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Program for Institutional Capacity Building The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation is the international, nonprofit continuation of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Riot Commission, after the big city riots of the 1960s) and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (the National Violence Commission, after the assassinations of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy). The Foundation identifies, funds, evaluates, builds the capacities of and replicates multiple solution ventures for the inner city, the truly disadvantaged, children, youth and families. Through national policy reports, the Foundation communicates what works (and what doesn't) to citizens, media and decision makers. The Foundation has worked with national programs and grassroots organizations during its 20-year history on a number of replication and capacity-building projects. In its effort to identify and replicate what works, the Foundation has found several programs with a history of success with their targeted populations and with positively impacting the community in which the organization is located. These programs become models for replication in cities across the nation. The Eisenhower Foundation supports the replication of scientifically-evaluated programs with a proven track record. Several of these programs are featured in the descriptions that follow. The models are identified with the term (model) next to the name of the organization. Other programs that were involved with a specific initiative have the words (replication site or capacity-building site) next to the program name. Programs that worked became the models for grassroots, community-based organizations to replicate. The grassroots organizations grew through phases of program implementation. Upon fully replicating the principles of the model, the next step was to improve the internal capacity of the site. The Eisenhower Foundation builds upon past program successes and lessons to strengthen existing and new programs. The Foundation employs a specific set of site selection criteria before a site becomes an Eisenhower program site. Grassroots non-profit groups, initially, were selected in terms of their budget size, years in existence, program utilization, low staff turnover, and time to commit to capacity-building work. The capacity-building training and technical assistance was provided to those sites that successfully replicated a model like the Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation, the Argus Community Learning for Living Program, Delancey Street's offender rehabilitation and vocational training program, or to a grassroots organization that specifically applied for technical assistance in the area of capacity building. The capacity-building program consists of an overall organizational needs assessment which examines the organization's capacity in a number of areas. Based upon the outcome of the needs assessment, a workplan is developed. The technical assistance and training for sites includes work in the areas of:
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