Latino Advocacy And Welfare Reform

Centro Journal
City University of New York. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños
centro-journal@hunter.cuny.edu
ISSN: 1538-6279
LATINOAMERICANISTAS

2003
María Josefa Canino-Arroyo
REFLECTIONS ON LATINO ADVOCACY AND WELFARE REFORM IN NEW
JERSEY
Centro Journal, spring, año/vol. XV, número 001
City University of New York. Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños
New York, Latinoamericanistaspp. 176-195

CENTRO Journal

7

Volume xv Number 1
spring 2003

Reflections on Latino Advocacy
and Welfare Reform
in New Jersey
María Josefa Canino-Arroyo

ABSTRACT

This article explores the political and social dimensions of Latino
community-based advocacy, focusing on the actors’ effectiveness,
the linkages between the advocacy organization and state
policymakers, andnegotiation and decision-making in matters
related to community advocacy. The tension between advocacy
and the brokering of services emerges as a central role dilemma
for these identity-based nonprofits. This raises several issues,
including the potential for cooptation of advocacy leadership,
whose Latino agencies are almost completely dependent on state
and local government for 75 percent oftheir revenues.
[Key words: Latinos, advocacy, community-based organizations,
welfare reform, Latino nonprofits]

[ 177 ]

YCACOVDA

Introduction

to any proposed measures that would limit the eligibility of services only to citizens
and severely restrict the means for achieving self-sufficiency:

Three primary research questions guided this exploratory investigation of Latino
advocacyand welfare reform in New Jersey:
1. How do the major actors assess the effectiveness of Latino
nonprofit advocacy?
2. What is the interface between Latino nonprofits and state
policymakers on the matters related to welfare reform
(Work First NJ)?
3. How do Latino nonprofits negotiate/decide/plan for matters
related to advocacy?
National welfare reform was codified in The PersonalResponsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA—P.L. 104–193) signed in August 1996.
As a major piece of the devolution movement, the new legislation replaced Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and provided a block grant to the states.
Sharp cutbacks were made in some of the most basic assistance programs needed by
indigent families, children, the elderly, the physicallychallenged, and documented
immigrants.1 Under the new Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), states
were to require work in exchange for cash assistance. Cash assistance was to be
temporary, time limited, and linked to demonstrable evidence that adult recipients
find work as soon as possible.
Latino2 social service organizations expected the new federal proposals and state
counterpartsto disproportionately affect their constituencies, especially families
and children. In New Jersey, the Hispanic Association (HANJ)3 invited its twenty-six
member agencies in May 1996 to “retreat” in order to conduct a collective and
critical analysis of the state’s proposed plan for welfare reform, entitled Work First
New Jersey.4 Established in 1991 as an umbrella organization, HANJ firstassessed the
potential impact of Work First on the state’s growing Latino/a population. Over three
day-long sessions, they examined New Jersey’s proposed 5-year lifetime cap on
welfare benefits, the new limits on eligibility requirements, the reduction of childcare
and health services, and mandatory “workfare” as a condition for receiving public
assistance. An examination of the missionstatements of New Jersey’s Latino/a
nonprofits reveals that these agencies have a uniformly overarching commitment
to improving the conditions and future prospects of Latino/a state residents as well
as constituent newcomers.
Hispanics comprise 13.3 percent of New Jersey’s total population and number
nearly 1.1 million in contrast to 9.6 percent and nearly 740,000 in 1990—a growth
of 51 per cent...