.
“Rather than try to correct the defects of the Bush ‘faith-based’ initiative, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would do better to shut it down,” Lynn’s watchdog group expressed in a statement.
In 2001, President Bush launched his faith-based initiative by establishing a White House office to assist and encourage faith-based organizations in seeking federal funds to combat problems like drug addiction and homelessness.
The faith-based initiative was announced as part of Bush's promised administration of "compassionate conservatism," dedicated to continuing and extending social service programs through local, rather than federal government involvement.
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