John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Faculty Research Working Papers Series The Will and the Way: Local Partnerships, Political Strategy and the Well-being of America's Children and Youth Xavier Briggs January 2002 RWP01-050 The views expressed in the KSG Faculty Research Working Paper Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the John F. Kennedy School of Government or Harvard University. All works posted here are owned and copyrighted by the author(s). Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. THE WILL AND THE WAY: LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS, POLITICAL STRATEGY, AND THE WELL-BEING OF AMERICA’S CHILDREN AND YOUTH Xavier de Souza Briggs John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University January 2002 Presented at the sixth meeting of the Urban Seminar Series on Children’s Health and Safety, on “Building Coalitions to Bring About Change,” sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation and chaired by William Julius Wilson at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 6-7, 2001. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Harvard’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations fund the larger research project of which this study is a part. Celeste Benson, Karen Bhatia, Nidhi Mirani, Dan Nicolai, Tim Reith, and Jonathan Taylor provided superb research support for this paper. Many thanks to the directors of the RWJ Urban Health Initiative and to Larry Aber, Debbie Alvarez, Debra Delgado, Mark Moore, Karen Pittman, Lisbeth Schorr, Ralph Smith, and Gary Walker for helpful advice. Comments are welcome at:
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