The politics of youth services

Show notesThe story in this episode is composite, drawn from real events. The identifying details have been changed to protect privacy, but the situations and the political contexts are real. The real-world events the story draws on, full citations, and further reading are below.REAL-WORLD EVENTS REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEThe shadow state- The American geographer Jennifer Wolch set out the concept of the shadow state in a 1990 study of the voluntary sector. She used it to describe a layer of voluntary organisations that carry out social services once delivered directly by government, funded and shaped by government through service contracts, while remaining outside the reach of ordinary democratic politics.- The arrangement Wolch described took hold across the United States, Britain, Australia, and other countries through the 1970s and 1980s, as governments moved from delivering services themselves to purchasing them from non-profit and for-profit providers under contract.The non-profit industrial complex- In 2004, the organisation INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence held a conference at the University of California, Santa Barbara, titled The Revolution Will Not Be Funded. The conference, and the 2007 book that followed, gave currency to the term non-profit industrial complex.- The critique describes how dependence on foundation and government funding can channel organisations away from advocacy and structural change toward narrower, measurable, fundable service delivery, professionalising movement work and managing dissent. Contributors drew on the United States non-profit sector, in which more than a million organisations hold tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code.Charities, advocacy, and political activity- In its 2012 federal budget, the Conservative government of Canada provided the Canada Revenue Agency with additional funding, later totalling around 13 million dollars, to audit the political activities of registered charities. Charity law at the time allowed charities to devote up to 10 per cent of their resources to political activities; partisan activity was, and remains, prohibited.- The first wave of audits targeted environmental charities that had criticised government energy and pipeline policy, and later widened to anti-poverty, human rights, international development, and religious charities. Researchers documented an advocacy chill across the sector. The audits were suspended in 2017, and in 2018 a court found the political-activity limits an unjustified restriction on freedom of expression, after which the relevant law was changed.Community control and the Aboriginal community-controlled sector- In July 1971, Aboriginal activists opened the Aboriginal Medical Service in a shopfront on Regent Street in Redfern, Sydney. It was the first Aboriginal community-controlled health service in Australia, founded in response to the racism and neglect Aboriginal people faced in mainstream health services at a time before universal health care.- The service was built on the principle of community control, that it should answer to the Aboriginal community through an elected board rather than to a government department. It struggled with funding in its early years, operating on bank overdrafts and community donations while government payments and decisions were delayed. The model spread, and by the 2010s around 150 Aboriginal community-controlled health services operated across Australia, represented by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.REFERENCES[1] Jennifer R. Wolch, The Shadow State: Government and Voluntary Sector in Transition (New York: The Foundation Center, 1990).[2] INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, ed., The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press, 2007; reissued Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2017).[3] Dylan Rodríguez, “The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex,” in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, edited by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press, 2007).[4] Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “In the Shadow of the Shadow State,” in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, edited by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press, 2007).[5] Clive Hamilton and Sarah Maddison, editors, Silencing Dissent: How the Australian Government Is Controlling Public Opinion and Stifling Debate (Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin, 2007).[6] “Canada Revenue Agency’s Political-Activity Audits of Charities,” CBC News, 5 August 2014, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-revenue-agency-s-political-activity-audits-of-charities-1.2728023.[7] Gareth Kirkby, “An Uncharitable Chill: A Critical Exploration of How Changes in Federal Policy and Political Discourse Are Affecting Advocacy-Oriented Charities” (MA thesis, Royal Roads University, 2014); “Revenue Minister Suspends Political Activity Audits of Charities,” CBC News, 4 May 2017, https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-revenue-agency-political-activity-diane-lebouthillier-audits-panel-report-suspension-1.4099184.[8] “Our History,” Aboriginal Medical Service Co-operative Limited, Redfern, https://amsredfern.org.au; “The Aboriginal Medical Service Redfern: Improving Access to Primary Care,” Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, https://www.racgp.org.au.[9] National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, on the principle of Aboriginal community control, https://www.naccho.org.au.[10] On the early funding history of the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service and the Aboriginal community-controlled sector, see the Redfern Oral History project, http://redfernoralhistory.org, and the published histories of Australia’s Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations.[11] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australia’s Youth (Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare), https://www.aihw.gov.au.[12] On the effects of short-term and competitive funding cycles on community-sector organisations in Australia, see the community-sector research published by the Australian Council of Social Service, https://www.acoss.org.au.FURTHER READINGRuth Wilson Gilmore, Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation (2022). A collection on the state, organising, and the limits of the non-profit form, from one of the contributors to the non-profit industrial complex critique.John Clarke and Janet Newman, The Managerial State: Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare (1997). An account of how managerialism and contracting reshaped the way social welfare is delivered.Mark Considine, Enterprising States: The Public Management of Welfare-to-Work (2001). A study of the contracting of welfare and employment services, with close attention to the Australian case.Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018). A critical account of philanthropy and the management of social change by the powerful.Edgar Villanueva, Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance (2018). An argument about the politics of philanthropic money and a reparative alternative to it.Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) (2020). A short, practical case for mutual aid as an alternative to the charity and non-profit model.All works, organisations, scholars, legislation, and historical events listed above are real and citable. For any source intended for formal academic or professional writing, direct verification against the original publication or institutional record is recommended.About the hostLiv Roe is a civic and political adviser based in Melbourne. She works with businesses, organisations, and individuals on the political and civic context of their work. Book a consultation at livroe.org. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit civicsandcommerce.substack.com