COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

undesirable consequences; it can preclude innovative strategies and instead demand
adherence to rigid guidelines and traditional approaches.” The social service programs
that facilitate social change often have a clinical and programmatic approach. The social
service programs give little or no consideration to how residents perceive problems or the
solutions they prefer (Bennett 1995:78). “By becoming agents—even appendages of the
state, many non-profits are now heavily dependent on the state and increasingly are
subject to many of the same problems that bedevil public agencies—they scramble for
government dollars and serve as mediator between impersonal institutions and the
individual” (Savas 2002:90).
In sum, social service programs conducted by non-profit organizations and city
and county programs are assumed to have an analytical approach, incorporating
collection and analysis of data, which result in a program with goals, objectives, and
tasks (Bennett 1995:77-78). It is largely believed that these programs will be successful
in helping to reach a goal, which will in turn, benefit the overall condition of the
community.
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