Sponsor
Portland State University. School of Urban and Public Affairs
First Advisor
Carl Abbott
Term of Graduation
Fall 1996
Date of Publication
Fall 11-7-1996
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Studies
Department
Urban Studies
Language
English
Subjects
Community organization -- Oregon -- Portland, Community organization, Oregon -- Portland
Physical Description
1 online resource (2, viii, 427 pages)
Abstract
In 1835, Alexis deTocqueville acknowledged in Democracy in America that the "intellectual and moral associations" of the United States were vital to its social, economic, and political health. Citizen voluntarism in the United States begins with the neighborliness of its early history and branches out through a bewildering variety of nonprofit organizations and voluntary associations. Throughout the history of the United States churches have played a vital role in civic volunteerism and politics. In the inner-urban core of America's largest cities, churches are frequently the last institution to leave, long after other social and economic institutions have fled. The call of recent presidential administrations for increased participation by churches and religious institutions in social welfare provision and the establishment of church liaisons in federal Departments, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, underscore the role churches play in modern society as providers of human and institutional resources in vulnerable neighborhoods and communities.
This investigation is an imbedded case-study of two faith-based community organizations in Portland, Oregon: the Albina Ministerial Alliance (AMA) and the Portland Organizing Project (POP). Robert Fisher (1994) argues that social, economic, and political conditions contribute to the emergence of three basic types of community- or neighborhood-based organizations. This study explores two of Fisher's types; namely, social welfare and political activist. In this study I argue that these two organizations are representative of a unique category of community organizations which may be called faith-based community organizations.
Initially this study aimed to explore attributes of effective community-based organizations, however, interviews, archival material, and observation revealed thal members of both organizations as well as organizational mission statements and public sentiment define these as faith-based community organizations. Other community-based organizations in Portland, not explicitly faith-based, also attract members who act on religious convictions, but the AMA and POP make those convictions explicit and display unique characteristics which set them apart from other social welfare or social action community organizations, Throughout the course of this investigation it became increasingly apparent that it was not enough to acknowledge and explore faith as just one important dimension, instead, faith is the defining dimension which informed all other dimensions of these two organizations.
In this investigation I addressed concepts common to both Christian Theology and Social Science. By using both perspectives I developed a description of a specific type of community organization called faith-based. I argue that the attributes of effectiveness of these two organizations are attached to seven core concepts related to their self-concept as faith-based community organizations, namely, faith, power, community, mission, organization, leadership, and reputation. The results of this study conclude that the unique characteristics of faith-based organizations allow such organizations a place to stand from which to leverage social, economic, and political resources vital to the health of vulnerable neighborhoods and communities.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43208
Recommended Citation
White, Richard, "Faith, Hope, and Leverage: Attributes of Effective Faith-Based Community Organizations" (1996). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6790.
Comments
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