Nonprofit human service agencies are in the middle of the welfare reform mess. They may have the opportunity to obtain more public dollars for delivering more services to low-income families, and from their position, they have the potential to be effective witnesses to what is happening. On the other hand, the effects of welfare reform on the constituencies they serve call for advocacy and challenging action that they do not know how to do. The author uses comments from interviews with workers in the system to argue that, if agencies are not very careful, it will be extremely hard for them to play a dependable role in whatever future welfare state evolves.
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