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Public Dollars for Public Good

NonProfit Quarterly

What do community organizing calls for police abolition and recent federal public investments like the American Rescue Plan Act (more popularly known as ARPA) have in common? Public investments like ARPA have reawakened a commitment by politicians to use our dollars to improve access to quality housing, schools, and jobs.

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The Economic Case against Work Requirements

NonProfit Quarterly

Image credit: AndreyPopov on istock.com Work requirements—or requiring people to find employment in order to access public benefits—force people to prove that they deserve a social safety net. But where did they come from, and why are they still a central part of economic policy today?

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Shifting the Harmful Narratives and Practices of Work Requirements

NonProfit Quarterly

Image credit: Drazen Zigic on istock.com Work requirements—or requiring people to find employment in order to access public benefits—force people to prove that they deserve a social safety net. But where did they come from, and why are they still a central part of economic policy today? So, what keeps them alive today?

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Work Requirements Are Rooted in the History of Slavery

NonProfit Quarterly

Image credit: Ron Lach on pexels.com Work requirements—or requiring people to find employment in order to access public benefits—force people to prove that they deserve a social safety net. But where did they come from, and why are they still a central part of economic policy today?

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??How Community-Based Public Space Can Build Civic Trust: Lessons from Akron

NonProfit Quarterly

Many times, government and nonprofit representatives had come to Starleen’s Summit Lake neighborhood and indicated that things were going to improve, but not much ever came of it. “My Ongoing neglect and isolation led to entrenched, concentrated poverty and a growing distrust of civic leaders. My first thought was, ‘Here we go.

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Social Housing: How a New Generation of Activists Are Reinventing Housing

NonProfit Quarterly

Image Credit: RDNE Stock project on pexels.com What is social housing? But to make it more than just a slogan, you need policies and institutions to make that right into a reality. Not so long ago, social housing was rarely discussed in the United States. But that hasn’t stopped movements from pushing.

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Nonprofits as Battlegrounds for Democracy

NonProfit Quarterly

While the title of the book might belie the scope of inquiry, Dunning makes the case that using nonprofits as a “tool for addressing urban problems” has led to a form of “urban governance” that uses private organizations to fulfill public, democratic rights. Dunning smartly points out that this approach turned rights into privilege.