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Our Research ProjectsThe ongoing work of the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy focuses on four topical areas for research:
Products and activities from these research efforts form the substantive content, around which the Roundtable performs its other two primary missions:
Monitoring, Analyzing, and Explaining Developments in Federal and State Law The Roundtable legal team at George Washington University School of Law monitors closely developments of significance involving federal and state constitutional, statutory, and administrative law on the question of government aid to FBOs. Descriptions and analyses of significant legal cases pending, filed or decided; developments in the statutory framework for aid to FBOs, and important agency rule-making or determinations affecting FBOs are the subject of Legal Update reports that are posted and periodically updated on the Roundtable website. An annual State of the Law report summarizes each year’s major legal events, and puts them all in broader perspective. Tracking Policy Developments The Roundtable monitors, examines, and reports on key legislative, regulatory, and policy developments concerning the participation by faith-based organizations in providing social welfare services at national and state/local levels. In addition to covering breaking news and feature interviews on the web site, this includes tracking federal funds dispersed to faith-based organizations in the form of competitive grants and contracts from federal agencies. Our 50-state field network tracks changes in legislative, regulatory and licensing requirements at state and local levels related to faith-based organizations, including their ability to compete for grants or contracts to provide social services. We collect and report information about the form and content of guidance provided to contractors on permissible activities, what contracting agency staffers do in terms of ensuring accountability, and what is known about employment practices of contractors. The Roundtable also monitors and reports on state and local fiscal condition, impacts on the competition for service contracts, and the effects of the fiscal climate on the faith-based initiative. Our purpose is to test the contention that at the very time initiatives would have FBOs do more, the fiscal stringency of federal grants and state and local finances is such that public support is more likely to be harder to get rather than easier. Detailing the Scope of Faith-Based Social Services The Roundtable is conducting a national survey of faith-based organizations to directly assess the scope of their involvement in, knowledge about, and capacity to undertake additional social services. Taking the local social service system as the unit of analysis, the Roundtable is examining the level and type of involvement faith-based social service providers have played in several selected local areas where second-order devolution through reform of public assistance and related programs have increased opportunities for engagement by community service organizations. American missions in Eastern Europe, the Middle-East, and on continental Africa often rely on religious or religiously-affiliated organizations to reach those in need. These organizations present ready partners, but their religious traditions may also produce challenges. The Roundtable is examining the scope and role of religious or religiously-affiliated organizations in U.S. international aid programs financed with public or private sources. Gauging the Effectiveness of Faith-Based Social Services Although there is anecdotal evidence on some programs and a host of research connecting levels of individual or family religiosity with a range of good outcomes, it remains true that little empirical analysis has been conducted to date on the effectiveness of FBO programs. Studies that examine the role played by faith in the quality and effectiveness of services are sorely needed. The Roundtable has developed strong instrumentation for gauging the faith character of religious and religiously-affiliated social service providers, and performed studies using matched-pair designs comparing faith-based to secular nonprofit service organizations providing: intermediate-term shelter services with case management for homeless families (Michigan), employment and training for welfare clients (Indiana), responsible parenting programs (Mississippi), and residential substance abuse treatment (Washington and Oregon). A complimentary benchmarking study draws on existing administrative data maintained by federal oversight agencies to compare program characteristics and performance, based on multiple measures, of a large number of “church-related” nursing homes and home health agencies to other nonprofit and government service providers located throughout the country. The comparative effectiveness study, now underway, integrates information obtained through field research, the analysis of administrative records held by government agencies, and surveys of service providers in order to analyze differences in performance across faith-based and secular providers of workforce development and outpatient substance abuse treatment in selected states. The study will enable policy makers to know, in considerable detail: the characteristics and capacities of FBOs and secular agencies of different types; whether these different kinds of organizations serve different people and provide different kinds of services; whether and how the presence of FBOs in local human service systems affects the activities of other agencies or one another; and how, after controlling for the effects of other influences, FBOs and secular agencies compare on widely used measures of service performance. |
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