ABSTRACT
This case study presents a modern-day example of democratic governance practiced in the tradition of the settlement house movement and demonstrates how it revived a county human service agency that was in crisis. The story is drawn from findings of a ten-year longitudinal study of partnerships forged between a county agency and nine community-based nonprofits between 1998 and 2008. All partnerships were established with the same agency, county child welfare (CWA), for the same purpose, to provide community-based child welfare services.
