The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "social service organizations" ...
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Inside the UFW
This series takes a look at what the United Farm Workers have become since it was founded over 40 years ago by Cesar Chavez and others. They found that the UFW is not a union in the typical sense; it has not really been able to raise wages for workers or improve working conditions. It has become, instead, a collection of social-service organizations, some of them for profit, some non-profit, for farm workers. Family members of the UFW founders have often inherited leadership roles and sometimes the money which is donated to various social service organizations is not well accounted for.
Tags: Organized labor; farm workers; immigrant labor; Hispanics; Latinos; not for profit organizations; NGO's; Dolores Huerta; union pension plans
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Building a Life, Paycheck to Paycheck
In this seven-day series, reporters at The Oklahoman look at the sources of poverty, unemployment, and the lasting effects on Oklahoma residents. This in-depth investigation not only identifies some of the major causes of unemployment in the state, but also puts a face on the working poor, highlighting four Oklahoma residents who struggle to make it. According to the series, a major source of unemployment came from a shift from manufacturing to service jobs. As a result of the stories, there was outpour of help in the community as well as a community forum for residents to share ideas and experiences.
Tags: health care; unemployment; working poor; social service organizations; Citizens League of Oklahoma; service economy; living wage
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The Nonprofit Gold Rush
As part of the San Francisco Bay Guardian's annual Freedom of Information issue, this investigation looks into the world of nonprofits and their place in public services and social programs. Every year, nonprofit organizations bid for contracts and provide services which account for 10 percent of San Francisco's spending, and 20 percent of its General Fund. The problem lies in tracking how the money is spent and where it goes. In some cases, nonprofit organizations have diverted public money to finance political campaigns.
Tags: FOI; nonprofit contracts; public services; outsourcing; privatization; social programs
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Insult and Injury
The disability benefits program run by the Social Security Administration is hurting scores of people it is supposed to be helping. Because of massive delays in Social Security's processing of claims, disabled workers are losing their cars, homes and other possessions. The system also relies on questionable medical exams to make decisions on disability claims.
Tags: Social Security Advisory Board; Social Security Advisory Service; National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives; Social Security Administration; disability benefits; disability claims; North Carolina Disability Determination Services; disabled workers; social security benefits; North Carolina Division of Aging; disability application
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Opportunity of Exploitation?
These stories deal with how a company, Maxi Staff Inc., used promises of good pay, great housing and the chance to escape poverty and high unemployment to recruit laborers for Puerto Rico to work in U.S. meat processing plants. The stories revealed how, once they were in the United States, the laborers' dreams turned to dust and they found themselves in an unfavorable economic situation. The company charged recruits for the recruits' flights to the U.S. They were put in substandard and unsanitary housing. Workers made less money than they had originally been told, often making less than $100 for a 40-hour week. Recruits who fell ill or got injured on the job were fired and evicted from their housing with 48 hours notice.
Tags: Maxi Staff Inc.; poverty; unemployment; Puerto Rican Laborers; U.S. meat processing plants; U.S. Department of Labor; Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration; Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources; Ronell Industries; Empire Kosher; Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry; Catholic Social Services; Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations; Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church; U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division; OSHA; Puerto Rican recruits; Pennsylvania Statewide Latino Coalition
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Sweetheart Deal
A program meant to help nonprofit housing organizations ended up being used by developers to make quick profits off government tax breaks. In this story by the Dallas Observer, Virginia McGuire promised a variety of social programs and other amenities when she took over the Williams Run apartment complex. Two years later, she profits heavily through her "nonprofit" and the services never materialized. The loophole is causing Texas legislators to go back and reexamine the issue of property tax abatements for nonprofit.
Tags: taxes; property taxes; nonprofit; tax loopholes; developers; low income housing; housing; low income; tax abatements
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State of Pain
This story provides examples of the confusion new laws and regulations regarding Medicaid have brought to the state of Missouri. Social Workers have become overwhelmed by the process, there are never ending cases, and they are getting too may referrals. Often times the vast number of calls coming in to social workers, force them to close older projects to new clients on several occasions.
Tags: Medicaid; MC + Consumer Advocacy Project; Missouri Department of Social Services; DSS; social worker; Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act; Children's Health Insurance Program; Missouri State Workers Union Local 6355; Medicaid-expansion laws; Reform Organization for Welfare
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Know Justice, Know Peace
Crogan tells the ins and outs of the "... chilly reaction by officials to the announcement of a citywide gang truce in April 1992 by Bloods and Crips peacemakers. Since that time, local government has failed to provide either political of financial support to bolster the momentous agreement, perhaps squandering a rare window of opportunity to stop what amounts to urban street warfare among the city's minority youth....There was also the published Bloods-Crips proposal to the city which circulated in South-Central, including $2 billion for infrastructure, $700 million for educations, $6 million for Neighborhood Watch patrols $20 million for economic redevelopment, and $1 billion for social-service and recreation programs. In exchange, the so-called 'Bloods-Crips Organization' promised to 'ask drug lords to invest their monies in L.A. area businesses and properties and to stop their drug trade'".
Tags: gangs; Watts; youth violence; blacks; LAPD; Los Angeles Police Department; projects; hood war; grassroots; South-Central; crime; CYA; California Youth Authority
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AARP: Nonprofit or 'Big Profit'?
The Washington Post National Weekly Edition reports that "The American Association of Retired Persons, the powerful advocate for the nation's elderly, claims tax-exempt status as a nonprofit organization. But it also is a big business... These commercial operations have been so successful that the group has become embroiled in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over whether it owes millions of dollars in taxes each year."
Tags: IRS AARP Congress Medicare Social Security not-for-profit non-profit