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Abstract
Social workers have long grappled with the tension between social services and social action. Drawing on a qualitative case study, this article examines how a new type of community organization (immigrant worker centers) is navigating this tension. While attempting to maintain an organizing focus, the Great Lakes Worker Center also provided direct services to its members, undocumented immigrants and their families. Analysis suggests that like settlement houses, today’s worker centers demonstrate the synergy between services and action. Current conditions, particularly for vulnerable populations, favor this hybrid approach to community practice that acknowledges individual needs while also pressing for social change.
Notes
1. 1 Definitions of hybrid organizations vary widely and can refer to combining multiple sectors (nonprofit and for-profit) in single organizations; organizations that have different service orientations and client populations; organizations that draw on resources from multiple sources; and organizations that blend decision-making structures (e.g., bureaucratic and collectivist; Minkoff, Citation2002).
2. 2 Bradshaw et al. (Citation1994) also suggested benefits of combining existing models (Alinsky style and feminist organizing) when working with communities of color.
3. 3 Names of the organization and all individuals have been changed, and all identifying information has been removed.
4. 4 These relationships were especially important given the increasingly repressive climate for immigrants during the period of the study. From 2006 to 2011, the United States experienced what is now known as the most aggressive immigration enforcement campaign in modern US history. In 2008 alone, we saw the largest ever workplace raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Camayd-Freixas, Citation2009; Meissner, Kerwin, Chihsti, & Bergeron, Citation2013).
5. 5 All quotes presented in the text are from interviews. Direct quotes from field notes are indicated with a footnote.
6. 6 Interviews with immigrant workers were conducted in Spanish. The author is (English-Spanish) bilingual and achieved certification as a medical interpreter in the State of Washington.
7. 7 GLWC Funding proposal, Citation2006a.
8. 8 GLWC brochure, Citation2006.
9. 9 GLWC flyer, What is a Worker Center?—Spanish, Sep. 2006.
10. 10 GLWC Welcome Statement—Spanish, 2006.
11. 11 Worker Center Initiative meeting minutes, June 30, 2006.
12. 12 This proposal was directed at a private foundation that provides support for community based research. The proposal secured $15,000 for the GLWC from this foundation.
13. 13 This proposal, requesting funds to hire an organizer, was not funded.
14. 14 This proposal, directed at a corporate foundation and focused on hiring an executive director to lead the organizing activities, was funded for $15,000.
15. 15 GLWC funding proposal, Citation2006b.
16. 16 GLWC Funding proposal, Citation2006b.
17. 17 In the instance that a worker had an emergent legal (or other) problem, the person was referred to a volunteer GLWC attorney who was able to provide free consultation and assistance for workers with problems that could not wait until the next monthly meeting.
18. 18 We now know this period constitutes the most aggressive immigration enforcement campaign in modern US history. In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported 391,000 removals of unauthorized persons—up from 291,000 the previous year (Lopez, González-Barrera, & Motel, Citation2011).
19. 19 GLWC funding proposal, Citation2007.
20. 20 By services, I am referring to both tangible and intangible goods that function to help an individual and/or family. See Minkoff (Citation2002): “Services include tangible goods and/or benefits, such as health care, financial aid, individual legal representation, and vocational training. Resources include intangible goods and/or benefits, such as education about legal issues, referral to welfare services, information about relevant issues, and knowledge of other individuals’ experiences” (p. 398).
21. 21 These services included assisting members with consumer issues (utility bills, car insurance), translating documents from English to Spanish, calling a landlord or property manager for help with a housing issue, and legal services unrelated to work.
22. 22 Although not the focus of this article, the issue of filling the service gaps also raised practical issues for GLWC leaders. Specifically, could the GLWC achieve a desirable balance of organizing and services in the given institutional environment? And then there were issues of competence: Although the GLWC may have been a trusted community resource, were volunteers providing high quality services to members?
23. 23 GLWC funding proposal, Citation2006a.
24. 24 Synthesizing previous research on empowerment, Gutiérrez (Citation1990) wrote that “Through advocacy and resource mobilization, the worker and client together ensure that the larger social structure provides what is necessary to empower the larger client group” (p. 152).
25. 25 To some extent, this anxiety may have found its expression in hybridity—specifically, by motivating an ongoing emphasis on ongoing while providing services.
26. 26 For analytical purposes I have separated workers’ comments into these categories, mapping roughly onto services or organizing. However, in the interviews, workers spoke about these activities with more fluidity, moving back and forth between examples.
27. 27 For more information on these organizations, see rocunited.org; garmentworkercenter.org; and www.domesticworkers.org.