The New Role of Community-Based Agencies

✍ Scribed by Daniel V. Folkman; Kalyani Rai

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Weight: 151 KB
• Volume: 1999
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1052-2891
• DOI: 10.1002/ace.8306

✦ Synopsis

The purpose of this chapter is to describe how community-based literacy programs are responding to changes in their environment caused, in part, by recent welfare reform legislation. This inquiry represents a significant step in understanding the impact of welfare reform initiatives on community-based literacy programs. Although there is a large and growing body of literature on welfare reform in this country, there is little on the impact these reforms are having on the community-based agencies that deliver adult literacy education. The specific question addressed here is, "In what ways, if any, have the roles and functions of community-based agencies changed in the delivery of literacy programs as a result of recent changes in welfare reform legislation?"

We begin our chapter with a brief background of the welfare-to-work movement in Wisconsin, followed by a summary of the experiences of four community-based adult literacy program in Milwaukee. We then discuss how the staff at these agencies are engaged in a reassessment of their role and mission as providers of literacy education. We conclude the chapter with a framework that describes the challenges and tensions communitybased agencies are negotiating in this critical reassessment period.