TWO STEPS FORWARD

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janelle Wong
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Mass Action ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Potential Force ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Civic Institutions

In this essay, I contend that one can understand neither the development of mass action among contemporary immigrants, nor the sporadic nature of that action, without attending to the historic role of parties and community-based organizations in shaping immigrants' political mobilization. I draw connections between the mass immigrant-rights demonstrations that took place during the spring of 2006 and what we know about how immigrants' political participation in the United States is structured by (1) the declining influence of political parties, and (2) the critical function of community-based organizations. These organizations were the focus of my recent book, Democracy's Promise: Immigrants and American Civic Institutions (2006). Why haven't activists been able to sustain the momentum that brought hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters out into the streets during the spring of 2006? Although they, along with the Spanish-language media, played a critical role in organizing mass demonstrations against punitive immigration legislation in early 2006, labor organizations, workers' centers, advocacy and social service organizations, ethnic voluntary associations, and religious institutions face severe constraints in terms of engaging in sustained, consistent political mobilization and, therefore, mainly achieve limited mobilization. However, voter registration data from the National Association of Latino Elected Officials suggest that the demonstrations may have spurred interest in more traditional types of political participation among immigrants and their supporters. Thus, while it is true that, for the most part, political participation does not take place overnight, there may be ways for U.S. civic institutions to speed up that process through direct mobilization and the provision of information that helps immigrants to feel more comfortable and confident taking part in the political system. Trusted community-based institutions represent a vital potential force in promoting political inclusion for immigrant newcomers who contribute to so many other aspects of American life.

Urban Redevelopment Planning and Social Work Practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie A. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Urban Redevelopment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Inclusive Processes ◽  
Private Investors

Urban neighborhood disinvestment in the United States resulted in deferred maintenance of buildings and common social problems experienced by residents. Strategies to redevelop neighborhoods include collaboration among many subsystems seeking to collectively invest in places and people. Contemporary federal initiatives focus on incentivizing coordinated investments between existing local community-based organizations, local and federal government, and private investors. Public–private partnerships include anchor institutions with commitments to the long-term success of place-based initiatives who invest their financial, intellectual, social, and political capital. Social workers are embedded in local community-based organizations and relationships with residents in neighborhoods experiencing redevelopment. Social workers can help guide top-down and bottom-up approaches to neighborhood revitalization toward more equitable and inclusive processes and outcomes. Resident engagement in redeveloping neighborhoods takes many forms and requires differing skill sets for social workers. Urban redevelopment is a global trend with common critiques regarding relying on gentrification and market-driven strategies with private investors.

Worker Centers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice B. Gates
Keyword(s):  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Planned Change ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Settlement Houses ◽  
Worker Centers ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
State And Local

This entry describes worker centers as new sites of community practice. Worker centers are community-based organizations focused on the needs of low-wage and immigrant workers. This new organizational form emerged most prominently in the United States since the mid-1990s, largely in response to concerns about workplace abuses in low-wage and informal sectors. Drawing on multiple traditions, including labor unions, settlement houses, and ethnic agencies, worker centers offer a hybrid approach to planned change: They support workers organizing for collective action, provide direct services, and advocate for policy change at state and local levels. In the last decade, worker centers have led the efforts to pass legislation protecting domestic workers and helped low-wage workers win millions of dollars in lost or stolen wages from employers. These and other notable examples of U.S. worker centers’ contributions to community practice and social justice will be discussed.

scholarly journals Homelessness during COVID-19: Challenges, Responses, and Lessons Learned from Homeless Service Providers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia M. Rodriguez ◽  
Alexa M. Lahey ◽  
Justin J. MacNeill ◽  
Rebecca G. Martinez ◽  
Nina E. Teo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Community Based Organizations

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare some of the United States’ most devastating health and social inequities faced by people experiencing homelessness. Homeless populations experience disproportionate rates of underlying health conditions, stigma and marginalization that often disenfranchise them from health and social services, and living conditions that potentiate the risk of COVID-19 transmission and adverse outcomes. Methods: Guided by the socio-ecological model, this community-based participatory research study examined the impacts of the COVID-19 public health crisis on people experiencing homelessness in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and the ways in which homeless service providers prepared for, experienced, and responded to the pandemic. Eighteen (18) semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of 15 community-based organizations, including shelters and other homeless service providers.Results: Qualitative content analysis revealed multilevel challenges and responses to COVID-19 impact mitigation in this community, including the implementation of diverse safety measures, policies and novel service delivery innovations.Conclusions: Community-based organizations, including homeless shelters, are uniquely qualified to inform pandemic response and disaster risk mitigation in order to respond appropriately to the specific needs of people experiencing homelessness. Many of the emergency measures put in place by homeless service providers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana created opportunities for innovative solutions to longstanding challenges faced by homeless populations that can inform better service delivery moving forward, long after the COVID-19 pandemic. The lessons learned and shared by homeless service providers on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic have important implications to improve future disaster response for homeless and other vulnerable populations.

scholarly journals The Practice of Civic Tech: Tensions in the Adoption and Use of New Technologies in Community Based Organizations

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-68
Author(s):  
Eric Gordon ◽  
Rogelio Alejandro Lopez
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Small Organizations ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Civic Work

This article reports on a qualitative study of community based organizations’ (CBOs) adoption of information communication technologies (ICT). As ICTs in the civic sector, otherwise known as civic tech, get adopted with greater regularity in large and small organizations, there is need to understand how these technologies shape and challenge the nature of civic work. Based on a nine-month ethnographic study of one organization in Boston and additional interviews with fourteen other organizations throughout the United States, the study addresses a guiding research question: how do CBOs reconcile the changing (increasingly mediated) nature of civic work as ICTs, and their effective adoption and use for civic purposes, increasingly represent forward-thinking, progress, and innovation in the civic sector?—of civic tech as a measure of “keeping up with the times.” From a sense of top-down pressures to innovate in a fast-moving civic sector, to changing bottom-up media practices among community constituents, our findings identify four tensions in the daily practice of civic tech, including: 1) function vs. representation, 2) amplification vs. transformation, 3) grassroots vs. grasstops, and 4) youth vs. adults. These four tensions, derived from a grounded theory approach, provide a conceptual picture of a civic tech landscape that is much more complicated than a suite of tools to help organizations become more efficient. The article concludes with recommendations for practitioners and researchers.

It’s Alive! Sounds for the Vault

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
Lewis Kawahara
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Pacific Islander ◽  
The United States ◽  
Collections Management ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
The Status

A questionnaire was sent to 93 Asian American Pacific Islander organizations and museums throughout the United States. The questionnaire queried the status of Asian American Pacific Islander sound collections that are housed by Asian American Pacific Islander community-based organizations and museums. The questionnaire asked the Respondents basic questions as well as the types of formats used, storage of sound-related materials, and collections management questions. In conclusion recommendations were made on caring and maintaining an Asian American Pacific Islander sound collection.

scholarly journals Measuring Efforts of Nonprofit Hospitals to Address Opioid Abuse After the Affordable Care Act

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 215013271986361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berkeley Franz ◽  
Cory E. Cronin ◽  
Alexandra Wainwright ◽  
José A. Pagán
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Negative Binomial Regression ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Abuse ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Nonprofit Hospitals ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Risk Education ◽  
The Affordable Care Act

Objectives: To assess the strategies that nonprofit hospitals are adopting to address opioid abuse after requirements for community engagement expanded in the Affordable Care Act. Methods: We constructed a dataset of implementation activities for a 20% random sample of nonprofit hospitals in the United States. Using logistic regression, we assessed the extent to which strategies adopted are new, existing, or primarily partnerships. Using negative binomial regression, we assessed the total number of strategies adopted. We controlled for hospital and community characteristics as well as state policies related to opioid abuse. Results: Most strategies adopted by hospitals were new and clinical in nature and the most common number of strategies adopted was one. Hospitals in the Northeast were more likely to adopt a higher number of strategies and to partner with community-based organizations. Hospitals that partner with community-based organizations were more likely to adopt strategies that engage in harm reduction, targeted risk education, or focus on addressing social determinants of health. Conclusions: Community, institutional, and state policy characteristics predict hospital involvement in addressing opioid abuse. These findings underscore several opportunities to support hospital-led interventions to address opioid abuse.

Conceptualizations of Domestic Violence–Related Needs among Women Who Resettled to the United States as Refugees

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 207-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Wachter ◽  
Jessica Dalpe ◽  
Laurie Cook Heffron
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culturally Competent ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract Despite robust evidence of the myriad consequences associated with intimate partner violence (IPV), social services in the United States may not adequately account for and respond to variations in how women resettling as refugees conceptualize service and support needs. With this study, the authors sought to develop a more nuanced understanding of needs as expressed by women resettling to the United States as refugees. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with refugee women who resettled to the United States (n = 35) and social services providers (n = 53), including those working in refugee resettlement or domestic violence agencies or community-based organizations. The research team used structural coding and thematic analysis to examine the data, through which they identified four themes: (1) living with enduring consequences of IPV, (2) “I just want them to help me,” (3) “I need you to talk to my husband,” and (4) “How will I pay the rent?” The study findings point to broader structural concerns shaping women’s resettlement experiences, as well as areas of incongruence between women’s conceptualizations of needs and established practice approaches. Implications for culturally competent and survivor-centered practice are discussed.

Women and the Work of Community

2003 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 815-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn A Staeheli
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Human Service ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Human Service Delivery ◽  
Ambiguous Position

The term ‘community’ is an integral part of the discourse regarding social-service and human-service delivery in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Yet, there are a host of meanings and goals that are part of the project of community; these meanings reflect the ambiguous position of community with respect to ideas of publicity and privacy. In this paper I explore some of those meanings and goals through the use of interviews with women who work in nonprofit, community-based organizations that support human and social services. The focus is on the ways in which the women frame the concept of community and the ways in which these may be part of a strategy to create political and material spaces for caring, empowerment, and justice.

scholarly journals Resource and Stakeholder Mobilization by Community-Based Organizations for Community Economic Development in Kenya: A Survey of Community-Based Organizations in Siaya County

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
Herbert Barasa ◽  
◽  
Juster Nyaga ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Resource Mobilization ◽  
Community Economic Development ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Organizations

Most developing countries, including Kenya, have a big proportion of the population still living in rural areas that face an immense challenge especially on economic development and access to basic social infrastructure that include roads, health, water, and education. The government and local authorities are striving with the available limited resources against the competing priorities in order to meet the needs of the population and improve the quality of life and wellbeing. This study examined the role of community-based organizations (CBOs) on economic development in Siaya County, specifically their role on resource and stakeholder mobilization in Kenya. The study was anchored on Social Capital Theory but also analyzed both System and Conflict Theories. The study provides new and relevant information on the role of CBOs in development to the County governments as devolved systems of government responsible for development and planning thus justifying investment and policy formulation for closer collaboration. Descriptive study was undertaken and targeted and enumerated two respondents per group (total 50) in all the 25 CBOs in Siaya County that were duly registered and had coverage of at least one Sub-County. Using a Likert scale questionnaire, quantitative data was collected. Prior to that, a pilot study was done in the nearby Kakamega County to test the instrument. Descriptive, correlation and regression analysis was applied to the data using SPSS version 21. The findings indicate that; Resource Mobilization by CBOs enhances the organizations’ contribution to community economic development, stakeholders’ mobilization plays a critical role in community economic development, the CBOs in Siaya County have managed to increase their impact on economic development at the community level. The study suggests replication in other counties where NGO activity is evident in Kenya, focusing on community based organizations that do not rely on aid as their main income sources. Moreover, a comparative study involving the CBOs from the East African countries should also be considered in future studies. Keywords: Resource Mobilization, Stakeholder Engagement, community based organization and Siaya County.

scholarly journals Homelessness during COVID-19: challenges, responses, and lessons learned from homeless service providers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia M. Rodriguez ◽  
Alexa M. Lahey ◽  
Justin J. MacNeill ◽  
Rebecca G. Martinez ◽  
Nina E. Teo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Community Based Organizations

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare some of the United States’ most devastating health and social inequities faced by people experiencing homelessness. Homeless populations experience disproportionate rates of underlying health conditions, stigma and marginalization that often disenfranchise them from health and social services, and living conditions that potentiate the risk of COVID-19 transmission and adverse outcomes. Methods Guided by the socio-ecological model, this community-based participatory research study examined the impacts of the COVID-19 public health crisis on people experiencing homelessness in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and the ways in which homeless service providers prepared for, experienced, and responded to the pandemic. Eighteen (18) semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of 15 community-based organizations, including shelters and other homeless service providers. Results Qualitative content analysis revealed myriad challenges at the individual and interpersonal levels faced by people experiencing homelessness as a result of the pandemic, and multilevel responses for COVID-19 impact mitigation in this community. Many of the emergency measures put in place by homeless service providers in Tippecanoe County, Indiana created opportunities for innovative solutions to longstanding challenges faced by homeless populations that are informing better service delivery moving forward, even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions Community-based organizations, including homeless shelters, are uniquely qualified to inform pandemic response and disaster risk mitigation in order to respond appropriately to the specific needs of people experiencing homelessness. The lessons learned and shared by homeless service providers on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic have important implications to improve future disaster response for homeless and other vulnerable populations.

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