Greater New Orleans Nonprofit Knowledge Works strives to enhance the management capacity of the local nonprofit sector to provide information-driven, systemic and effective solutions to community problems. We believe that evidence (data, published research, and community perspective) is an essential foundation for the development of effective social programs. And our unique emphasis on systems is based on our theory that no matter how well agencies operate independently, real community change will depend on nonprofits working together in systems that are oriented to meeting clientsβ multidimensional needs. The new playing field created by Katrina has heightened the importance of system-wide planning and created opportunities for more rapid implementation.
Knowledge Works plays a role at several levels: 1) collaborating with local funders to help them use evidence to strategically invest in the community; 2) working with collaboratives of agencies to design evidence-based, systemic approaches to addressing community problems and then with their member agencies to help them participate in the redesigned system; 3) providing individual agencies with on-demand information and advice to address their technical assistance needs; and 4) creating and maintaining centralized information systems and infrastructure for the local nonprofit sector.
Both our systems redesign consulting and our information products require a good deal of innovation because we are working in young disciplines without much codified knowledge. All our projects begin with an exhaustive review of the literature available in the field and in related fields. Then our consulting projects are staffed by a team, including professionals who have a strong orientation toward systems thinking, and ones who have extensive nonprofit experience. And our product development team consists of experts in the fields of information architecture, information design, usability engineering and instructional design.
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