Building the Bridge from Client to Citizen: A Community Toolbox for Welfare Reform

Is "welfare reform " a community issue? Absolutely, most community activists would say. But can communities do anything about welfare reform? Probably not, argue many community leaders, not at the local level: at most, we can organize and advocate for a more generous set of policies at the federal and state levels. But a closer look at emerging community-building efforts reveals a significently different answer. Around the country, inventive community builders are creating local approaches that could powerfully affect the ways in which welfare reform unfolds in the next few years. What can these community builders contribute to this moment of reform, a moment filled with both intense fears and real possibilities? Is it possible that the "tools" being invented and adapted for rebuilding troubled communities could also provide useful ways for citizens to support the journey from welfare to work? Consider, for example, the five tools described in Figure 1 that are emerging as a kind of starter kit for a Community-Building Toolbox. In the discussion that follows, we will provide a somewhat fuller introduction to each of these five tools, some examples of their usefulness, and their potential application in the context of welfare reform