Ram Cnaan, MSW, PhD

Professor
Associate Dean for Research
Chair, Doctoral Program in Social Welfare

Bio | Research | Link to Scholarly Papers | Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Research

Practicing and Managing In The Religious Context

Description: This is a three-year study in which a group of about 10 students who have identified themselves as interested in religion and are scheduled to have their field practice setting in a religious-based social service agency. We will work with three cohorts of students to distill and elicit practice knowledge that will serve social service administrators for the 21st century. At the end of each year we will publish a manual of elicited knowledge that is pertinent to the interface of religion and social service administration. In the following years we will test the accuracy and generalizability of information elicited the year before, and based on the new knowledge we will augment the guidebook. It is expected that after one year of working with students who are trained as social work administrators under religious auspices, we will need two years of testing and calibrating this manual. Finally, findings from the training will be disseminated to the overall initiative participants, practitioners, and educators in the next decade.

Project Sponsors: The Lilly Endowment

Dates: 1998-current

Project Staff:
Ram A. Cnaan, Principal Investigator (cnaan@sp2.upenn.edu)
Rivka Danzig, Co-Investigator

Research Sites:
The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work

Project Related Publications:
Cnaan, R. A., & Yancey, G. I. (Forthcoming). Volunteerism and Organized Religion. In: Edward L. Queen, III (Ed.). Handbook on the management of faith-based service organizations. Jossey Bass: San Francisco.

Cnaan, R. A. The future of social work: Religious congregations, denominations, and social service provision. In: E. Gambrill and M. Reisch (Eds.), Social work in the 21st century, Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Grove, 1997, 271-284.

Jeavons, T. & Cnaan, R. A. (1997). The formation, transformation, and evolution of small religious organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 26, S62-S84.

Cnaan, R. A., & Milofsky, C. (1997). Small religious nonprofits - a neglected topic. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 26, S3-S13.

Cnaan, R. A., Cascio, T., & Newman, E. Helping Jewish communal managers meet the challenge: An evaluation of a training program. Journal of Jewish Communal Service, 1996, 73 (1), 63-75.

Project Number: CNAA-98-01

Entry Date: September, 1998