LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
VOICE FROM THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF
THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING WITHIN THE VOLUNTARY
SECTOR
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO
THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
PROGRAM IN SOCIOLGY
BY
ANTOINE JAMES ROGERS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
AUGUST 2008
UMI Number: 3332369
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DISSERTATION APPROVAL SHEET
The dissertation submitted by Antoine J. Rogers has been read and approved by the
following committee:
Phil Nyden, Ph.D., Director
Professor of Sociology
Loyola University Chicago
Judith Wittner, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Loyola University Chicago
Ann Davis, Ph.D.
Professor of Social Work
University of Birmingham
The final copies have been examined by the director of the dissertation and the signature
which appears below verifies the fact that any necessary changes have been incorporated
and that the dissertation is now given final approval by the committee with reference to
content and form.
The dissertation is therefore accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy
fl*y 11, 200^
Date Director's Signature
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This PhD WOULD NOT have been possible without the patience and
kindness of many people. I would first like to thank my dissertation committee. I
know your patience was tested and I will be forever in your debt for staying the
course. To Phil Nyden, thank you for welcoming me into the CURL family and for
providing me with an opportunity to do comparative research. Your support enabled
me to see the world (part of it at least) and to pursue a life I never thought possible.
Indeed the opportunity has taken me further from Englewood, Chicago than I could
have imagined. To Judith Wittner, thank you for believing in my ability. Discussions
with you during those early years of graduate school are at the foundation of my
theoretical and practical understanding of sociology. Your ideas remain with me and
will shape my teaching and research for years to come. To Ann Davis, your genuine
kindness and warmth made Birmingham, England a much less cold and wet city in
which to live. Thank you for always taking me seriously, particularly during those
times when I did not take myself seriously.
It is imperative that I thank the staff and volunteers of the Association House
of Chicago and the Birmingham Settlement. I specially thank Miguel Palacio from the
Association House for always making time for me both in relation to this project and
as a neighbour. I also thank the staff and the Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural
Center and specially thank you to Juan Carlos Rivera. Your friendship and openness
changed my perspective and enhanced this project ten fold. Many thanks as well to
the staff of the Chicago Historical Society and the Birmingham Library.
iii
There is no way I would have completed this project had I not had the love and
support of my partner and my friends (who are my family). First, to my partner, Jorge,
your love sustained me during very difficult times and your love sustains me now. Te
quiero mas y mas cada dia. To Belinda, thank your for always knowing that I would
finish particularly during those times when I was convinced that I would not. To
Rebecca, thank you for all your encouragement, understanding and acceptance. To
Hartwig and Matt Z. even without words during long silences you are both with me.
To Jen Golden, knowing you has made me a better person (with better posture) and
those beautiful boys - thank you for letting me be a relevant part of their lives (and
one of their births). To Amy Z, thank you for taking care of business (usually my
business) and for always allowing me to impose. You are very special to me and I
thank you for always being you. To my "sista", Ticco Armstrong Moore, you have
taught me how to be a stronger gay black man. Thank you for reminding me of who I
am, who we are, and our worth to our people even if our people don't recognize it. I'm
not sure I would have survived those first few months in London without you. And to
my sister Kenya: my only blood. Thank you providing me a legacy. Today I think of
our mother Celaine Kenya Rogers (1959-1977) and how proud she would be of US
and her beautiful grandchildren.
iv
For my partner Jorge Andres Lizandra Milio
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
LIST OF FIGURES viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix
CHAPTER ONE: The Voluntary Sector and the Writers Voice
Introduction 1
Maryville Academy: an Irish Catholic Orphanage 6
Seeds of Investigation: Qualitative Methods 13
Comparative Research: Association House and 16
the Birmingham Settlement
Chapters Outlined 19
CHAPTER TWO: A Theoretical Framework to inform 100 Years of
Organizational Development
Introduction 22
The Road to Welfare State Formation 24
Critiquing the Welfare State 38
The New Order in Welfare Service Delivery 51
The Contemporary Role of Voluntary Sector Organizations 57
Conclusions 64
CHAPTER THREE: Investigating Settlement Houses
Introduction: Settlements: a context for qualitative research methods 66
Settlement Houses and Reform at the Turn of the 20th Century 68
Settlement Origins: Christian Socialism and University Men 73
Settlement Idea Exported 81
Methods for Investigating Contemporary Settlement Houses 90
CHAPTER FOUR: The Association House of Chicago
Introduction: Origins, Religious Networks and a Multipurpose 100
Approach
1860-1899: Chicago Immigrants and the Settlement Idea 101
1899-1930: Immigrants, Patrons, Residents and Volunteers 107
193 0-1945: Resources from Outside the Presbyterian Network 126
1945 -1960 Specialized Services and Organizational Independence 134
Conclusion 137
vi
CHAPTER FIVE: From Church Sponsorship to State Sponsorship
Introduction 141
Fewer Volunteers, More Paid Staff and 143
a War on Poverty (1960-1969)
Professionalizing Association House (1969-1975) 152
Expansion of Service Delivery Role (1975-2005) 157
State Funds and the Balance of Power 167
Conclusion 177
CHAPTER SIX: Not a Puerto Rican Agency
Introduction 180
Puerto Rican Migration to West Town 183
West Town and Radial Political Ideological Formation 192
Community Advocacy Role 201
Conclusions and Comparative Settlement 208
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Birmingham Settlement:
the only settlement in town
Introduction 211
Birmingham Settlement Founders and Early Programs 213
Social Work Training Space 218
Post Welfare State Transitions 222
Grants to Contracts 228
Conclusion 237
CHAPTER EIGHT: Conclusions
Introduction 241
Key Findings 242
Summary and Implications for Further Research 253
APPENDIX A: Interview Instrument 256
APPENDIX B: Association House Study 261
APPENDIX C: Service Locations 266
APPENDIX D: Chicago Community Areas 268
APPENDIX E: Puerto Rican Patterns of Mobility 1950-1960 270
APPENDIX F: Division Street Area 272
APPENDIX G: Association House Mapping Project 274
APPENDIX H: Puerto Rican and Mexican Settlement Patterns 276
BIBLIOGRPAHY 278
VITA 291
vn
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure One: US/Chicago Population 1860-1920 102
Figure Two: West Town Ethnic Migration Patterns 122
Figure Three: Depression Era Resources: Private and Public 131
Figure Four: Association House Budget 1931-1942 131
Figure Five: Combined Funding From Membership Bodies 133
Figure Six: Total Income and War on Poverty Funding 147
Figure Seven: 1965: Pie Chart Income Breakdown 148
Figure Eight: 1969: Pie Chart Income Breakdown 148
Figure Nine: Volunteers and Organizational Staff Numbers 150
Figure Ten: State Funding 1975-1984 162
Figure Eleven: State Funding 1984-2004 164
Figure Twelve: Total Income: Department of Mental Health 165
Figure Thirteen: 1984: Pie Chart Income Breakdown 167
Figure Fourteen: 2004: Pie Chart Income Breakdown 167
Figure Fifteen: 1980: Pie Chart Income Breakdown 230
Figure Sixteen: 1990: Pie Chart income Breakdown 231
VIII
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Association House of Chicago AHC
Association House Collection AHC
Association House Annual Report AHAR
Birmingham Settlement BS
Birmingham Settlement Annual Report BSAR
British Association of Settlement and Social Action Centres BASSIC
Charity Organisation Society COS
Chicago Federation of Settlements CFS
Chicago Fund of Allied Chicago CFAC
Chicago Public Library CPL
Chicago Relief Administration CRA
Center for Urban Research and Learning CURL
Central Council for Education and Training CCET
Cook County Bureau of Public Welfare CCBPW
Community Action Agencies CAA
Development of Neighborhood Resources for Human Potential DNR
Illinois Department of Children and Family Service [IJDCFS
Illinois Department of Mental Health DMH
Illinois Department of Human Services DHS
ix
Illinois Women's Alliance IWA
Maryville Academy City of Youth MVA
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP
National Council of Social Service NCSS
National Federation of Settlements NFS
Non-for-profit NFP
Office of Economic Opportunity OEC
Puerto Rican Cultural Center PRCC
Settlement House Movement SHM
Social Security Act 1935 SSA
Trades Union Congress TUC
United Christian Community Services UCCS
United States US
United Kingdom/Britain UK
University of Birmingham UB
Voluntary Sector Organization VSO
Volunteers in Service to American VISTA
Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago WMC
Young Women Christian Association YWCA
X
CHAPTER ONE:
THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR AND THE WRITERS VOICE
A. Introduction
This dissertation outlines findings from research activities carried out over four
years in two multipurpose voluntary sector social service organizations. One organization
the Association House is located in Chicago, Illinois, United States (US) and the other,
the Birmingham Settlement, is located in Birmingham, England. Both organizations were
established during the Settlement House Movement (SHM), a social reform movement
that began during the Victorian/Progressive era. Both settlements have provided
continuous social service delivery for over 100 year to the urban communities in which
they were established. This dissertation documents their organizational development to
identify how both settlements survived 100 years of shifting political and community
developments.
The organizations included in this study were created from voluntary action with
resources provided by the charitable contributions of wealthy patrons. The historical
activities within the organizations identified in this research are rooted in non-profit
motivations, voluntary action and urban community engagement. Although the majority
of the workers within the organizations are now paid, the governing Board of Directors of
both organizations remains voluntary. All accrued profits above the cost of service
delivery are continually directed back into both organizations.
1
2
1. Definitions
Those who write about social service organizations in both the US and England
refer to the space in which these organizations operate as the non-government sector,
voluntary sector, the independent sector and the community sector amongst others
(Gutch, 1992; Davis and Walker, 1997; Harris, 2000;Procaska, 1999). This research
identifies and discusses voluntary sector organizations (VSO) and non-for-profit
organizations (NFP) as one in the same. The organizations discussed in this dissertation
were created by individuals who initially volunteered their time and their money for the
creation of institutions where other individuals could come and volunteer their time and
donate money. Today individual volunteers and paid workers continue to direct funds,
resources and accrued income above the cost of service delivery through these non-profit
organizations to individuals and communities. Collectively organizations of this type can
boast a rich history of social service delivery and reform activities and today this form a
distinct voluntary sector.
2. Contracts
Settlements and other voluntary sector organizations operated for decades in the
US and England prior to welfare state formation. Since the 1960 in the US and since the
1980s in the England, voluntary sector organizations (VSOs) have received more funds
from the government. In particular additional funding generated from contracts now
provides VSOs in both countries with much needed additional revenue. Contracts with
the state have led to massive organizational growth for some agencies and the expansion
3
of service delivery activities for the sector as a whole. Still some commentators in the
US and England are critical of contract relationship between VSOs and the state. Critics
argue that under government contracts the voluntary-state relationship is a perceived
weakening of the sector's advocacy role as a result of professionalisation and
bureaucratization. Furthermore contracts are seen as a potential threat to the autonomy
and innovation in the voluntary sector organizations (Gutch, 1992; Walsh, 1995, Stewart,
1996; Salamon, 2003). To explore these issues this dissertation identifies and analyzes
the historical development of two contemporary settlements.
3. The Writer's Voice
At the start of my graduate studies, I developed sociological tools which helped
me to use personal and professional experiences to critically examine the development of
voluntary sector organizations. My personal knowledge derives from my experience as a
'ward of the courts' in the State of Illinois. This status meant that the State of Illinois was
my legal guardian. For 20 years the state financed my care and contracted with voluntary
sector organizations to provide it. More relevant to this research is my personal and
professional relationship to Maryville Academy (MVA). In 1983 during the summer of
my eighth birthday (and after living in more foster homes than I care to remember), I was
placed at Maryville Academy (MVA), a Catholic child care organization. At this time
MVA was the largest child-care facility in State of Illinois.
I lived at Maryville for nine years and these experiences provide a primary source
4
of knowledge. Later in 1996 I was employed at Maryville as a direct care provider.1
During the first 18 months of employment I received certification as a "family teacher".
Later I was promoted to a case management/administrative position. I maintained this
role within the organization full time until I began my graduate studies. I carried on in a
part-time capacity thereafter for an additional two years.
I struggled throughout this research to decide what, if any, self reflection I should
include in this dissertation. Ultimately, I recognized that my experiences as a child as
well my professional experiences were critical in helping me to understand and articulate
key issues I raise in this dissertation. The value of a critical and reflexive scrutiny of the
self and ones own experience is discussed by Judith Okely and others in the edited
collection, Anthropology and autobiography: participatory knowledge and embodied
knowledge (1992). Most significant is her assertion that reflexivity is an essential
endeavor for sociological investigations. Okely and others stress the importance of a
critical reflection of relevant personal experience to better understand social phenomena.
This and other research that explores reflexivity, auto ethnography and personal narrative
gave me the confidence to reflect and to include some of my personal and professional
experiences (Ellis et al, 1992; Ellis and Bochner, 2000; Okley, 1992; Katz and Monk,
1993). Okley further explains that:
A popular put down is that reflexivity or autobiography is 'mere navel gazing', as
if anthropology...could ever involve only the practitioner. The concern for an
autobiographical element in anthropology is to work through the specificity of the
anthropologist's self in order to contextualize and transcend it. In other instances
1
1 lived at Maryville for nine years beginning in 1983.1 was employed full time from 1996 until 2000 and
part-time from 2000 until 2002.
5
autobiography or reflexivity in anthropology has been pejoratively labeled
'narcissism'. This use of the classical Greek myth is even more confused. Self-
adoration is quite different from self-awareness and a critical scrutiny of the self.
Indeed those who protect the self from scrutiny could as well be labeled self-
satisfied and arrogant in presuming their presence and relations with others to be
unproblematic. Reflexivity is incorrectly confused with self-adoration (Okely,
1992:52)
Personal and professional experiences related to Maryville combined with a
theoretical underpinning of these experiences provides a significant source of knowledge
which worked to inform my understanding of organizational growth and the impact of
government funding on voluntary sector organizations. I framed my experiences at
Maryville with multiple theoretical perspectives (discussed in the next chapter). The
understanding which arose from this critical investigation of personal and professional
experiences at Maryville greatly informed my subsequent research questions that relate to
voluntary sector organizations.
I began my investigations of settlements after I witnessed the impact of
government funding on Maryville. For example government funding diversified the
organization's client base. Beginning in the late 1980s the organization accepted children
with more specialized care needs. At the same time the states' easing of employment
requirements enabled MVA to recruit less qualified workers. Both developments
fundamentally changed the organization.
6
B. Maryville Academy: an Irish Catholic Orphanage
Maryville was established in 1883 by the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago as a
response to the needs of thousands of children (particularly Irish Catholic children)
orphaned in the wake of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. For the next seven decades
parishes in and around the city of Chicago referred Irish Catholic children to MVA.
However by the late 1960s the Archdiocese made plans to close Maryville but it was
rescued by two events. One was the establishment of IDCFS (the state sponsorship and
protection of children) in the early 1960s. The second factor was the Church's
appointment of Father John Smyth as Maryville's new director. 4
Smyth successfully recruited volunteers and workers. He also generated donations
from Chicago's large Irish Catholic population. By the end of the 1960s Maryville was
growing as a result of Smyth's charismatic leadership and his extensive political and
business connections. Beginning in 1973 Smyth secured the first state contracts from
IDCFS. He built additional residential homes on the suburban campus to accommodate
the increased number of kids placed at the organization by the state.
1. Organizational Growth
Maryville rapidly grew over two decades from a single service delivery site of
3
Maryville began as St. Mary's Training School. The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago created Maryville.
In the late 1870s a board was formed; money raised; a corporation established; and a farm - Knotts Farm -
purchased on the north side of Des Plaines. Initially priest and nuns taught agricultural and vocational
skills.
4
Father Smyth was an Ail-American, University of Notre Dame basketball star. In 1957 he was recruited
by the National Basketball Association. However before the start of his contract at the St Louis Hawks, he
decided to become a priest. Ten years later he was at Maryville (Personal Communication: 2 May 2004).
7
300 boys and girls in Des Plaines (suburb of Chicago), to an organization with twenty-
one service delivery sites throughout Chicago, the surrounding suburbs and the greater
State of Illinois. State contracts from IDCFS fuelled this growth. During this time,
Maryville gradually increased its delivery role year after year as a result of larger
contracts with IDCFS. At the height of its service delivery role in the late 1990s the
organization operated with an annual budget of over $80 million with 80 percent
generated from IDCFS contracts. During the time Maryville delivered residential care to
more then 16,000 children yearly.
Maryville provided a wide range of educational, recreational and therapeutic
services for boy and girls from birth to age 21. Funds from state contracts also enabled
Maryville to increase its capacity to deliver specialized services to children. For example
Maryville employed psychologists and psychiatrists from the late 1970s which gave the
organization a mental health element. Maryville also employed nutritionists, art
therapists, sports mentors and other specialized care providers. In the late 1980s
Maryville opened a service delivery site dedicated to crack addicted babies and their
mothers. By 1995 the organization maintained 18 service location sites in all part of
Chicago and served an annual child care population of 14,000.
In 1983, when I first arrived at Maryville, it was already a wealthy organization
due in large part to Father Smyth's fundraising skills. 5 'Chuck Wagon' an annual charity
event hosted by Father Smyth on Maryville's main campus started in 1971 and soon
5
Maryville separated financial ties from the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1977. However the church retained
the authority to appoint Executive Directors and Board of Directors.
8
became the largest single-day fundraiser in the US.6 Another key component to the
economic growth of Maryville was Smyth's extensive ties to the sports industry. These
links not only raised the profile of Mary ville, they also generated massive donations and
enabled the organization to provide a wide range of athletic equipment and sports
facilities to residents. I learned how to swim inside the athletic complex on Maryville's
main campus. Along with a swimming pool, the complex housed two basketball courts
(with bleachers) and a golf center (complete with putting green). The Midwest Region
Sports Hall of Fame is also houses in the complex. Indeed the sports connections run so
deep that when I lived at Maryville I met basketball star Michael Jordon, twice because
o
of my school grades.
2. Organizational Change: Workforce Population
Despite a predominately Black youth population by the early 1980s, Maryville
6
Chuck Wagon raised on average each year $3.8million (1990-2000).
7
Maryville's youth are given extensive personal and communal spaces. The homes are large and equipped
with the latest home entertainment systems. As a resident youth and later as a worker I can testify to the
delivery of extensive material goods including: monthly purchases of cloths for each individual kid;
frequent meals at restaurants; and winter and summer camping holidays. Additionally Maryville kids
regularly attend most major sports and entertainment events in Chicago.
8
As a case manager at Maryville, I regularly attended court hearings and case reviews. At these reviews
the waiting rooms are filled with social workers representing dozens of private providers. Representatives
from state departments as well as service users are also present. I witnessed (and participated on many
occasions in this and other environments) social workers comment on how well dressed Maryville kids are
in relation to other 'wards'. Keeping in mind that most Maryville placements and IDCFS wards generally
return to the communities in which they were originally removed, many social workers were critical of
material provision given by Maryville to urban black youth and a lifestyle that many could not expect to
replicate once they left the organization. Additionally social workers often remarked about the racial
implications of MVA organizational structure and the amount of money received in contracts and private
fund raising. Social workers regularly referred to Maryville's main campus as the 'plantation' with
supplementary comments on the inappropriateness of having the replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
adorns the entrance of Maryville particularly when one considers the racial makeup of MVA
administrators, front line workers and the youth population.
9
staff remained predominately white, Irish Catholics, recruited from local parishes often
by Father Smyth personally.9 As a kid at Maryville I received care from dozens of
workers over nine years and only three were Black. My care workers were primarily
middle class university graduates.
Father Smyth's personalized recruitment was not the only factor that influenced
the racial makeup of Maryville's front line work force. When I lived at MVA successful
applicants for front line positions were required to have a four-year college/university
degree. This requirement along with its suburban location most certainly contributed to a
low number of Black and ethnic minority staff.
By the mid 1980s Maryville required more staff to carry out activities at
additional sites throughout Chicago. However, traditional recruitment methods were no
longer adequate. Long time Maryville employee and senior manager Julie Green
remembers that the organization struggled to persuade newly recruited staff from none
minority backgrounds to work at newly opened inner city locations (Personal
Communication, Julie Green, Senior Management, Maryville Academy, July, 2003)
In 1990 Maryville reduced the minimal requirements for direct care workers. In
1996 when I returned to work at MVA a successful applicant need only a high school
diploma and a valid driver's license. As a result, the racial makeup of direct-care
9
State 'wards of the court' primarily from ethic minority communities were consistently placed at
Maryville from the mid 1970s and throughout the 1980s and 1990s. By the end of the 1970's the kids
placed at Maryville's suburban campus were no longer Irish orphans but rather black and Latino. Today 95
percent of the children at Maryville are black and virtually all Maryville placements wer