Authors: Bush, Malcolm; Goldwater, Sidra; and Zielenbach, Sean
Summary
This report documents the successes and difficulties encountered by some adventurous social service organizations that have attempted to achieve an economic development payoff from their regular social service activities. As poor neighborhoods in urban areas become poorer and suffer high rates of crime, school drop-out, drug use and child neglect and abuse, national attention has focused on the effectiveness and costs of social services to families in those communities. But the central experience of low-income communities is poverty, unemployment, and the absence of economic activity. For this reason, some social service organizations are judging their work by an additional criterion, its economic impact. Since social service spending is comparatively constant, the argument goes, low-income communities would be better served if at least some social service spending produced a broader economic impact.
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