Volatility and Change in Suburban Nonprofit Safety Nets.

Rising poverty in suburbs has led to increased interest in how well suburban safety nets function. Apart from public assistance programs, community-based nonprofit health and human service organizations play a central role in suburban efforts to address racial and economic inequalities. Understanding how nonprofit services are distributed across the suburban and urban landscape, therefore, is critical to assessing how communities may be able to address need.

Meeting Older Adults' Food Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons And Challenges from Washington State.

The COVID-19 pandemic threatened the ability of nutrition providers to address food insufficiency among older adults. Findings from Household Pulse Survey data and interviews with 23 service leaders in Washington state during the summer of 2020 point to key organizational practices that should inform future emergency food assistance planning. Organizations deeply connected to and trusted by racially and ethnically diverse, unhoused, and low-income older adults are critical to addressing disparities in food insufficiency.

How Do Employers Belonging to Marginalized Communities Respond to Minimum Wage Increases? The Case of Immigrant-Owned Businesses in Seattle.

Minimum wage opponents often argue that businesses owned by marginalized communities, which include woman-owned, Black-owned, and immigrant-owned businesses, are exceptionally vulnerable to minimum wage increases. Little research has investigated this claim. Using a unique survey of Seattle businesses that includes owners' nativity status and was administered while the city began to phase in its $15 minimum wage ordinance, the authors find that immigrant-owned businesses respond to the higher minimum wage in ways that largely conform to the responses of other businesses.

Access to Early Care and Education in Rural Communities: Implications for Children's School Readiness.

This study links county-level early care and education (ECE) program, economic, and demographic data to child-level data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort of 2010-2011 to examine geographic variation in ECE program participation and provision. We find that public ECE programs, particularly Head Start, occupy a larger role in nonmetropolitan communities than in metropolitan areas. By contrast, children in rural counties are less likely to attend private center-based ECE, and nonprofit childcare program expenditures in rural areas lag.

The Initial Nonprofit Exposure and Response to Seattle's Minimum Wage Ordinance.

Nearly 40 local governments adopted minimum wage rates higher than the federal minimum in the last decade. Research on such laws focuses on employment and price adjustments of for-profit firms. Higher minimum wage rates, however, may pose unique challenges to community-based nonprofit organizations, many of which serve vulnerable communities and have limited ability to modify business practices.

Responding to an Increased Minimum Wage: A Mixed Methods Study of Child Care Businesses during the Implementation of Seattle's Minimum Wage Ordinance.

Low wages are a persistent feature of child care jobs and affect the quality of children's care. In this article, we examine how Seattle's $15 minimum wage affects the local child care sector using three datasets: (1) state administrative records on approximately 200 Seattle-based child care businesses; (2) a longitudinal employer survey of 41 child care centers; and (3) in-depth interviews of 15 Seattle child care center directors. Findings suggest that the increase to $15/hour affects the majority of child care businesses.

Unforeseen consequences: Medicaid and the funding of nonprofit service organizations.

Medicaid reimbursements have become a key source of funding for nonprofit social service organizations operating outside the medical care sector, as well as an important tool for states seeking resources to fund social service programs within a devolving safety net. Drawing on unique survey data of more than one thousand nonprofit social service agencies in seven urban and rural communities, this article examines Medicaid funding of nonprofit social service organizations that target programs at working-age, nondisabled adults. We find that about one-quarter of nonprofit service organizations--mostly providers offering substance abuse and mental health treatment in conjunction with other services--report receiving Medicaid reimbursements, although very few are overly reliant on these funds.

Proximity to service providers and service utilization among welfare recipients: the interaction of place and race.

Currently, welfare programs coordinate a range of services to support work among welfare recipients and help them overcome barriers to employment. This paper considers the relationship between spatial proximity to and utilization of support services among welfare recipients. Accessibility of mental health and substance abuse service providers among welfare recipients is examined in the three-county Detroit metropolitan area and the relationship between mental health service accessibility and mental health service utilization among welfare recipients considered.