Navigating Local: Emergent Roles of Navigators in Community-Driven Care Systems
通过对芝加哥社区驱动照护系统的半结构化访谈，发现人类导航员扮演了社区资源倡导者和共识建设者两种新角色，基于生态系统理论强调连接与倡导，以提升服务可及性和跨组织响应，促进更公平的服务交付。
As disparities in access to social services continue, nonprofit practitioners are reimagining mechanisms to support service provision through systems of care. Systems of care are interorganizational referral networks that assemble a cross-section of nonprofits to coordinate care. Care systems use human navigators to support clients connecting to services. Through semi-structured interviews with a community-driven care system in Chicago and a grounded approach, this work posits that human navigators embody two novel roles distinct from other care contexts: community resource advocate and consensus builder. Based on ecological systems theory, these roles emphasize connectivity and advocacy to increase access and use of services created through interpersonal and interorganizational relationships. This work highlights the transformative influence of human navigators in care systems, demonstrating how community resource advocates and consensus builders enhance care access and interorganizational response, creating more equitable service delivery. This work offers a typology for role design for local service delivery.