K14 - MP: The Politics of Nonprofit Welfare Provision
Date: Jun 3 | Time: 03:45pm to 05:15pm | Location:
Session Abstract: Nonprofit welfare providers are more than passive recipients of government service contracts. They are active political agents that shape the welfare state (WS) through advocacy and programmatic choices. Nonprofit welfare providers may also have a political role through their democratic, pluralistic, and community functions as part of civil society. In this panel, we examine the role of nonprofit organizations in determining the content of social policy through two interconnected roles: social welfare service delivery and advocacy. The WS literature to-date has devoted relatively little attention to nonprofits, despite the fact that they comprise one of the major actors in WS change and implementation. From hospitals to elder care facilities, schools, refugee resettlement, and disaster assistance, nonprofits are responsible for delivering key social rights. This panel will investigate three important political consequences of nonprofit social welfare provision: the effects of government WS institutions on nonprofits; how nonprofit social welfare delivery affects beneficiaries; and the role of nonprofit social welfare providers as agents of WS change. In doing so, it will explore employment support and skills training, the specialized homelessness system, and root causes advocacy in homelessness and emergency management.
Retraining the State? Non-Profit Service Provision and Workforce Development in Toronto and New York: Alix Jansen (University of Toronto)
Abstract: In the face of growing labour market inequalities, governments have rhetorically seized on the social investment approach to welfare: improving human capital and skills should help people find better jobs and greater economic prosperity. One element of this approach is the focus on investing in skills training and employment support for people who are unemployed and underemployed. The extent to which these efforts actually reach those most in-need, however, is determined not only by state decision makers and expenditure levels, but also by the non-profit organizations who work directly with these populations in three main ways. Non-profit organizations reshape the implementation of training policies through their work as contracted agents of the state, as advocates working for policy change, and as actors working outside of government policies to support people in need. In this paper, I analyze the role of non-profit organizations in determining who has access to retraining and employment support through each of these pathways. To do so, I compare the role of non-profit organizations in shaping access to training in New York and Toronto – two large, diverse cities whose workforce development systems are organized by federal, state, and municipal policies and reshaped by the non-profit organizations on the frontlines of making policy work.
Homelessness and Advocacy: The Effect of Nonprofit Organizations on the Civic Engagement of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: Anna Kopec (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Homelessness is a visibly growing phenomenon within liberal democratic states. With rising housing prices in major urban centers and individualist welfare policies, the population of individuals experiencing homelessness continues to grow and diversify. Although the role of non-profit organizations has been vital to the sector for decades, with changing political contexts and growing urban poverty their role in service delivery and social policy change is significant to contemporary welfare policy. In particular, organizations have a role in not only advocating on behalf of individuals accessing services, but also in encouraging individuals themselves to influence social policy change. Through an investigation of non-profit organizations in Melbourne and Toronto, this paper will analyze the role of organizations in specialized homelessness systems and how practices within organizations themselves empower, or discourage, service users to be influencers of change. Although the two cities share vital similarities, the broader political context and historic role of organizations in policymaking provides important comparative insights. How individuals themselves perceive their ability to influence change, whether at the service delivery level or broader policy level, is influenced by their interaction with non-profit organizations. Interactions with organizations that deliver key welfare services can dictate how individuals see their own political agency and place within society, and in turn their role as advocates for broader social policy change.
Nonprofit Social Welfare Providers and Root Causes Advocacy: Kristen Pue (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Nonprofit social welfare providers influence welfare state change through their role in advocacy. As organizations with frontline experience and access to government, service provider nonprofits are also key components of broad policy coalitions. Thus, it is important to understand the determinants of nonprofit social welfare provider participation in root causes advocacy. Root causes advocacy is policy advocacy targeted at the causes underlying the social problems that nonprofits address. This paper explores variation in root causes advocacy by two nonprofit social welfare providers in Canada: emergency management nonprofits (EMNPOs) and homeless-serving nonprofits (HSNPOs). EMNPOs and HSNPOs share commonalities in the determinants of nonprofit advocacy identified by the literature. As providers of social welfare services of last resort, they serve a similar function in the welfare state. Yet Canadian HSNPOs carry out root causes advocacy while EMNPOs do not. HSNPOs advocate on the multiple causes of homelessness (e.g., housing affordability, LGBTQ2S discrimination, mental health, poverty). They are part of advocacy coalitions, contribute to policy discussions, and strengthen advocacy communities through their frontline knowledge. In contrast, EMNPOs do not engage in root causes advocacy. In interviews, these organizations frequently pointed to climate change as the cause of increases in the frequency and severity of natural disasters – and, therefore, of an unprecedented displacement of people that is straining their resources. Yet EMNPOs do not advocate on climate change mitigation, nor are they involved in climate coalitions. To explain this variation, the paper introduces the concept of policy network (in)compatibility.
Development of Southeast Asian Philanthropy and the Welfare States: Manuel Litalien (Nipissing University)
Abstract: As Asian governments are actively implementing more generous Welfare Systems, such as universal health care, Southeast Asia (SEA) has witnessed a push to support philanthropic initiatives for at least the past two decades. The excitement in SEA revolves around the possible role of the non-profit sector in social provisions to alleviate poverty and inequality, along with the new institutionalization of giving (philanthropization) (Sciortino 2017). An example of this interest is reflected in the ASEAN Philanthropy dialogue of March 21, 2018, or the 2001 Asia Pacific Philanthropic Consortium (APCC). Additionally, the study of philanthropy has been offered as a university program since 2011 in the region. Despite this enthusiasm, further research is needed to comprehend the interactions of philanthropic organizations and welfare state development in Asia. The objective of the presentation is to reflect on how the volunteer sector is influencing social policy formulation in SEA, and how governmental initiatives are changing the behaviour of welfare service providers.