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If one of the goals of macro social work in the United States is to decrease poverty and inequality, by most measures it has largely failed that mission over the past 40 years. After briefly documenting the four-decade rise in inequality and extreme poverty in the United States, three organizing campaigns are highlighted—living wage, Fight for $15, and strikes by public school educators—that fought hard to reverse such trends. A strategy, “bargaining for the common good,” which was implemented across those campaigns, is analyzed as a key ingredient to their success.

Since 1996 the U.S. government has stated the primary purpose of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is to help needy families achieve self-sufficiency. Twenty years after welfare reform...

Most plant pathologists know certain algae can be used as gelling agents in culture media. Pathologists practicing in tropical or subtropical environments also know that some algae damage plants. The five genera in the order Trentepohliales (Chlorophyta) are unique and fascinating. Among other characteristics, they are subaerial, bright orange to red in color, and one genus, Cephaleuros, is a plant pathogen while another, Stomatochroon, is a space parasite. Cephaleuros causes algal spot and includes 17 accepted species. Of these, 13 develop between the cuticle and the epidermis of their hosts and four grow intercellularly. The latter are especially damaging, causing chlorosis and branch dieback. Zoospores and gametes germinate on plant surfaces during the rainy season and probably penetrate through breaks in the host cuticle. Their filamentous growth forms thalli that produce sporangiophores and spherical gametangia the following year. Several species of Cephaleuros have a broad host range and though their damage is usually superficial, it can be economically important on certain crops. Plant stress is the greatest predisposing factor to this algal disease. Management includes providing plants with sufficient moisture and nutrients, modifying cultural and harvesting practices, and planting resistant cultivars when available.

Objective: A total of 6 years after displacement by a Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) project, this research examines residents who returned to the redeveloped community and residents who decided to keep their vouchers and were living in private sector housing. Respondents were compared on the following variables: application process and decision to move back, satisfaction with housing, material hardships, and perception of economic well-being. Method: The study employed a static group comparison research design. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 56 respondents through five focus groups. Results: Residents who moved back to the revitalized public housing were highly satisfied with their housing, had significantly fewer material hardships, and perceived their economic well-being more positively compared to residents remaining in the voucher program. Conclusions: Our results both support and expand upon previous empirical findings on the complex comparisons between ...

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 has probably received more media attention in the past 2 years than it garnered cumulatively over the previous 30 years. Numerous conservative pundits and commentators have blamed the CRA for the subprime crisis and the subsequent worldwide financial meltdown. Most social workers are probably unaware that the CRA is probably responsible for more investment, loans, and wealth creation in low and moderate income neighborhoods than any other single piece of federal legislation over the past 40 years. This article highlights the following features about the CRA that social workers need to know: The CRA was created and passed only because of grassroots community organizing; the CRA has been directly or indirectly related to 8 trillion dollars of investments, mortgage, and small business loans in low income neighborhoods since 1977; community organizing has always been the primary enforcement mechanism of the CRA; cont...

In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined, and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened. In contrast to the last twenty years and the “gilded age” that preceded it, from the time of the first New Deal through the 1970s, the middle class prospered. Wealth and income were more equitably shared in America. This article examines policies that strengthened the middle class during the New Deal, during World War II, and after World War II. These policies strengthened the bargaining power of labor. This article offers suggestions for reviving the middle class now with particular focus on empowering labor.

In December 1994, the mayor of Baltimore signed Council Bill 716, requiring businesses with large city contracts to pay their employees a minimum wage of $6.10 per hour. At the time, this was almost $2.00/hour more than the $4.25 federal minimum wage. The first living wage law in the USA passed as a result of a year-long campaign organized by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and a coalition of faith-based community groups called Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD). As a direct result of the new law, people like Charles Riggs, who cleaned up Oriole Park at Camden Yards, received an almost 50% pay raise. Although Riggs was employed full-time, he had been living in a homeless shelter because he was unable to afford rent out of his minimum wage job (Reynolds & Kern, 2003).

The recent proliferation of community-based responses to urban problems has been characterized by a shift away from protest tactics to more moderate approaches of building community and consensus, developing social capital, and identifying and improving local assets. This case study examines the persistence and effectiveness of protest tactics in a campaign by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now against H&R Block around predatory tax preparation practices. It reveals the potential of direct action, especially when local protests are coordinated nationally. This combination helps to transcend the inherent limits of both community-based activism and national-oriented advocacy efforts.

Using historical and case study methods, this paper analyzes how the organizing staff of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) went from 10% organizers of color in 1970s and 1980s to 64% organizers of color in 2003. Keys to this transformation included experimenting with different organizing models, job descriptions, and recruitment methods; aging and lifestyle changes of senior management; developing a “critical mass” of organizers of color; and an internally organized Caucus of Color. Many of the steps ACORN took to diversify support findings from the business literature on diversity management. With the racial composition of staff now congruent with its membership, ACORN has more than doubled in size, and its organizing seems stronger today than ever before.

Although cohesive neighborhoods are associated with a wide variety of positive outcomes for residents, little research on neighborhood cohesion has been done in multiethnic neighborhoods. This exploratory study combines the administration of Buckner’s Neighborhood Cohesion Index to 50 Latinos and 50 African Americans, with semistructured qualitative interviews with 14 Latino and African American residents. Results from the quantitative cohesion measure indicate a moderate level of cohesion in the neighborhood, with Latinos having a significantly higher degree of attraction to the neighborhood as well as neighborly contact. An analysis of the qualitative interviews indicates differences between the two groups, although both groups agree that mutual aid and respect are keys to cohesion. Even with the social distance between ethnic groups, both groups are willing to work together to improve their neighborhood.

Objective: This study evaluated the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now's (ACORN) efforts to increase the uptake of families claiming the earned income tax credit through door-to-door canvassing and managing free tax preparation clinics in three pilot cities. Method: The mixed-method program evaluation included administrative record review, a telephone survey (N = 1,063), and individual and focus group interviews. Results: During the 2003 tax year, ACORN prepared taxes at no charge for 3,850 families who collected a total of $4 million in earned income tax credit and other tax credits. In two pilot cities, ACORN led all other free sites in number of returns filed. Canvassing and word of mouth were the most productive marketing tools for the free tax preparation sites. Conclusions: Canvassing appears to be effective outreach in getting families to take advantage of free tax preparation. ACORN's approach to combining services and direct action organizing appears to be a good fit and sustainable.

SUMMARY Bureaucratic confusion and client dissatisfaction since the 1996 changes in welfare policy opened opportunities for third party advocacy on behalf of welfare clients. This paper evaluates Los Angeles ACORN's case advocacy program for welfare clients. Outcomes analyzed include client satisfaction with ACORN's advocacy and effects of the program on welfare clients who later became ACORN members. Ninety-one percent of clients surveyed (N = 99) stated they were satisfied with the resolution of their welfare case complaint. Eighty-eight percent of respondents stated ACORN did a better job resolving their problem compared to the welfare department. Unique aspects of the program include peer advocacy and opportunities for welfare recipients to join ACORN and work on welfare policy changes among other issues.

Objective: This study evaluates participant perception of neighborhood, economic, and housing well-being of residents 4 and 5 years after forced relocation from a public housing complex in Atlanta, Georgia. Method: The study used a mixed-method, posttest-only design with two data points. Focus groups with 93 participants combined qualitative, open-ended questions with quantitative measures. Results: Four years after relocation, residents living in homes/apartments found with Section 8 housing vouchers were faring better than residents who moved to other public housing projects. A majority of voucher users believed their house, neighborhood, and overall global living situation had improved since relocation. In the year between the first and second wave of focus groups, 40% of voucher users had moved to a new house/apartment. Moving was associated with residents perceiving their situations improving in many categories. Implications: Our findings suggest HOPE VI developments are more likely to accomplish their objectives if the current administration continues full funding of the voucher program rather than implements the cutbacks it is currently proposing.

Child-care providers are among the lowest paid wage workers in the United States. Nationwide, less than 5 percent of child-care providers are represented by labor unions. This article addresses the question,: How can family child care providers be effectively organized? I describe and analyze Local 880 Service Employees In ternational Union's effort to organize family child-care providers in Illinois. Adapting the grassroots-organizing model that they developed to organize homecare workers, Local 880 has over 2,200 signed authorization cards and over 1,500 members in the family child-care union. Even without formal recognition, the union won a pay increase for providers in 1999 and has filed numerous suc cessful grievances about disputed back pay. Keys to 880's success in organizing family child-care providers were: (1) prior experience in homecare organizing, especially non-NLRB organizing, (2) experi ence with grassroots organizing, and maintaining unions without recognition, and (3) ability to influence state-wide elections and legislative issues by becoming involved in direct politics and join ing coalitions.

SUMMARY. Community challenges force human service agencies tocollaborate in providing services. Such collaborations require practitio-ners to have skills not found in mainstream social work curricula. Thispaper explores how a new MSW program evolved through dialog withcommunity leaders and resulted in a curriculum with a sole concentra-tion of community partnerships. [Article copies available for a fee from TheHaworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2004 byThe Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.] Mindy R. Wertheimer is Director of Field Education, Elizabeth L. Beck is Associ-ate Professor, Fred Brooks is Assistant Professor, and James L. Wolk is Professor andDirector, School of Social Work, Georgia State University.Address correspondence to: Mindy R. Wertheimer, PhD, School of Social Work,Georgia State University, MSC 8L0381, 33 Gilmer Street, SE Unit 8, Atlanta, GA30303-3088 (E-mail: mwertheimer@gsu.edu).

This exploratory case study assesses the impacts of unionizing teachers in 12 child care centers in Seattle, Washington. Open-ended, qualitative interviews with teachers, directors, and parents assessed participants' perspectives on the impact that unionization has had on wages, benefits, working conditions, and turnover in the unionized centers. Participants reported significant changes they attributed to unionizing in the following areas: winning a pilot Career and Wage Ladder which has increased wages, improved benefits including a pension plan and additional teacher planning days, decreased staff turnover, improved teacher/director communication, more systematic policies and procedures, and enhanced teacher ownership of job. Although teachers observed no negative effects, some directors and parents were more ambivalent about union impacts. Specific challenges to widespread child care unionization are discussed.

This cross-sectional study compares 52 working poor families receiving subsidies for child care with 50 demographically matched families drawn from the subsidy waiting lists across three sets of variables: (1) maternal employment and income, (2) child care, and (3) child well-being. Compared to mothers from waiting lists, mothers receiving subsidies for their child’s care were more likely to be employed, spent half as much of their income on child care, and were less likely to be very poor. Compared to children on waiting lists, children receiving subsidies for child care were more likely to be in a formal licensed child care center, have more stable care, and have mothers who were more satisfied with their child care arrangement.

The work requirements in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) set the stage for unprecedented expansion of workfare programs across the nation. Shortly after the PRWORA passed, the Los Angeles chapter of the Asso- ciation of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) began a union-style organizing drive of the 25,000 General Relief (GR) recipi- ents in Los Angeles County's workfare program. Over the past four years the de facto union, in coalition with over 75 allied community, la- bor, and clergy organizations, won numerous substantive progressive policy changes in the workfare program. In a case study format, this paper describes the following innovative organizing practices and how they con- tributed to the workfare policy changes: (a) combining labor and commu- nity organizing strategies, (b) combining conflict tactics with direct service, and (c) developing leadership from the General Relief constitu- ency. (Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: Website: © 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The impacts of a job-finding club for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients required to work were investigated. Dependent measures included welfare recipients’ self-esteem, assertive job-hunting behavior, and perceived barriers to employment. Method: Pretest and posttest data were collected from four 2-week job-finding clubs sponsored by a welfare agency in a suburban county in Georgia. Results: Twenty-five of 40 participants (62.5%) found work during the job-finding club. For those who did not find work, no significant differences were found between pre- and posttest scores on any dependent measure. Conclusion: The only evident difference between the two groups was that unsuccessful job seekers were more than twice as likely (as successful job seekers) to perceive transportation (54% compared to 24%) as their biggest barrier to employment. Policy implications of these results include orienting job clubs to specifically address clients’ perceived barriers to employment.

The occurrence of bullying, victimization, and aggressive victimization was documented in a sample of 5th graders. Bullies comprised about 14% of the sample, whereas aggressive victims and victims comprised, respectively, 5% and 18%. Bullying and aggressive victimization was positively related to yo

After 38 years of longevity (1970 to 2008), including huge growth over its last decade, in 2008 and 2009 the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was rocked by an embezzlement scandal and two controversies and declined precipitously. By the spring of 2010, all city and statewide ACORN operations had either disaffiliated from the national organization or collapsed altogether, and in November 2010 ACORN filed for bankruptcy. Because ACORN was widely considered the nation's largest and most powerful group organizing the poor, the organization's breathtakingly swift destruction warrants analysis. This commentary analyzes one hypothesis that might have contributed to ACORN's vulnerability to smear campaigns: the organization's long-time practice of combining direct action organizing with individual service provision. THE IRONY OF ACORN'S RAPID DEMISE In early 2008, by most empirical measures of organizing strength, ACORN appeared to be a strong and powerful community organization. Over the preceding 10 years, ACORN had been instrumental in numerous campaigns and victories on a wide range of issues such as winning living wage ordinances (Luce, 2009), increasing the minimum wage (Atlas & Dreier, 2006), fighting predatory lending practices of major financial institutions (Hurd, Donner, & Phillips, 2004), winning a guarantee of affordable housing in the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards mega-development (Atlas, 2009) among dozens of other neighborhood, statewide and national victories. ACORN Housing was helping over 6,000 moderate-income families per year purchase their first homes. In 2008 ACORN Service Centers filed income taxes at no charge for over 50,000 people, resulting in over $65 million dollars in Earned Income Tax Credit/Child Tax Credit returns to low-income families (Rathke, 2009). ACORN was considered the only community organization in the United States that had the ability to coordinate campaigns from the neighborhood to cities and states, all the way up to national policies and corporate campaigns (Dreier, 2009). An independent study by Ranghelli (2006) of the National Center for Responsible Philanthropy, using conservative assumptions, estimated that ACORN campaign victories and services over the 10-year period between 1995 and 2004 resulted in over $15 billion of direct economic development for low- and moderate-income ramifies. According to ACORN's former Chief Organizer Wade Rathke (2009), by 2005 ACORN's combined operations (organizing, housing and tax preparation services, research, and voter registration) employed over 1,000 people, in 85 offices; serviced 400,000 dues-paying members; and raised and spent around $100 million dollars a year. It is beyond the scope of this commentary to analyze all the factors that contributed to ACORN's demise, but from spring 2008 to fall 2009 ACORN was rocked by three separate scandals or controversies that resulted in a public relations disaster for the organization. Most foundations decided to stop funding the organization, and dozens of government bodies (city, state, national) voted to stop funding any ACORN-affiliated organization. Although ACORN fired staff and made numerous internal reforms, it was unable to win the public relations battle in both the mainstream and right-wing media. Because two of these issues (an internal embezzlement of almost $1 million and controversies around voter registration drives) have already been analyzed (see Atlas, 2010), this commentary briefly describes and analyzes one aspect of the final controversy that ACORN encountered, the videotape smear campaign conducted by Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe. This analysis addresses this question: Did ACORN's organizing model of combining direct action organizing with service provision make it more vulnerable to smear campaigns? Because O'Keefe has recently institutionalized his model of "citizen journalism," other progressive organizations should try to learn from ACORN's demise to avoid a similar fate. …

Alternaria brassicicola is a successful saprophyte and necrotrophic plant pathogen with a broad host range within the family Brassicaceae. It produces secondary metabolites that marginally affect virulence. Cell wall–degrading enzymes (CDWE) have been considered important for pathogenesis but none of them individually have been identified as significant virulence factors in A. brassicicola. In this study, knockout mutants of a gene, AbVf19, were created and produced considerably smaller lesions than the wild type on inoculated host plants. The presence of tandem zinc-finger domains in the predicted amino acid sequence and nuclear localization of AbVf19-reporter protein suggested that it was a transcription factor. Gene expression comparisons using RNA-seq identified 74 genes being downregulated in the mutant during a late stage of infection. Among the 74 downregulated genes, 28 were putative CWDE genes. These were hydrolytic enzyme genes that composed a small fraction of genes within each family of cellulases, pectinases, cutinases, and proteinases. The mutants grew slower than the wild type on an axenic medium with pectin as a major carbon source. This study demonstrated the existence and the importance of a transcription factor that regulates a suite of genes that are important for decomposing and utilizing plant material during the late stage of plant infection.

The issue of providing individual services historically has been a major dilemma for social action, Alinsky-style community organizations (COs). The literature is replete with examples of confrontational COs that lost their militant edge and mass base and became little more than government-funded social services agencies after engaging in services provision and development activities (see Bobo, Kendall, & Max, 2001; Gittell, 1980; Perlman, 1979; Piven, 1966; Stoecker, 1995a). Most empirical evidence and practice wisdom suggests that COs wishing to maintain a direct action focus should avoid providing individual services. Although some literature suggests that COs can provide services and maintain a political focus (Rubin & Rubin, 2001), this literature offers scant detail on how this is done and few empirical examples of successfully combining Alinsky-style community organizing and services. For much of its 35-year history the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) followed the warnings in the literature and maintained its focus on direct-action confrontational organizing to empower low--and moderate-income citizens. ACORN's original organizing model did not include services as a significant part of the model (see Delgado, 1986; Kest & Rathke, 1979; Staples, 1984). Because most literature documents ACORN's first 15 years rather than its past 18 years of organizing, it is not widely known that ACORN's model has grown more complex and now incorporates services and development activities in many of its offices. This article addresses the question: How can a direct-action CO provide individual services without losing its organizing focus and militant edge? To document ACORN's approach, I present the case of Los Angeles ACORN's recent workfare organizing. From 1997 to 2001 Los Angeles ACORN organized general relief (GR) recipients around a variety of workfare issues. In 1998 ACORN began providing individual advocacy services by means of a telephone hotline for welfare recipients with case problems. From 1998 to the present, ACORN has maintained this these services while organizing direct-action campaigns on welfare issues, tenants rights, predatory lending, child care subsidies, and numerous other issues. The primary aim of this article is to document how ACORN maintained this two-pronged approach without having the services provision take over, redirect, diminish, or fundamentally change their direct-action organizing. LITERATURE REVIEW The tension between providing services to oppressed populations or organizing them to challenge the power structure has been a fundamental dilemma since the beginning of social work. The language of the debate has changed over the years from wholesale versus retail social work (Richmond, 1930), to cause versus function (Lee, 1937), to clinical versus community (Specht & Courtney, 1994), to services versus organizing (Bobo et al., 2001). Although terminology has changed over the years, the fundamental issue is whether it is best for social workers to provide direct services to address immediate problems, or to bring large numbers of oppressed peoples together through organizing and pressure the power structure (typically government bodies or corporations) to make policy changes that will ameliorate individual suffering. A parallel question running through the debate was whether one organization (or social worker) can successfully provide services while organizing for institutional change. Much of this debate has taken the form of a polarized dichotomy, and social workers typically had to decide if they were going to learn and practice macro or micro social work. Although some argue that this is a false dichotomy (Fisher & Karger, 1997; Lewis, 2003; Rubin & Rubin, 2001), most schools of social work have reflected the dichotomy and either specialized in clinical or community practice or offered different tracks within a school. …