From this blog on I will break down into categories for organization purposes. This was an interesting week reading about social service and the importance it holds in our society and the work it does.
From outside the readings and class, I have been thinking about social services and how important they are in our society. This is a recent news article that talks about social service cuts in Oregon.
http://news.opb.org/article/51736-kitzhaber-warns-deep-cuts-social-services/
From outside the readings and class, I have been thinking about social services and how important they are in our society. This is a recent news article that talks about social service cuts in Oregon.
http://news.opb.org/article/51736-kitzhaber-warns-deep-cuts-social-services/
This is a serious issue especially considering the current state of Oregon's economy
Now to the readings....
Chapter 4 – Social Service
Social Service holds a very big role in our country and local communities; these services serve millions of people in need. I did not fully grasp the magnitude of the social service sector until reading this chapter. We see the importance directly from this quote, “Social service may be the most widely accepted and admired part of the nonprofit sector” (pg 73). Our society would be drastically different if we did not have these services.
The extent of social services is huge, we see this on page 80 discussing the American Red Cross, “the Red Cross provided community services to 43 million people and health and safety services to 15 million.” While these services help millions of people, they also provide many jobs for people across the country.
We see in the last fifty years how the trends of non-profit finances as changed. In the early years of non-profits families and churches provided the finances for the social services, but in the 1960’s the model changed to the government paying for it and non-profits providing the services. The change started with the Office of Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and the 1967 Social Security Act. At this time the ‘federal government infused a large amount of money into nonprofit social service organizations through grants, contracts and purchase-of-service arrangements’ (pg 83). Again by the government pouring the money into these services, there needed to be the right non-profits to hand the funds and do the job right. This is when a real competition started for non-profit jobs and the non-profit sector was finally taken seriously as an important part of the country.
St. Vincent de Paul
We all know what St. Vincent de Paul is; it is a place to buy used and affordable ‘stuff’. Anything your heart desires is available at your fingertip for a small price, it may not be the most quality but it will get the job done. But who would have thought that during the hardest economic times in the last seventy-year this organization would be booming. This is in fact true, when many organizations and companies were struggling to stay alive, St. Vincent’s ‘increased its revenues and grew its work force each year by more than 10 percent.’ This is true feat for the organizations and Lane County.
DC Affordable Housing Toolkit
I think the idea of using these toolkit vouchers is a great way to provide affordable housing. It is a sad, but true fact that as development comes into an area, residents of low-income housing get pushed out and relocated. This is not right, it is good that the government is promoting non-profit development in the low-income housing sector, we see this from the article, ‘Governments also offer tax credits to nonprofit developers of affordable housing.’ This is a tough dilemma, there needs to be development in these poor areas to provide jobs and safety. This needs to happen without kicking out the poor residents of the community. Good article!
Louisiana Housing Assistance
I was not aware that the government provided funds as stated in this article. As the article states, low-income residents in Louisiana have been provided with help for utility bills, namely heat and air-conditioning. The state was recently awarded an additional 10.5 million for these funds. This is a great thing that the government is helping its citizens, but the question is ‘do you provide the fish or the fishing pole.’ Once these funds stop the people will not be able to pay their utility bills. I believe that the tax revenue should go into helping people find jobs where they are able to support themselves and their families in the long term.
Final Two Articles
I read the final two articles and will briefly prove that I did in fact read them. The auburn family article discussed families living in low-income housing and shared how Fort Green Snap, a community advocacy organization, is helping with the situation. The other article was a Q&A with the MAAC CEO. This organization works with the poor in the San Diego community.
Okay, hope this all makes sense, excited to read all your posts…
Interesting little tid-bit you provided at the beginning of your blob about Oregon being short about 3.5 BILLION dollars... and in the process of cutting back on social services. All of which is sad news.
ReplyDeleteIt is often true when you hear "non-profit" you think only of the social service sector (which we all know from this class that the types of non-profit organizations are much broader). But it is a large part of non profits and is an admired aspect in our society. I found it also fascinating to learn about the history of funding of non profits. I never knew about the Office of Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and the Social Security Act of 1967 which essentially changed the funding from churches or families to the government.
I was especially intrigued by the article discussing St. Vincent which is a non-profit and for-profit organizations. It was the Executive Director Terry McDonald, and his savvy and bold entrepreneur mindset that has helped create the flourishing organization we see today. Many are strongly opposed or upset by such an organization, which can bake its cake and eat it too. Because the organization is non-profit 501(c)3 it is income tax free and it also acts as a business generating revenue yet is still tax free. Such a company is hard to compete with... but luckily the organization is doing some GREAT work and benefiting the local community.
I had the same exact thought about the 'fish vs. fishing pole' idea. There's only so many times we can throw money at a problem for a quick, temporary solution. Most of these issues are problems with the system, so we need to intervene at a deeper level than the surface problems. Fixing the education system is a general cure to systems problems because, well, a smarter public is a better public. According to your article, Gov. Kitzhaber's "education budget would fall more than a billion dollars short of what it would take to keep schools as they are now." That's not good.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. Great stuff.
Good blog--Aaron, I liked the budget article you added. How do you think the budget woes impact the model of "the government paying for everything"? This would be good to bring up in class.
ReplyDeleteAaron, interesting very short article you posted on the mental health facility. I think Kitzhaber is smart in starting a conversation about the new facility rather than pouring money into it right away.
ReplyDelete"The governor says he wants to start a conversation on the proposed facility. Mental health advocates say the money could be better spent on beefing up the state's community mental health services."