SETT: A Framework for Capacity Building Partnerships.

A contemporary issue for many non-profits is identifying effective ways to build capacity for service delivery. Interdisciplinary processes take time to carry out; herein lies a challenge when working with a university in which the lifecycle of student activity is not aligned (much shorter) that of the project for the alternative education program. In the current work, we describe the pathway of a partnership that improves the ability of nonprofit staff to achieve their mission while simultaneously meeting the service motivation in an academic setting. This paper describes the "pathway" for a mutually beneficial collaborative relationship between a higher education institution and a non-profit serving students with moderate to severe disabilities for the development of Assistive Technology using the SETT Framework as well as the Stanford BioDesign process.