Social Justice and Rationing Social Services

This paper discusses the ethical implications of different mechanisms used by social agencies to ration scarce social services. Mechanisms such as queing, creaming, and triage are discussed from the perspective of two theories of social justice; i.e., John S. Mill and John Rawls. The purpose of the paper is to encourage more explicit examination of the assumptions that underlie the distribution of social services. It is the authors\u27 contention that the present decision making process is almost entirely based on intuition, political expedience, and tradition, and that systematic ethical analysis would give stronger justification to rationing decisions

Merging Ahead, Increase Speed: A Pilot of Funder-Driven Nonprofit Restructuring

Nonprofit agencies face increasing competition for scarce funding resources. Many agencies are considering ways to restructure themselves, often via mergers and acquisitions, as a way to become more effective and competitive. This case study examines a pilot initiative in Cleveland, Ohio, in which philanthropic funders invited and supported nonprofits in the pursuit of significant restructuring efforts. Health and human service nonprofits were recruited into a three-phase facilitated pilot that assisted the agency executive directors and boards in determining what type of restructuring was feasible and desirable. Overall, 75 nonprofits participated in some part of the pilot, 17 of which formally explored a restructuring opportunity within the pilot year, and eight of which ultimately consolidated. The study highlights key learnings from the initiative and the implications for the nonprofit sector in the promotion of restructuring discussions

Taking it to Scale: Evaluating the Scope and Reach of a Community-Wide Initiative on Early Childhood

In implementing broad community initiatives, the ability to assess the delivery of services is a distinct challenge. Yet, understanding both the magnitude and cross-usage of services by target populations is often a precursor to effective program evaluation, program improvement and additional program planning. This research examines the extent to which a comprehensive early childhood initiative successfully reached young children and their families in a large urban county. By linking birth records and administrative datasets at the level of the individual child, the study tracks the experiences of children in respect to engagement in program services and their receipt of public benefits. The study shows both the rapid growth in programs and the reach of the program elements to the majority of newborns in the target county after 5.5 years. The research highlights the challenges of effectively using individual-level data from a variety of sources for the purposes of documenting program receipt by participants

Getting Ready for School: Piloting Universal Prekindergarten in an Urban County

Investments in high-quality early care and education have been shown to reap societal benefits across the lives of the children served. A key intervention point is in the lives of 3- to 5-year olds during the period prior to entering kindergarten. Many jurisdictions have developed broad-based prekindergarten initiatives. This study reports on a pilot universal prekindergarten program in 24 sites in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Child assessment data were collected on 204 children from early care classrooms for 3- to 5-year olds across 3 time points by trained observers using 2 standardized instruments. Changes in achievement scores were shown to be significantly predicted by race, parental education level, and whether the family spoke English as a second language, with largest gains shown among children who were most behind at baseline. The findings serve to illuminate the developmental trajectory of children before kindergarten and how data can be used to inform practice and policy

Space to Learn and Grow: Assessing the Capacity of a Regional Early Care and Education System

As communities across the United States work to meet the early care and education needs of young children, more research is needed to inform decision making at many levels. One key dimension of this is having clarity about the relative availability of care in light of demographic trends and geographic dispersion. The present study demonstrates a method to examine the capacity of early care programs to serve the children in a large urban county. The study takes stock of the existing early care system by comparing where the child care slots are and where the demand is—all at the neighborhood level. The existing capacity to meet the needs of 3–5 year olds could provide slots for approximately 70% of all children, though there are spatial imbalances in the location of supply and demand. The study illustrates the effective use of administrative and Census-based data to inform policy planning for children and identifies several key implications for this type of effort

Temporal Effects of Distressed Housing on Early Childhood Risk Factors and Kindergarten Readiness

Poor housing quality and housing crises have been linked to adverse outcomes for children. However, few studies have focused on the early childhood period or been able to pinpoint how the timing and duration of housing problems contributes to early educational success. This longitudinal study draws on linked administrative records from housing, education, social service and health agencies to examine the influence of exposure to housing neighborhood conditions since birth on school readiness of all children entering kindergarten over a four-year period in a big city school system. Using marginal structural models that properly account for dynamic housing and neighborhood selection, we find that children exposed to problematic housing and disadvantaged neighborhoods have lower kindergarten readiness scores after accounting for other factors. The negative effects of housing problems on kindergarten readiness are partially mediated by child maltreatment incidences, residential instability, and elevated blood lead levels. Communities are advised to pay more attention to distressed housing as a cause of disparities in early child development and school readiness

Housing Crisis Leaves Lasting Imprint on Children in Cleveland

Study finds link between poor housing conditions and kindergarten readiness. Over time, living in substandard housing conditions leads to lower literacy scores for children entering kindergarten. Living in a home that is owned by a speculator, is tax delinquent, or is in foreclosure contributes to lower literacy scores among children entering kindergarten. Living within 500 feet of distressed properties lowers literacy scores among kindergarteners; living in homes farther away (up to 1500 feet) has a smaller, though still negative, effect. Living in a distressed home (either in poor condition or in foreclosure) is associated with a higher risk for child maltreatment, residential instability, and elevated lead levels, all of which affect literacy scores

Policy Recommendations for Meeting the Grand Challenge to Harness Technology for Social Good

This brief was created forSocial Innovation for America’s Renewal, a policy conference organized by the Center for Social Development in collaboration with the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare, which is leading theGrand Challenges for Social Work initiative to champion social progress. The conference site includes links to speeches, presentations, and a full list of the policy briefs

Using hand-draw maps of residential neighbourhood to compute level of circularity and investigate its predictors

Investigating individuals’ Hand-Drawn Residential Neighbourhood (HDRN) maps may help determine some of the basic geometrical properties found in cognitive maps of meaningful geographical spaces. The main objective was to empirically determine an optimal radius size for measuring environmental attributes of the RN when using circular spatial buffers. HDRN maps from the Making Connections study were explored using minimum bounded circles (MBC). Baseline data on 4,742 community-dwelling adults showed that 30% of people drew HDRN that included > 70% of the MBC. We recommend 0.25 miles as an optimum radius size when attempting to measure aspects of the RN. Multivariate linear regressions indicated lower levels of circularity for females, non-Latino-others, for people living longer in their residential neighbourhood, and for large drawn polygons. In contrast, regression results indicated higher levels of circularity for non-Latino-blacks (compared to non-Latino-whites) and those with some college education (compared to those with a bachelors’ degree and beyond). We conclude with advice on best practices for measuring environmental attributes of residential neighbourhoods when using circular spatial buffers