Political Education in Frontline Work: Discussions of Poverty and Community through Services and Organizing

Background and Purpose: Frontline work can be a key moment where community-based organizations (CBOs) not only provide services, but frontline staff also mediate poverty policy through deciding who has access to services and under what conditions (e.g. Brodkin, 2013). In this study, I examine how frontline work can be a site for communicating ideas. I examine frontline work in two hybrid CBOs that combine services with organizing. As organizations that see their services as part of social change (e.g. Hyde, 2000), these organizations could present ideas about the problem of poverty and solutions that differ from national discourse (Stuart, 2016). While dominant ideologies that define poverty as due to individual behavior can be strengthened through frontline work practices (Watkins-Hayes & Kovalsky, 2016), this study looks at how frontline work can also be a space for offering different narratives. Focusing on how political education is part of frontline work that involves services and organizing, I examine the different venues and ways that poverty and other social issues are discussed with community members and the challenges and limitations for these discussions within frontline work.

Methodology: This paper is part of a larger ongoing ethnographic study of poverty knowledge within frontline work in two purposely selected Los-Angeles hybrid community-based organizations. Both organizations combine social services and organizing and were selected due to their critique of traditional service provision, but the organizations differ on whether they have a greater emphasis on service or on organizing and on their approaches to addressing poverty. For this paper, I draw primarily from participant observation and detailed field notes from community organizing and planning meetings and community events at the two organizations with data collection over a 16 month period beginning in January 2018. I also supplement this data with over 15 interviews of organization staff and community members involved with organizing.

Findings: Through memos writing, I have identified different topics that staff discuss with community members, the ways that staff and lead community members present this material, how community members respond, and key challenges. As opposed to a larger leadership program, I discuss how conversations and discussions happen through ongoing interactions and multiple settings. I have identified different topics that staff discuss with community members such as poverty, gentrification, and concepts around community. Through these conversations, staff also contest previous assumptions, such as ideas of deservingness. Staff will face challenges such as limited time, so I discuss how they work within this context.

Significance: I examine the role of political education even when it is not the explicit goal of frontline work. This frontline work occurs within two hybrid organization that offer a different model of service delivery, so this paper helps to identify one aspect of this unique model and potential outcomes. For community organizations that try to reshape ideas about poverty, this paper examines how political education can be part of ongoing interactions, technique and avenues for these discussions, and challenges when contesting dominant narratives in frontline work.