Unity out of Adversity: Non-Profit Organizations’ Collaborative Strategies to Serve Immigrants in Bay Area Suburbs

• In Event: 138 - Regular Session. Civil Society Solidarity and Boundaries

Abstract

In recent years, the geography of poverty has significantly shifted from an urban to a suburban setting, and the populations living in the poorer suburbs are increasingly racially diverse, including many who are first generation immigrants. However, within suburban communities, non-profit organizations (NPOs) combatting poverty are working from an infrastructure that is less robust than that of large cities. The combination of these trends begs the question: how does funding and staff capacity differ across urban and suburban NPOs? How do differences in social service infrastructure influence the strategies NPOs use to accomplish their mission? I examine this question through interviews with ten service providers at eight NPOs providing legal aid in the socio-economically and racially diverse city of Oakland and in Contra Costa County – a county where poverty rates have increased, particularly in the suburbs, and where the immigrant population has significantly grown. I find that while a smaller scale of social service infrastructure coincides with lower resources in the suburbs, the under-resourced atmosphere leads to more cohesiveness among a broader set of organizations and institutions. Suburban NPOs can use this cohesiveness to build capacity in their region along with other institutions and actors.

Author

• Dani Carrillo, UC Berkeley