Faith-Based Social Services
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Faith-Based Social Services

Measures, Assessments, and Effectiveness

Stephanie C. Boddie, Ram A. Cnaan, Stephanie C. Boddie, Ram A. Cnaan

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eBook - ePub

Faith-Based Social Services

Measures, Assessments, and Effectiveness

Stephanie C. Boddie, Ram A. Cnaan, Stephanie C. Boddie, Ram A. Cnaan

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About This Book

Read the latest studies on the effectiveness of religious-based services—and the problems revealed in the assessmentThe Charitable Choice provision and the Bush Administration's National Faith-Based Initiative have broadened the scope of social services delivered through faith-based organizations. There are expectations that these faith-based social service providers will be more effective—but how should that effectiveness be measured? Faith-Based Social Services: Measures, Assessments, and Effectiveness explains the nature and quality of religion-based social service delivery while serving as a point of reference for future research and work. This unique source tackles the important, complex issue of measuring the effectiveness of faith-based social services in comparison to secular services while providing analysis of the latest available studies.Faith-Based Social Services: Measures, Assessments, and Effectiveness provides a conceptual analysis of FBOs (faith-based organizations) that reflects the need to gather detailed studies to assess social service effectiveness while reviewing the crucial issues challenging public policy. The latest empirical research is detailed, including the problems found when comparing secular and faith-based social service providers, their organizational structures, and the types of services offered. Analysis is included of the data from a three-state evaluation of welfare to work programs, a study of four types of faith-based services found in four cities, and an assessment of a church-based program for teenage drop-outs. Topics in Faith-Based Social Services: Measures, Assessments, and Effectiveness include:

  • discussion on how social science research shunned faith-based services and how this neglect affected effectiveness
  • problems inherent in efficacy assessment
  • making funding priorities decisions
  • the causes of outcome differences
  • a model of evaluation based on randomized controlled clinical trials
  • using measurement practices currently used by the nonprofit sector
  • comparative case studies in transitional housing, parent education, and residential substance abuse treatment programs
  • latest analysis of research involving faith-based organizations and the provided services' efficacy
  • much more!

Faith-Based Social Services: Measures, Assessments, and Effectiveness is illuminating reading, perfect for social work professionals, students, educators, sociologists, religious leaders, and seminary educators.

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Publisher
Routledge
Year
2012
ISBN
9781135804916
Section II
Emerging Empirical Findings

Introduction

Stephanie C. Boddie
Ram A. Cnaan
The conceptual section, as a whole, suggests that we need very rigorous and quite expensive studies to be able to answer the most pressing public policy dilemmas of the early 21st century: Are faith-based social services more effective than their secular counterparts? In the past decade since 1996, we have seen an increased reliance on faith-based social services and there is too little evaluation research to substantiate the claim that these two sectors are different in their organizational characteristics, and in their efficacy in helping people in need. We asked scholars who were engaged in studying this question to summarize their findings in a manner that would help us put some of the pieces together in the sector puzzle.
Our empirical studies section starts with a paper by Elizabeth A. Graddy (Chapter 7). One of the challenges when comparing faith-based social service providers with other providers is the issue of their organizational characteristics and organizational culture. While not much is known about these qualities, Graddy demonstrates, based on the directory of services in Los Angeles county, that faith-based providers are more specialized in certain service areas (food services, transitional services, recreation, and housing/shelter) than secular and public providers. Faith-based providers are more likely to provide counseling, yet not substance abuse or mental health counseling. Finally, they are more likely to be well distributed where poor and needy people reside. The challenge then is to control for these differences and make sure that assessment of effectiveness is sector-related and not characteristic-based.
Wolfgang Bielefeld (Chapter 8) uses data from a three-state evaluation of welfare to work programs. His first finding is that comparing programs in different states is tricky business as their regional cultures and local regulatory traditions differ dramatically, making cross-state conclusions questionable. In Indiana, job training providers and clients were interviewed. Like many evaluators, Bielefeld struggled with assessing the degree to which service providers were faith-based and the impact of this component on service outcome. Bielefeld used a pre- and post-service study to assess impact on clients. However, like others in this volume, he found that relying on service providers to administer the tests was too difficult and often impossible, thereby limiting the utility of the results. Finally, even this one-state study became difficult, as the state changed its funding priorities over the course of the study, thereby altering the provider system. Bielefeld shows that assessing efficacy can be done, but is quite complex and would be costly as it needs to be carried out solely by the researchers, in a relatively short period of time and at comparable sites.
Stephen V. Monsma (Chapter 9) is a veteran of faith-based social services evaluation. Monsma carried out the first ambitious study of four types of services in four cities with varying levels of religiosity in each organization. In this article, Monsma uses data from 17 Los Angeles welfare-to-work programs and their clients in order to assess the comparative effectiveness of faith-based and secular programs. The paper concludes that no single type of welfare-to-work program was more effective than another across the board. Instead, the different types of programs seemed to be particularly effective in certain specialized areas. The faith-based programs were especially effective in providing welfare recipients with emotional support and a sense of having a sympathetic, understanding support base. The for-profit providers were especially effective in providing needed training in marketable job skills and in helping to find employment. This article concludes that effectiveness can best be conceptualized in terms of program outcomes, and that such outcomes–while difficult to measure–can be measured with sufficient accuracy to justify the effort.
Jill Witmer Sinha (Chapter 10) approached the evaluation challenge from a different perspective. Sinha assessed the level of success of a church-based program for teenage drop-outs in North Philadelphia. Based on the success of an earlier project, six United Methodist churches were contracted to educate and care for teenagers who had dropped out. Like Bielefeld, Sinha found that relying on the congregations to collect data was problematic, and hence a large part of her planned data collection never materialized. While some of the studied congregations and their arrangements failed to deliver what they were contracted for, overall, the clients benefited from the service; they liked the providers and their services, and although services were provided in churches clients did not report any attempted proselytism.
Susan E. Grettenberger, John P. Bartkowski, and Steven R. Smith (Chapter 11) joined forces to study faith-based organizations in Washington, Michigan, and Mississippi. These authors conducted a series of comparative case studies regarding secular and faith-based providers in three different social service domains: (1) transitional housing, (2) parent education, and (3) residential substance abuse treatment programs. All case studies utilized the same research protocol.
David Campbell and Eric Glunt (Chapter 12) used examples from an evaluation of California’s Community and Faith-Based Initiative (CFBI) to illustrate a research strategy that takes local networks as the primary unit of analysis. This approach focuses on understanding the roles various organizations play within local service delivery networks, and on analyzing how local actors coordinate services to affect participant, organization, and system outcomes. This undertaking aimed to overcome the drawbacks of comparing dissimilar organizations. They suggest that it may be more appropriate to begin thinking in terms of the concept of “network effectiveness,” since the outcomes of value to participants and the public are the products of collaborations that involve many organizations. Like other researchers, they contend that the use of the network analysis is subject to a reliable definition of faith. Finally, they remind us that good evaluation research focuses simultaneously on process evaluation and outcome evaluation.
Finally, F. Ellen Netting, Mary Katherine O’Connor and Gaynor Yancey (Chapter 13) use grounded theory to analyze and report on a study based on 65 key informants in 15 promising faith-based organizations in four urban areas. They chatted with respondents to discover what made their direct service programs faith-based, and slowly a story emerged; the programs are motivated by mission-driven visions which are tied to forces beyond local programs and steeped in deep traditions. They found that while the expressed values of acts of faith are integral in the faith-based discussion, they do not tell the full story. The deep drivers of human behavior and practice are found in the specific beliefs and interpretations of individuals who are involved either as leaders or participants in faith-based organizations. This large-scale and intensive study that included researchers from four universities was selected to be the last one in this volume as it represents how little we know about faith-based organizations. It demonstrates what McGrew and Cnaan noted in the second chapter: when a field of study is neglected for such a long period of time it takes many years to really understand it and know what questions to ask and how to ask them.

Note

[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Introduction.” Boddie, Stephanie C., and Ram A. Cnaan. Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work (The Haworth Pastoral Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 25, No. 3/4, 2006, pp. 125-128; and: Faith-Based Social Services: Measures, Assessments, and Effectiveness (ed: Stephanie C. Boddie, and Ram A. Cnaan) The Haworth Pastoral Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2006, pp. 125-128.

Chapter 7
How Do They Fit? Assessing the Role of Faith-Based Organizations in Social Service Provision

Elizabeth A. Graddy
Elizabeth A. Graddy, PhD, is Professor and Director, Program in Public Policy, School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California, RGL 208, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626 (E-mail: [email protected]).
SUMMARY. Despite public policies that promote an increased role for faith-based organizations in the delivery of publicly supported services, insufficient attention has been paid to assessing how service delivery by faith-based and secular providers might differ. This study considers the issues involved in evaluating the role of faith-based organizations within the broad context of a community’s social service offerings. Criteria are developed for assessing role differences by comparing the types of services, delivery approaches, and service locations offered by different types of providers. The approach is then illustrated using a large sample of social service providers in Los Angeles County. Important role differences are revealed. Faith-based organizations offer fewer and different types of services than their secular counterparts. The results suggest a modest and focused role for faith-based organizations in social service delivery, but one that is complementary to the efforts of secular providers. The methodological issues raised by such analyses are highlighted.
KEYWORDS. Faith-based organizations, public service delivery, social services, nonprofit organizations
With the passage of the “Charitable Choice” provision of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the institutional structure of social service delivery in the United States changed. The rules under which faith-based organizations (FBOs) may deliver publicly supported services changed to encourage an increased role for religious organizations in social service delivery. If states contract with nonprofit organizations to deliver social services, they must now also include religious organizations as eligible contractees. The contracting religious organizations retain control over the expression of their religious beliefs (Center for Public Justice, 1997). The important public policy change is that organizations whose main activities are religious (e.g., congregations) may now receive money to support social services. Religiously affiliated organizations whose main purpose is the delivery of social services (e.g., Catholic Charities, Salvation Army) were not affected by this provision.
This policy change was expected to increase social service provision by congregations (Chaves, 1999; Cnaan and Boddie, 2001), but the Act seems to have signaled a broader change. There is evidence that states now seek to contract with FBOs. Several states, e.g., California (Anderson et al., 2000), Indiana (Kennedy and Bielefeld, 2002), and Texas (Yates, 1998), have encouraged FBOs to compete for public funding with other social service providers. The Act also prompted the interest of philanthropic foundations, and some began to direct funding accordingly (e.g., the Robert Wood Johnson’s $100 million initiative to FBOs that operate volunteer programs to help elderly, disabled, or chronically ill individuals).
This promotion by public and private funders of an expanded role for faith-based organizations is taking place with little information on how service delivery by FBOs might differ from that of secular providers. What role can FBOs reasonably be expected to assume in the context of a community’s social service offerings? Is this role consistent with the expected advantages of faith-based service delivery? Without a contextual understanding of the role of different types of service providers, it is unclear what contributions FBOs can or should be expected to make. I consider here the issues involved in such an assessment. What criteria should be used, and what are the associated methodological concerns?
In the next section, evaluative criteria are developed based on a review of expectations about faith-based service provision. Then, I illustrate this assessment approach and consider the associated methodological issues with an analysis of social service providers in Los Angeles County.

Evaluation Criteria

Faith-based organizations have a long history of participating in social service delivery. Ram Cnaan (1999) observes that religious groups were virtually the sole providers of social services in the United States before the 20th century. This changed in 1935 with the Social Security Act, which began the transfer of responsibility for social services to the government. Social service delivery became more secular and professional. Nevertheless, religious groups continued to provide social services, although the nature and extent of their role is not well understood. With the advent of Charitable Choice and the Bush Administration’s creation of an Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, their role is expected to increase.
There may be good reasons to attempt to systematically increase the role of FBOs in social service delivery. The unique organizational structure of faith-based organizations may offer both efficiency and effectiveness advantages over secular service providers. First, FBOs may be more efficient at delivering some social services. Avenues for such an advantage include the role of churches and of volunteers. Churches are the most common institutions in many communities. As such, they have existing infrastructure and network relationships–buildings, human resources, community connections–that could be utilized for the delivery of social services. For example, Botchwey (2003), in a study of a small section of North Philadelphia plagued by urban blight, found that the majority of nonprofits operating in the neighborhood were congregations, and that the congregations had a longer history in the community than other types of nonprofits. Griener (2000) argues that congregations, because of such strong community connections, are well positioned to address the multi-service needs of the poor.
FBOs also have access to volunteers. This low-cost labor may enable FBOs to offer more services or to allot more time to each beneficiary than other service providers. The role of volunteers in the service provision of faith-based organizations is substantial. Printz (1998) found that D.C. congregations relied heavily on volunteers, with 230 congregations estimating that they used over 20,000 volunteers in 1996. Cnaan (1999) in his study of 113 congregations in six cities found that the monthly number of volunteer hours averaged 148 hours per program. These efficiency arguments suggest three evaluative criteria–the number of locations, with FBOs expected to provide more, the number of services offered per location, with FBOs expected to have a multi-service orientation, and costs, with FBOs expected to utilize volunteers to provide services at lower costs than secular providers.
Second, the defining characteristic of these organizations–their reliance on faith–may make them more effective either by leading them to employ different methods of service delivery, or to employ the same methods with more intensity than secular service providers. Several writers have noted that faith-based organizations typically see their work as a ministry or a calling, which causes them to behave differently than other service providers. Etindi (1999) identifies 3 differences. FBOs, because of their sense of mission, are more willing to make a long-term commitment to a service recipient, continuing to provid...

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