Navigating Local: Emergent Roles of Navigators in Community-Driven Care Systems

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.