The Three-Tier Model: How Helping Occurs in Urban, Poor Communities

Social Service Review

Volumn 71, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 574-606

  Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0009269572     PISSN: 00377961     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/604279     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. For a representative collection of essays that addresses the condition of American inner cities, see Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Peterson, eds., The Urban Underclass (Washington D. C.: Brookings Institution, 1991). See also Elijah Anderson. Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); and Philippe Bourgois, "In Search of Horatio Alger: Culture and Ideology in the Crack Economy," Contemporary Drug Problems 16, no. 4 (1989): 619-50.
2. For a representative collection of essays that addresses the condition of American inner cities, see Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Peterson, eds., The Urban Underclass (Washington D. C.: Brookings Institution, 1991). See also Elijah Anderson. Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); and Philippe Bourgois, "In Search of Horatio Alger: Culture and Ideology in the Crack Economy," Contemporary Drug Problems 16, no. 4 (1989): 619-50.
3. For a representative collection of essays that addresses the condition of American inner cities, see Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Peterson, eds., The Urban Underclass (Washington D. C.: Brookings Institution, 1991). See also Elijah Anderson. Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); and Philippe Bourgois, "In Search of Horatio Alger: Culture and Ideology in the Crack Economy," Contemporary Drug Problems 16, no. 4 (1989): 619-50.
4. Carol Stack, All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community (New York: Harper & Row, 1974).
5. Kathryn Edin, "Surviving the Welfare System: How AFDC Recipients Make Ends Meet in Chicago," Social Problems 38, no. 4 (1991): 462-74.
6. Robert Halpern, Rebuilding the Inner City: A History of Neighborhood Initiatives to Address Poverty in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press 1995).
7. I am using the term "providers" as a generic category that can include any of the tvpes of groups and organizations that provide a service or social support - regardless of whether they may have another name, e.g., informal groups, large social service agencies, block clubs, street gangs, etc. These actors can be differentiated as follows: (1) organizations that are large in terms of size, resources, and budgets, that are able to access and acquire continuous operating and program support, that tend to be public spokespersons for the communities they serve, and that are the first point of contact for funding streams entering their communities; (2) small- and medium-sized organizations that have modest staff, few connections to major funding sources, relative inexperience in developing proposals, and may have only recently entered a community and are not well-connected to residents; (3) organizations that have developed and implemented social service programming that falls outside their formal role; (4) grassroots organizations and social groups with minimal formal structure; and (5) illegitimate social groups that provide social services (e.g., youth gangs).
8. Martin Sanchez Jankowski, Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society (Berkeley University of California Press, 1991); Mercer Sullivan, Getting Paul: Youth and Employment in the Inner-City (New York: Cornell University Press, 1989).
9. Martin Sanchez Jankowski, Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society (Berkeley University of California Press, 1991); Mercer Sullivan, Getting Paul: Youth and Employment in the Inner-City (New York: Cornell University Press, 1989).
10. William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner-City, the Underclass, and Public Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).
11. Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (London: Verso, 1990).
12. To protect the confidentiality of my informants, I have altered the names of persons and locations. In this case, I omitted the name of the national organization to which the Hamilton Club belongs.
13. Yusuf Jah and Sister Shan'Keyah, Uprising: Crips and Bloods Tell the Story of America's Youth in the Crossfire (New York: Scribner, 1995).
14. Stack (n. 2 above).
15. Obviously, this picture of the first tier is rosy. It does not give adequate acknowledgment to the difficulties experienced by all organizations that operate in contexts of limited resources and diminished support for social services. First-tier placement does not erase difficulties of resource management, work overloads, and so on.
16. Wilson (n. 7 above).
17. Ibid. See also Roberto M. Fernandez and David Harris, "Social Isolation and the Underclass," in Drugs, Crime and Social Isolation, ed. Adele Harrell and George Peterson (Washington, B.C.: Urban Institute Press, 1992).
18. This does not necessarily mean that their membership rates have declined or that they are operating at less-than-full capacity (see, e.g., George Hemmens, Charles Hoch Donna Hardina, Rojean Madsen, and Wim Wiewel, Changing Needs and Social Services in Three Chicago Communities [Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Urban Planning and Policy, 1986]). Rather, their engagement with the community population has markedly decreased as individuals turn to nonmainstream and non-first-tier sources of support (see Edin [n. 3 above]). Stagner and Richman's study reveals some stark findings concerning the sporadic, and often nonexistent, use of formal public and private social service providers by heads of households who receive welfare assistance (Matthew W. Stagner and Harold A. Richman, General Assistance Profiles: Findings from a Longitudinal Study of Newly Approved Recipients [Chicago: Illinois Department of Public Aid, 1985]).
19. This does not necessarily mean that their membership rates have declined or that they are operating at less-than-full capacity (see, e.g., George Hemmens, Charles Hoch Donna Hardina, Rojean Madsen, and Wim Wiewel, Changing Needs and Social Services in Three Chicago Communities [Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Urban Planning and Policy, 1986]). Rather, their engagement with the community population has markedly decreased as individuals turn to nonmainstream and non-first-tier sources of support (see Edin [n. 3 above]). Stagner and Richman's study reveals some stark findings concerning the sporadic, and often nonexistent, use of formal public and private social service providers by heads of households who receive welfare assistance (Matthew W. Stagner and Harold A. Richman, General Assistance Profiles: Findings from a Longitudinal Study of Newly Approved Recipients [Chicago: Illinois Department of Public Aid, 1985]).
20. Another source of contention occurs in the indirect effects that an entrenched first-tier provider sector can have for second- and third-tier organizations and groups that wish to access available funds. For example, since the 1970s, an increasing proportion of resources for social services has been distributed through purchase-of-service contracting. This presents two sets of problems. First, even within the first-tier sector, it is not without difficulty that new organizations enter into the bidding process for funds: "The practice least favorable to open and fair competition would be renewing or extending contracts with existing providers. Surprisingly, however 38.4% of respondents indicated that they simply renew contracts or negotiate with existing or new providers. This raises questions about the openness of the system to potential contractors" (Peter M. Kettner and Lawrence L. Martin, "Purchase of Services at 20: Are We Using It Well? Public Welfare [Summer 1994]: 14-20; emphasis added). Second, given the inability of many first-tier organizations to access such resources, one can imagine the heightened difficulties that second- and third-tier providers may have. They may not be informed of requests for proposals, they might not know where and how to find requests for proposals, or they simply may be unaware that such resources are even available.
21. In fact, the neighborhood church is the best generic example of a second-tier organization that makes radical internal adjustments to fill a local void. Larger, inner-city churches have congregations that typically drive long distances to attend weekly services. At times they will be responsive to local needs through structured volunteerism. However their size, public stature, and participation in broad networks of influence enable them to access resources, intervene in public and private initiatives that affect their communities, and generally act in a manner that qualifies them for first-tier placement Thus, more so than the first-tier church, it is the smaller church (as well as the storefront church) that has intimate knowledge of its local community and that has developed trust with local residents. It is often the neighborhood institution called on to address a concern or need. Its role as a provider of religious services - as opposed to a bureaucratic social service agency - affords the flexibility (like the vocational school in some respects) to hear the residents' concerns, find the appropriate resources, address the demand quickly, and move on to other issues. In Chicago's Stateway Gardens public housing development, a small neighborhood church hired a van and transported residents out of the neighborhood in order to purchase groceries, clothing, and laundry services at inexpensive prices. It did so in response to the wishes of the congregation, many of whom were boycotting a local grocer because of poor food quality and high prices. In other neighborhoods, the church acts as a liaison between individuals and employers, seeking out employment opportunities and finding prospective applicants In still other situations, the church can provide temporary shelter, meeting space, as well as public legitimacy for a community-initiated action such as a protest or demonstration.
22. A group of second- and third-tier organizations in the Crenshaw housing development - the Crenshaw Social Service Coalition - has attempted to make formal connections with first-tier providers in the area that are influential in garnering government and philanthropic resources. Despite the coalition's approaches, it has been effectively marginalized from larger, citywide service reform efforts, community-based comprehensive reform initiatives, and federal funding opportunities. For example, Housing and Urban Development anticrime funding and Empowerment Zone funding are directed (and dominated) by first-tier providers.
23. I will not pay great attention to the role of the individual third-tier actor because it is often highly circumstantial, though the service provided can be important. The best example is a store owner whose relations with the community and willingness to move beyond his or her formal role as commercial vendor can lead to such services as no-interest loans, credit, use of store space, sponsorship of a recreation program, or to direct involvement in matters affecting his or her clients. For example, speaking at community meetings or involvement in focus groups or community-building initiatives require commercial sector representation. Another example, occurring less often, is a homeowner or landlord whose material interests in the welfare of the community provoke similar actions.
24. For example, in the extremely poor Chicago community of Englewood, several neighborhood clubs, whose interactions had generally been confined to bake sales and softball tournaments, coalesced in 1992 to sponsor a series of political demonstrations They marched at City Hall, they organized community meetings with local commercial establishments in order to address unfair pricing issues, and they initiated "take back the night" marches in front of crack houses in their community. These activities were the result of a heightened self-awareness on the part of third-tier organizations concerning their potential for mobilizing their respective communities as well as the assistance given by several second-tier organizations that had developed working relationships with the third tier. A political advocacy group, which was successful both in grassroots and large-scale voter registration, introduced the group of third-tier actors to a small consortium of community advocates that included high school principals, local real estate developers, community development corporations, and church leaders. Many of the smaller third-tier actors who eventually joined this consortium gained invaluable information regarding grants, requests for proposals, and other available resources. Their social networks expanded but, so far, none has experienced benefits that would warrant their shift to the second tier. On the individual level, however, several third-tier representatives were able to increase their personal contacts and locate full-time employment as a result.
25. Jankowski (n. 6 above); Loic J. D. Wacquant, "Redrawing the Urban Color Line: The State of the Ghetto in the 1980s," in Social Problems, ed. Craig Calhoun and George Ritzer (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992).
26. Stagner and Richman (n. 15 above), pp. 53-54.
27. Jankowski (n. 6 above); Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, "The Social Organization of Gang Activity in an Urban Ghetto," American Journal of Sociology 103, no. 1 (July 1997): 82-111.