Pracademics and Community Change: A True Story of Nonprofit Development and Social Entrepreneurship During Welfare Reform

How a community, an activist, and a scholar created a 100 million dollar faith-based nonprofit workforce development corporation. This book presents the single unified case history of the Welfare Reform Liaison Project started in Greensboro, North Carolina through the eyes of co-founder and CEO the Reverend Odell Cleveland and academic consultant Bob Wineburg, whose friendship is an integral part of the narrative. Through this one story, told from the beginning in a direct, conversational tone, all those steps which were necessary to create an innovative and successful nonprofit organization are brought forth, from the development of a program model, to its implementation, and the growth of the organization over more than a decade. Told by a black practitioner and white academic who find common ground despite significant differences in background, training, and outlook, this story also takes a frank look at the racial politics and politics in general of social service networks.