Spring, 1998, Vol. 4, No. 2

Weaving a New Safety Net: A Chicago Community Responds to Changing Times

By Whitney Smith, a second-year SSA student with a concentration in administration. Her field placement is at the Organization of the NorthEast.

With the implementation of welfare reform this year, the availability of resources to Chicago's poor has changed dramatically. The safety net that once existed in the form of entitlements of cash, food and medical assistance is now considerably limited. The work requirement for public assistance recipients, included in the new welfare legislation, has required the City of Chicago to re-organize to support these new job seekers. The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) has focused much of its attention on the coordination of existing services, so mandated recipients can better access what is available to support their entrance into the workforce. While IDHS is subsidizing child care and transportation costs for recipients who are transitioning from welfare to work, the shortage of these services still requires serious attention. Also, because the majority of recipients are low-skilled and most do not have a high school diploma, entry-level positions and training are needed for welfare reform to be successful.

In order to accomplish the major task of implementing welfare reform, IDHS has relied heavily on community-based social service and human capital agencies who already have extensive knowledge of neighborhood services, as well as experience with placing low-skilled workers. Funding guidelines recently released by IDHS have emphasized the importance of community collaboration in addition to the need for effective services. Many of Chicago's communities have, in fact, accepted this responsibility and their agencies are now contracted to place welfare recipients into jobs.

The City's reliance on community agencies has resulted in a puzzling reality: many of the agencies who have long-advocated for the rights of welfare recipients and who fought against welfare reform are now, in fact, implementing it. Illinois' State Plan for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) emphasizes the need for community involvement in the design and operation of the program. While they are clearly involved in the operation, the extent to which Chicago's communities have been included in the design of welfare reform is unclear. One Chicago community, however, is not waiting for an invitation. Instead, it is attempting to use this time of change to self-determine the real and varied needs of all of its community residents.

The Organization of the NorthEast (ONE) is an umbrella organization, consisting of 60 member groups in the Uptown and Edgewater neighborhoods located on the north side of Chicago. Its members are churches, nonprofit organizations, businesses and ethnic associations. These groups come together through ONE to work on community issues, including jobs, housing, welfare reform and other concerns of youth and families.

ONE's mission is to preserve the unique economic and ethnic diversity of the area-Uptown and Edgewater are mixed-income and have a large homeless and immigrant population. This incredible diversity has required ONE to advocate for comprehensive services to meet diverse needs. In 1994, the organization convened a Jobs and Economic Strategy Team to work on filling the gap between employers' needs and the needs of community members. Realizing that many community residents did not have the skills necessary to secure a job that provides a living wage, benefits and room for advancement, the Jobs and Economic Strategy Team partnered with employers to develop employer-driven training for Certified Nursing Assistance and Patient Care Technicians. The Strategy Team also identified and began advocating for additional resources needed to be successful in the work-force. Job placement assistance, child care and after-school care, transportation, training for people who do not have a high school education, English language skills, housing assistance and health care have been provided. Currently, the Jobs and Economic Strategy Team of ONE is in the process of developing a central coordinating system for employment and support services. This system is designed to link existing community resources; centralize intake, assessment and referral; identify missing and duplicated services; and track neighborhood-level data. Much of the system is already in place because of long-term partnerships that exist within the community. ONE has successfully brought together a wide range of other community stakeholders as well.

The most significant decision made in the planning process was not to design the system exclusively to support welfare recipients in securing employment. The members of ONE felt that by focusing only on welfare-to-work, the organization would not only neglect many community members but would also be contributing further to an already fragmented system. Instead, ONE identified the wide-range of needs in Uptown and Edgewater and worked together to plan a unified response to welfare reform and workforce development-something no other community in Chicago has yet to do. ONE has taken its vision to IDHS, demanding support for all job seekers in Uptown and Edgewater.

True community-based service collaborations are rare because of the many difficulties involved. Decision-making and planning processes are inevitably slowed when a large number of community participants are included. There can also be a tendency for larger and more well-funded agencies to hold an imbalance of power, which can affect the smaller agencies' investment in the process. Finally, agencies must be continually held accountable when implementing services. The groups within Uptown and Edgewater, through ONE, are nevertheless committed to a collaborative process. In its "Principles For Action," ONE members state: "Decisions will be made in a spirit of equity and balance. We will be accountable to one another. In order to create an environment in which we are able to speak freely and voice disagreement, we must work together in a spirit of trust. We will take each other at face value, without assigning motives. We will commit time and resources to the realization of this vision."

IDHS is currently looking to communities throughout Chicago to organize their resources to support TANF recipients in getting jobs. The local offices of the Department now depend on community-based services for its referrals. ONE's efforts in Uptown and Edgewater provide a model for the rest of Chicago's neighborhoods in responding to this apparent need for collaboration. Through community-driven planning, ONE is using this time of change to highlight the varied needs within its area and is demanding from IDHS that they support comprehensive strategies for poor people.

Whitney Smith, a second-year SSA student with a concentration in administration. Her field placement is at the Organization of the NorthEast.

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