Public/Private Ventures

Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan, social research and policy organization whose mission is to improve the effectiveness of policies, programs and community initiatives, especially as they affect vulnerable communities. In partnership with public and private funders, P/PV develops new models and performs evaluations on programs and initiatives that seek to address some of society’s most pressing problems. It also plays a central role in ensuring successful replication and expansion of effective programs as well as distributing lessons learned from its projects to practitioners and policymakers.

History

P/PV was created by the Ford Foundation and the US Department of Labor to serve an intermediary role to join together the complementary capacities of government, businesses, and nonprofits in the hopes of creating a truly effective response to social welfare ills. P/PV began its operations in 1978 and was initially focused on evaluating and creating strategies to connect disadvantaged youth to education and jobs [ AP. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C06E4D91338F930A35752C0A964948260 "Study Hails a Youth Program Periled by US Budget Cuts"] , New York Times, 1982-1-3. Retrieved on 2008-9-16. ] [Hechinger, Fred M. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9F03E5DC1738F93AA15753C1A963948260 "About Education; Warning Over Ignoring Pupils Living in Poverty."] , New York Times, 1985-10-29. Retrieved on 2008-9-16. ] [Op-Ed. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2DD113EF93AA35755C0A961948260 "Putting Summer to Work"] ,New York Times, 1987-6-9. Retrieved on 2008-9-16. ] . P/PV now addresses a wide range of critical social issues including community health [Mcclain, Dani. [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30619687_ITM "Confronting Teen Pregnancy: Campaign Uses In-Your-Face Ways to 'Make it Real'"] , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2007-4-7. Retrieved on 2008-9-16. ] , youth development [ Marriott, Michel. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CEED7153BF93BA25754C0A966958260 "Youth Service Is New Route to Diplomas and Jobs"] , New York Times, 1990-7-18. Retrieved on 2008-9-16.] , faith-based initiatives [Billups, Andrea.“Keeping the Faith, Philadelphia’s Mayor Helps Make a Difference,”
Washington Times, 2001-4-15. Retrieved on 2008-9-16.] [ US Department of Labor. [http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/opa/OPA2002083.htm "New Faith-Based Cooperative Agreement Announced:Five Job Corps Sites And Five Faith-Based Organizations Partner to Help Youths"] , Press Release, 2002-2-12. Retrieved on 2008-9-16 ] , sectoral employment [ Public/Private Ventures. [http://www.ppv.org/ppv/labor_market/labor_market_initiatives.asp?section_id=5&initiative_id=9 "Sectoral Employment"] ] , mentoring [ Stoiber, Julie. [http://www.bbbs.org/atf/cf/%7B56DF195F-282E-4C69-8BC0-571E3952E371%7D/BigVisitShaw.pdf "At School, a 'Big' Visit Makes a Big Difference: Big Brothers Big Sisters Matches College Students with Counterparts at a West Philadelphia Middle School"] ,Philadelphia Inquirer, 2005-1-31] , after-school programs, youth violence [Gregory, Kia. [https://www.brainsoap.com/articles/7823/news "Staying Alive: A Local Program Aims to Keep the City's Young from Becoming Targets of Crime"] , Philadelphia Weekly, 2004-8-11. Retrieved on 2008-9-16. ] and prisoner reentry.

Early findings from P/PV’s summer youth employment and education programs influenced the 1986 Congress to mandate that federally supported summer jobs programs have a remediation component. In 1995, P/PV’s widely publicized landmark study, Making a Difference: An Impact Study of Big Brothers Big Sisters showed that mentors can create measurable, positive results in youth and provided fuel for the mentorship movement [ Boyle, Patrick. [http://67.199.2.34/publication/article.cfm?article_id=1193 "The Study that Ignited (or Diluted) Mentoring: How the 'Big Brothers' Report Became the Most Influential, Most Useful and Most Misused Evaluation in Youth Work"] , Youth Today, 2007-1-1. Retrieved on 2008-9-16. ] [ Boyle, Patrick and Jen Russell. [http://www.youthtoday.org/publication/article.cfm?article_id=1394 "School-Based Mentoring: Does it Make the Grade?: Evidence Shows Some Benefits, but Big Impacts Require More Commitment"] , Youth Today, 2007-9-1. Retrieved on 2008-9-16.] . With the support of the US Department of Labor, US Department of Justice, Annie E. Casey Foundation and Ford Foundation, P/PV recently engaged in the process of implementing and evaluating Ready4Work—a three-year demonstration project designed to more comprehensively address the needs of former prisoners [ Richardson, Lynda. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EFDC143BF930A35751C0A9629C8B63 "Seizing Opportunity, but Also Passing It On"] , New York Times, 2004-2-3. Retrieved on 2008-9-16. ] . Both community- and faith-based organizations provided participants with employment services, case management and mentoring.

Current Organization

Headquartered in Philadelphia, P/PV also has offices located in New York City and Oakland and is led by Frederick A. Davie, a former Program Officer of the Ford Foundation. P/PV’s diverse staff is composed of policy leaders in various fields; evaluators and researchers in disciplines ranging from economics to ethnography; and experienced practitioners from the nonprofit, public, business and philanthropic sectors. Senior staff members include Jean Baldwin Grossman, Jack Burns, Geri Summerville, Wilson Goode, Renata Cobbs Fletcher, Wendy McClanahan, Sheila Maguire, Pamela Calloway, Amy Arbreton, Chelsea Farley and Gary Walker.

Board of Directors

In 2008, the Board of Directors are: Matthew McGuire, Frederick A. Davie, Yvonne Chan, The Honorable Renée Cardwell Hughes, Christine L. James-Brown, Robert J. LaLonde, John A. Mayer, Jr., Anne Hodges Morgan, Siobhan Nicolau, Marion Pines, Clayton S. Rose, Cay Stratton, Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh and William Julius Wilson.

Notes and references