Policy Press
Ten Faith-based organisations and welfare provision in Northern Ireland and North America: whose agenda?
Abstract
In the US, the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives pursues a policy that includes adjusting the law to allow faith-based and community organisations to compete for federal funding, eliminating barriers to such organisations being included in the provision of social services, and encouraging greater corporate and philanthropic support for faith-based and community organisations through public education and outreach activities. In the UK, the Faith Communities Unit has a similar trend and also marks a significant step towards involving representatives of the major world faiths found in Britain in policy development. This chapter analyses the developments in government support for faith-based welfare provision in the US. It presents an overview of a similar trend towards government utilisation of the experience, skills, and diversity of faith communities in the UK. It discusses the Northern Ireland context for faith-based voluntary action. While in both the US and in Britain several churches, religious bodies, and faith groups compete and coexist, especially in the multicultural urban areas, this is less true of Northern Ireland. The faith-based organisation and the congregation will usually be from the Christian tradition. Churches form the largest voluntary institutions in Northern Ireland, with the largest voluntary economies in terms of money and time and probably the richest resources to bring to bear on some of the most intractable problems of the present.
Abstract
In the US, the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives pursues a policy that includes adjusting the law to allow faith-based and community organisations to compete for federal funding, eliminating barriers to such organisations being included in the provision of social services, and encouraging greater corporate and philanthropic support for faith-based and community organisations through public education and outreach activities. In the UK, the Faith Communities Unit has a similar trend and also marks a significant step towards involving representatives of the major world faiths found in Britain in policy development. This chapter analyses the developments in government support for faith-based welfare provision in the US. It presents an overview of a similar trend towards government utilisation of the experience, skills, and diversity of faith communities in the UK. It discusses the Northern Ireland context for faith-based voluntary action. While in both the US and in Britain several churches, religious bodies, and faith groups compete and coexist, especially in the multicultural urban areas, this is less true of Northern Ireland. The faith-based organisation and the congregation will usually be from the Christian tradition. Churches form the largest voluntary institutions in Northern Ireland, with the largest voluntary economies in terms of money and time and probably the richest resources to bring to bear on some of the most intractable problems of the present.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables, figures, maps and plates v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Foreword: Beyond the shadow state? xii
- Contemporary landscapes of welfare: the ‘voluntary turn’? 1
- A ‘new institutional fix’? The ‘community turn’ and the changing role of the voluntary sector 15
- Renewal or relocation? Social welfare, voluntarism and the city 33
- Voluntarism and new forms of governance in rural communities 53
- New times, new relationships: mental health, primary care and public health in New Zealand 73
- Informal and voluntary care in Canada: caught in the Act? 91
- Competition, adaptation and resistance: (re)forming health organisations in New Zealand’s third sector 115
- The difference of voluntarism: the place of voluntary sector care homes for older Jewish people in the United Kingdom 135
- Values, practices and strategic divestment: Christian social service organisations in New Zealand 153
- Faith-based organisations and welfare provision in Northern Ireland and North America: whose agenda? 173
- Government restructuring and settlement agencies in Vancouver: bringing advocacy back in 191
- Developing voluntary community spaces and Ethnicity in Sydney, Australia 209
- The voluntary spaces of charity shops: workplaces or domestic spaces? 231
- The changing landscape of voluntary sector counselling in Scotland 247
- Volunteering, geography and welfare: a multilevel investigation of geographical variations in voluntary action 267
- Reflections on landscapes of voluntarism 285
- Index 295
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables, figures, maps and plates v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Foreword: Beyond the shadow state? xii
- Contemporary landscapes of welfare: the ‘voluntary turn’? 1
- A ‘new institutional fix’? The ‘community turn’ and the changing role of the voluntary sector 15
- Renewal or relocation? Social welfare, voluntarism and the city 33
- Voluntarism and new forms of governance in rural communities 53
- New times, new relationships: mental health, primary care and public health in New Zealand 73
- Informal and voluntary care in Canada: caught in the Act? 91
- Competition, adaptation and resistance: (re)forming health organisations in New Zealand’s third sector 115
- The difference of voluntarism: the place of voluntary sector care homes for older Jewish people in the United Kingdom 135
- Values, practices and strategic divestment: Christian social service organisations in New Zealand 153
- Faith-based organisations and welfare provision in Northern Ireland and North America: whose agenda? 173
- Government restructuring and settlement agencies in Vancouver: bringing advocacy back in 191
- Developing voluntary community spaces and Ethnicity in Sydney, Australia 209
- The voluntary spaces of charity shops: workplaces or domestic spaces? 231
- The changing landscape of voluntary sector counselling in Scotland 247
- Volunteering, geography and welfare: a multilevel investigation of geographical variations in voluntary action 267
- Reflections on landscapes of voluntarism 285
- Index 295
