A Lesson for CED Professionals on The Tipping Point: When Local Partners Pull Out of Fed and State Programs

<p>Why would you, as a local CED professional, hesitate to bring in a federal or state program to your community? Why do some federal and state programs struggle to recruit and maintain local partnerships? Many federal and state programs rely on community-based partners to implement and/or deliver services – local governments, regional organizations and non-profits.  In fact, CED programs are often designed with this intergovernmental relationship in mind.  Community-based partners know the target population, their needs, and what resources might already exist.  State and federal players have a much broader and deeper array of resources and expertise.  A common structure is program design and financial support at the federal level, administration and oversight at the state level, and implementation by local partners.  Of course, the reality is much more complicated, but most from the outside, this structure seems logical and sound.</p> <p>In particular, why would some local partners become so engaged that they enter into a program partnership only to leave a few years later?  When does a partnership become ‘not worth the effort’? This was the question behind a recent project conducted by researchers at the School of Government exploring the barriers faced by local partners trying to bring federal programs to the community.   We examined why North Carolina local partners either stayed with or withdrew from a nationally available federal program offering food assistance to children in the summer.  The key question was, when did the burden outweigh the benefit? Or running the program become unworkable?</p> <p style="text-align: left">The local burden was the [...]</p>