By Meg Henry

On November 15, 2018, IRFA Founder and Senior Director Stanley Carlson-Thies testified at a briefing for the Ohio House of Representatives Community & Family Advancement Committee.

The briefing’s goal was to consider the best path forward for the Ohio Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (GOFBCI). It was called by the Committee Chair Representative Tim Ginter, and organized by Chip Weiant, a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute’s Center for Civic Character, and a founding member of the board of GOFBCI. “We needed someone with credibility and horsepower to validate the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives,” said Weiant. “[Carlson-Thies] was that person.”

The focus of the briefing was the vital importance of intermediary organizations as bridges between government agencies and local organizations. These organizations network together small organizations, helping them improve their operations and services and administer large government grants by making subgrants to the smaller organizations. Some intermediaries are purpose-built to work in particular communities, supporting and knitting together small local groups; sometimes a college, a community foundation, or a large secular or religious social-service agency develops an intermediary function. In this briefing, three Ohio faith-friendly intermediaries testified about their operations: MissionColumbus, CityLink Center, and Think Tank.

Carlson-Thies provided perspective by discussing the history and aims of the federal faith-based initiative. He stressed how government programs easily default to secularism and a preference to work with large private groups, even though many of the best services for persons and families in need are small and religious. He saluted GOFBCI for its commitment to strengthening Ohio intermediaries as the way to strengthen Ohio’s civil society for the sake of healthy families and communities.

In his testimony, he said:

I particularly commend the Ohio Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (GOFBCI) for its focus on improving the effectiveness of intermediaries, including by encouraging them to become knowledgeable about and ready to collaborate with faith-based nonprofits and houses of worship. Many of the most effective faith-based and nonreligious organizations are relatively small and young. Despite their youth and small size, they can be particularly effective because they are located close to the needs they are addressing, because they have personal ties to those they assist, because they are known and trusted, and because they are nimble and innovative. Yet, being small and new, they are especially challenged to find adequate funding, to be expert at organizational development, to gain competence in monitoring the effectiveness of their services, to continually improve their delivery of services, and to know how best to partner with government programs.

For such smaller and newer organizations, especially, the strategy to utilize and strengthen faith-friendly intermediaries is exactly right.

“[The State of Ohio needs] to coordinate our state and county resources,” concluded Weiant. “We can do that in coordination with faith-based groups who provide valuable support.”