“We call it the badlands”: How Social‐Spatial Geographies Influence Social Service Use

Abstract

Using data from in-depth qualitative interviews with poor non-Hispanic white and Puerto Rican women living in a high-poverty neighborhood in Philadelphia, this article investigates how issues of geographic and social space condition participants' use of social resources provided locally by nongovernmental social service organizations (SSOs). The findings suggest that use of SSOs is highly contextual and situated in the local environment. In particular, proximity to agencies is found to be an important consideration in participants' decision to use SSOs, but equally important are subjective understandings of the immediate environs and the ethnoracial groups that live there. Results suggest that studies of geographic place and social welfare might consider the role of service users' sense of place and community in whether and how poor people make use of available organizational resources.

Poor Women's Moral Economies of Nonprofit Social Service Use: Conspicuous Constraint and Empowerment in the Hollow State

“…In this article, I advance previous work in this area (Kissane 2003) by offering a broad conceptual framing that integrates different explanations for nonuse and elucidates the moral universe in which poor women consider nonprofit organizations. Notably, organizational dimensions of urban life (and vice versa) are understudied in general (Marwell 2004;McQuarrie and Marwell 2009;Small 2006); and certainly, how the urban poor interact with nonprofit social service organizations, in particular, is under-researched.…”

Nonprofit organizations and government: Implications for policy and practice

“…Poor women explain that although it is frustrating, one has to endure the scrutiny and paperwork from welfare less frequently than from nonprofits, where one might need to go through tiresome intake processes each time one tries to receive services. Moreover, an applicant gets a (relatively) higher return for her trouble from welfare, while a nonprofit may offer her little aid or, perhaps, nothing (Kissane, 2003;2010). As scholars recognize, poor individuals also perceptively note that nonprofits seem to have fewer and/or more volatile resources at their disposal than the government-factors that force them to ration the amount of services they provide and make difficult choices about who receives aid ).…”

“…Such understandings regarding the amount and certainty of nonprofit services intersect with other factors to limit use of local services as well. Poor women approach using nonprofit services in place-specific ways, such that how far an agency is from their home (even if it is within 1 or 2 miles) and what section of the neighborhood an agency is located contribute to whether or not they will utilize it Kissane, 2010). Importantly, however, place-based concerns become Professional Practice / 635 more salient for use of nonprofit services than for use of public programs, largely because, as mentioned, poor women view receiving services from nonprofits as less guaranteed and less worthwhile than they do public assistance.…”

“…Importantly, however, place-based concerns become Professional Practice / 635 more salient for use of nonprofit services than for use of public programs, largely because, as mentioned, poor women view receiving services from nonprofits as less guaranteed and less worthwhile than they do public assistance. Thus, traveling across one's neighborhood or into a dangerous or unfamiliar area to seek services from a nonprofit is often viewed as "not worth it," while doing so for governmentallyprovided resources is (Kissane, 2010).…”

Place Matters: The Spatial Effects of Human Service Expenditures

“…One cannot provide a feeding program over the internet, or an afterschool program from a call center overseas. Proximity to individuals served is particularly important in those human services dedicated to people with low mobility or elevated fears of difference (Kissaine 2010;Bielefeld, Murdoch, and Waddell 1997). One could also argue that these populations are the most likely to need services in total and costly services in particular.…”