How community-based programs work
This study addresses the strengths and limitations of community-based programs to improve social and physical conditions in low-income neighborhoods. By examining how residents' work, family, and civic lives interact, the author explores the connections between a neighborhood's formal institutional structures and its informal social networks. The analysis is based on the stories of women tenant activists who lived in subsidized apartments owned and managed by a non-profit Community Development Corporation serving an African American and Latino working poor neighborhood in Boston.
A winning combination of strategies
The study concludes that one crucial way in which residents successfully cope with poverty is to intertwine three stability strategies: individual, informal collective, and formal collective. Furthermore, although trust levels are high within residents' small networks of family and friends, they arelow at the broader neighborhood level. This general low level of trust presents formidable challenges to building an organization with active resident participation.
How to strengthen collective actions
These results suggest that grassroots collective action is strengthened when it draws on residents' commitments to their family and occupational goals. Thus, policy and practice should address both local economic and social conditions and support programs that encourage residents to utilize all three stability strategies. Moreover, community-based organizations should be assessed on both their concrete accomplishments and their ability to strengthen and enlarge residents' networks.
