When the Bough Breaks

For many years, our nation’s public libraries have been providing more than books. After-school homework help, computer access for students and job searchers, preschool and adult literacy programming, shelter for those in need, and more have been provided in libraries and by their professional staff for decades.

In the current state of municipal budget shortfalls, many cities and towns have decided to cut library branches and decrease library hours to cut costs. Like the removal of any public service, the loss of library access has an impact on many people. It is a tear in the social safety net.

We know that school kids, job seekers, shelter-seekers, and learners of all ages were impacted when the City of Chicago implemented $3M in budget cuts in January of this year, cutting 172 low-wage library jobs and closing 75 branch libraries on Mondays. The community lost access to critical services and 172 people lost their jobs as clerks and pages in the Chicago library system.

Rufus was one of those who lost a job in the Chicago Public Libraries this winter. Now he’s asking for help with the funds necessary to purchase the right-sized car seat for his infant son and to buy his son books and toys, as he would have been able to do had he not lost his job.

I am not arguing here for or against curtailing library hours or jobs. Cuts had to be made in the city’s budget. If those funds had instead been pulled out of our public transit system or out of violence-prevention programs, we would see similar tears in the fabric of support and resources for those living close to the economic edge.

I wonder whether schoolteachers are now finding that their students cannot be expected to complete homework on Monday evenings because they can’t access after-school homework help or get onto a computer to complete their assignments. I wonder whether public transit stations, malls, fast food restaurants, and the like are feeling the strain of the volume of people who might otherwise have been reading, taking shelter in or attending programs at public libraries and who are now at loose ends on Mondays.

We can see in Rufus’ situation that the low-wage positions of clerk and page in a library system were not sufficient to provide these earners with any sort of a financial cushion. Less than three months into unemployment, Rufus tells us of near-homelessness and an inability to purchase basic supplies for his son.

This is where you see clearly the multi-generational effect of the fragility of our safety net. When Rufus lost his job, his son’s potential future earnings dropped along with his father’s. While we hope that Rufus and his son prove to be the exception to this rule, research and history tell us that children whose parents are low-income earners are exponentially more likely to be fixed in the same socio-economic status as their parents.

Rufus was on his way to a career path and stability in earnings. We hope he’ll get right back on track, but in today’s job market, that is going to be a challenge. In fact, we know from research cited in the Chicago Tribune last week that within Rufus’ age group, his chances of being rehired within 18 months of losing his job are approximately 77% (down from 89% before the recession) and that he’s likely to be hired at a wage 11% lower than the wage of the job he lost. This has implications for Rufus and for his son’s safety and development.

When we step up and help Rufus’s son during his dad’s jobless patch, or when we help Brenda get a computer so that she can complete her training in Radiology and her son can apply to colleges, we’re alleviating the human impact of cuts and shortfalls and addressing two generations’ needs. We’re fixing the holes when the social safety net has stretched to the breaking point. We’re doing it because we can see and hear Rufus and Brenda and we can be there to tighten the weave under them at a critical moment.

- megan kashner, founder & ceo

Filling Gaps and Building Communities of Support

A Benevolent Blog Guest Blog

By Professor Scott W. Allard, School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, Research Associate of the Population Research Center at NORC and the University of Chicago, Research Affiliate of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, Research Affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Member of the Board of Directors of Benevolent.

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As poverty and unemployment rates remain at historically high levels, the growing needs of working poor families and job-seekers shine a harsh light on the gaps in today’s safety net. These gaps should be challenging us to think of new ways of connecting those who can help with those in need. Benevolent.net offers a promising new way to direct giving to the unmet needs of low-income families -- needs that too often fall through the gaps in the safety net and consequently make it difficult to find or keep a job.

Government programs like food stamps or Medicaid often come to mind when we think of assistance for the poor. Yet these public programs cover only some of the material, transportation, or health needs of low-income families striving to make it. For example, lack of access to a reliable car or to public transit is a significant barrier to many of the working poor – but there is precious little transportation assistance available. Many poor job-seekers may need vision care or dental work in order to secure a steady, good-paying job, but these basic health needs often are not covered by public assistance programs.

There is other help, but it also can be spotty and insufficient. In some cases, social service programs and organizations provide critical assistance to the poor through employment services, adult education, child care, emergency assistance, and counseling services. Delivered often through community-based nonprofits, these social services are central to helping many low-income families achieve stability. The problem is that social service programs are coping with substantial cuts in public and philanthropic support. And what support there is doesn’t always reach those with the greatest need. In my 2009 book, Out of Reach, I found that residents of high-poverty neighborhoods have about half as much access to social service providers as do people who live in more affluent neighborhoods.

It can be bitterly hard for families living on the edge of stability to find help in times of need. Most turn to family, friends, or trusted members of their social networks for help with needs that safety-net programs do not or cannot address.

Ordinary people who want to help often don’t know how to. We know there are people around us who are having a hard time, but many of our neighbors silently struggle to find work, feed their families, or keep their homes. We find ourselves asking - what can we do?

How can the nonprofit sector do a better job of filling critical gaps in the safety net? And, on the other hand, how can we give private philanthropists, who don’t have unlimited means, opportunities to make a real social impact?

I believe Benevolent can be the answer to these questions. By providing an online portal that connects donors to community-based organizations, caseworkers, and ultimately to families who need help in a time of crisis, Benevolent helps to weave a connective web of people to fill in critical gaps in the safety net. Benevolent ensures that we reach those most in need at the moment of their need, and ensures that the donors’ support has real, visible impact. By providing a place for people to interact and share with each other, Benevolent helps us become a community of support. In short, Benevolent is a platform for helping us to realize how we would like to receive help and give help.

- Scott W. Allard, Benevolent Board of Directors