Place and Opportunity: Human Services and Public Policy

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Social and economic mobility in the United States is shaped by peoples’ access to work, social services, and economic supports (Chetty & Hendren, 2017; Tourner & Gourevitch, 2018). The three papers in this panel examine how place-based variation in nonprofits and public employment supports shape individuals’ access to human services and economic opportunities. The authors ask how human services can be a bridge to employment, social mobility, and opportunity for economically vulnerable populations in the United States: children, low-income adults with disabilities, and those living in geographically underserved communities. They also investigate the role of place and human services, considering how the interplay between place and service availability can serve as a mechanism for mobility or a mechanism of reproducing inequality. Finally, all three papers deal with specific human services policy areas and provide policy recommendations for strengthening the human services safety net. 

The first paper examines the relationship between nonprofit human services provision and social mobility. It leverages national administrative datasets including Opportunity Insights mobility data drawn from Americans’ tax returns and IRS-990 data that identify nonprofit expenditures. The results reveal the spatial consequences of nonprofit service provision, which is a central consideration for policymakers interested in improving the social mobility of residents in their communities. 

The second paper explores how the availability of employment supports in state-designed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment & Training (E&T) programs impact the labor force participation of low-income adults who are likely subject to SNAP work requirements. The results explore whether states’ investments in employment support translate into improved labor force outcomes among individuals who face additional economic challenges due to disability. The results have implications for federal and state policymaking around employment supports: a key intervention used to support the economic well-being of a population that is categorically ineligible for many public social safety net programs.

The third paper combines interview data with IRS-990 data on nonprofit human services to conduct the first primary data collection in counties that have indicators of being human services deserts. The authors identified counties with $0 of nonprofit human services expenditures in the IRS-990 data over three consecutive years as being possible human services deserts. The authors then interviewed (n=33) health and human services providers and county officials in possible human services desert counties in Georgia and Kansas, two states selected because they have an unusually high number of such counties and represent distinct regions. Preliminary findings suggest that around 70 percent of the counties identified by the IRS-990 data in both Georgia and Kansas are human services deserts, and the most commonly mentioned qualitative theme by providers and county officials was distance and transportation barriers. This project also contributes a new typology of human services deserts. 

Taken together, these projects explore how access to human services – or lack thereof – can impact socio-economic opportunities. Each paper offers implications for policy and practice to address challenges and opportunities in human service provision at the local and state-levels.

Policy Area

• Poverty and Income Policy

Secondary Policy Area

• Family and Child Policy

Chair

• Sarah Charnes, Westat

Discussant

• Daniel Bolger, Southern Methodist University

Individual Presentations

• Civil Society and Upward Mobility: Examining Relationships between Nonprofit Human Service Investment and Place-Based Economic Opportunity - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Scott Allard, University of Washington; Presenting Author: Isaiah Charles Alan Wright, University of Washington

• Exploring associations between SNAP Employment and Training programs and Labor Force Participation among ABAWDs with disabilities - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Jennifer Renee Daniels, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Presenting Author: Jamie Koenig, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Anna Walther, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Nonprofit Human Services in Counties at Risk of Human Services Desert Status - Presenting Author: Shoshana Shapiro, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Aayu Jain, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

• Multigenerational Poverty and Program Participation - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Robert Paul Hartley, Columbia University; Presenting Author: Christopher L. Pulliam, Columbia University

Organizer

• Shoshana Shapiro, University of Wisconsin-Madison