Using 85 qualitative interviews collected in three low-income Philadelphia neighborhoods as part of the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation’s (MDRC) Project on Devolution and Urban Change, nonprofit directors and poor residents’ views of neighborhood problems, other residents, and services needed were examined. In doing so, the assumption that local nonprofit leadership is in touch with the resident population that they serve was questioned. Nonprofit directors described neighborhood problems related to unemployment and education, whereas residents focused on crime and safety issues. Both groups agreed that drugs were a major problem in the community. Additionally, the resident group conveyed a more negative view of other neighborhood residents than the nonprofit directors did. Lastly, nonprofit directors wanted to add job placement and training services, whereas residents wanted to add youth programs. Overall, nonprofit directors across neighborhoods held more similar views with each other than they did with residents within their own communities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abzug, R., & Galaskiewicz, J. (2001). Nonprofit boards: Crucibles of expertise or symbols of local identities? Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 30, 51-74.
2.
Alexander, J., Nank, R., & Stivers, C. (1999). Implications of welfare reform: Do nonprofit survival strategies threaten civil society? Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 28(4), 452-475.
3.
Anderson, E. (1999). Code of the streets: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
4.
Binzen, P. (1970). Whitetown, USA. New York: Random House.
5.
Boris, E. T., & Steuerle, C. E. (1999). Nonprofits and government: Collaboration and conflict. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.
6.
Brabson, H. V., & Himle, D. P. (1987). The unemployed and the poor: Differing perceptions of their needs in a community. Social Thought, 13(1), 24-33.
7.
Brown, L. D., & Moore, M. H. (2001). Accountability, strategy, and international nongovernmental organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 30, 569-587.
8.
Chaskin, R. J. (2001). Building community capacity: A definitional framework and case studies from a comprehensive community initiative. Urban Affairs Review, 36, 291-323.
9.
Chen, H. T., & Marks, M. R. (1998). Assessing the needs of inner city youth: Beyond needs identification and prioritization. Children and Youth Services Review, 20(9/10), 819-838.
10.
Delgado, M. (2000). Community social work practice in an urban context: The potential of a capacity-enhancement perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.
11.
Edin, K., & Lein, L. (1997) Making ends meet: How single mothers survive welfare and low-wage work. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
12.
Geis, K. J., & Ross, C. E. (1998). A new look at urban alienation: The effect of neighborhood disorder on perceived powerlessness. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61, 232-246.
13.
Gronbjerg, K. A., Harmon, L., Olkkonen, A., & Raza, A. (1996). The United Way system at the crossroads: Community planning and allocation. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 25(4), 428-452.
14.
Gronbjerg, K. A., & Paarlberg, L. (2001). Community variations in the size and scope of the non-profit sector: Theory and preliminary findings. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 30, 684-707.
15.
Hemmens, G., Hoch, C., Hardina, D., Madsen, R., & Wiewel, W. (1986). Changing needs and social services in three Chicago communities. Chicago: School of Urban Planning & Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago.
16.
Katz, M. B. (1989). The undeserving poor: From the war on poverty to the war on welfare. New York: Pantheon Books.
17.
Katz, M. B. (1996). In the shadow of the poorhouse: A social history of welfare in America (10th anniversary ed.). New York: Basic Books.
18.
Katz, M. B. (2001). The price of citizenship: Redefining the American welfare state. New York: Metropolitan Books.
19.
Kissane, R. J. (2003). What’s need got to do with it? Barriers to use of nonprofit social services. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 30(2), 127-148.
20.
LaGrange, R., Ferraro, K., & Supanic, M. (1992). Perceived risk and fear of crime: Role of social and physical incivilities. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 29, 311-334.
21.
Lewis, D. A., & Maxfield, M. G. (1980). Fear in the neighborhoods: An investigation of the impact of crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 17, 160-189.
22.
Lewis, D. A., & Salem, G. (1986). Fear of crime: Incivility and the production of a social problem. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
23.
Massey, D. S. (1996). The age of extremes: Concentrated affluence and poverty in the twenty-first century. Demography, 33(4), 395-412.
24.
Massey, D. S., Gross, A. B., & Eggers, M. L. (1991). Segregation, the concentration of poverty, and the life chances of individuals. Social Science Research, 20, 397-420.
25.
Mercier, C. (1997). Participants in stake-holder-based evaluation: A case study. Evaluation and Program Planning, 20(4), 467-475.
26.
Merton, R. K. (1957). Social theory and social structure. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
27.
Ospina, S., Diaz, W., & O’Sullivan, J. F. (2002). Negotiating accountability: Managerial lessons from identity-based nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 31, 5-32.
28.
Quint, J., Edin, K., Buck, M. L., Fink, B., Padilla, Y. C., Simmons-Hewitt, O., et al. (1999). Big cities and welfare reform: Early implementation and ethnographic findings from the project on devolution and urban change. New York: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation.
29.
Ross, C. E., Mirowsky, J., & Pribesh, S. (2001). Powerlessness and the amplification of threat Neighborhood disadvantage, disorder, and mistrust. American Sociological Review, 66, 568-591.
30.
Salamon, L. M. (1995). Partners in public service: Government-nonprofit relations in the modern welfare state. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
31.
Skogan, W. G. (1990). Disorder and decline: Crime and the spiral of decay in American neighborhoods. New York: Free Press.
32.
Smith, S. R., & Lipsky, M. (1993). Nonprofits for hire: The welfare state in the age of contracting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
33.
Staples, L. H. (2000). Insider/outsider upsides and downsides. Social Work with Groups, 23(2), 19-35.
34.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
35.
Swindell, D. (2000). Issue representation in neighborhood organizations: Questing for democracy at the grassroots. Journal of Urban Affairs, 22, 123-137.
Weisbrod, B. A. (1986). Toward a theory of the voluntary nonprofit sector in a three-sector economy. In S. Rose-Ackerman (Ed.), The economics of nonprofit institutions: Studies in structure and policy (pp. 21-44). New York: Oxford University Press.
39.
Weisbrod, B. A. (1988). The nonprofit economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
40.
Wilson, W. J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York: Knopf.
