Fred Brooks
Biographic Data
| ID | 3620971 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fred Brooks |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fred |
| FAMILY NAME | Brooks |
| SIGNATURE | BROOKS F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgia State University |
| ORCID | 0009-0005-1892-2518 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Tanf Leavers and Debt: An Exploratory Study From Georgia
This exploratory study measured the types and amounts of debt experienced by families in Georgia that exited Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) between 2009 and 2015. The research employed a cross-sectional, descriptive, survey research design. A sample of 87 participants was interviewed individually and self-reported their levels of consumer debt. The median level of debt across the entire sample was $7,000. The largest category of d…
The association between hunger-coping economic tradeoffs and food insecurity among female recipients of charitable food assistance
From Class Assignment to Organizing Your Neighborhood: One MSW Student’s Journey
This article documents how an MSW student in an introductory community practice course took her class assignment and over the course of two years revitalized, democratized, and transformed a sclerotic, corporate-run Home Owners Association (HOA). While the community analysis assignment required the student to interview six of her neighbors, the resulting increase in social capital in the neighborhood led, over the next two years, to the student b…
Tanf leavers and economic self-sufficiency: Results from a study in Georgia
Since 1996 the U.S. government has stated the primary purpose of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is to help needy families achieve self-sufficiency. Twenty years after welfare reform this cross-sectional, survey study tests this proposition with a sample of 60 former TANF recipients in Georgia. Applying three different operational definitions of economic self-sufficiency (ESS), between 4% and 17% of respondents were self-sufficient…
Voucher Users and Revitalized Public-Housing Residents 6 Years After Displacement
Objective: A total of 6 years after displacement by a Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) project, this research examines residents who returned to the redeveloped community and residents who decided to keep their vouchers and were living in private sector housing. Respondents were compared on the following variables: application process and decision to move back, satisfaction with housing, material hardships, and perception of …
Why You Should Care About the Threatened Middle Class
In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined and the gap between the middle class and the wealthy has widened. We explain how this is bad for democracy, the economy, and the aggregate health of the nation. We examine the governmental policies and interventions that increased the middle class following the depression and maintained its vigor through the post-World War II period. The impetus fo…
In Defense of the Community Reinvestment Act
In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 has probably received more media attention in the past 2 years than it garnered cumulatively over the previous 30 years. Numerous conservative pundits and commentators have blamed the CRA for the subprime crisis and the subsequent worldwide financial meltdown. Most social workers are probably unaware that the CRA is probably responsible for more investme…
Inequality and Its Discontents
In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined, and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened. In contrast to the last twenty years and the "gilded age" that preceded it, from the time of the first New Deal through the 1970s, the middle class prospered. Wealth and income were more equitably shared in America. This article examines policies that strengthened the middle class during the N…
Don’t Be a Blockhead: Acorn, Protest Tactics, and Refund Anticipation Loans
The recent proliferation of community-based responses to urban problems has been characterized by a shift away from protest tactics to more moderate approaches of building community and consensus, developing social capital, and identifying and improving local assets. This case study examines the persistence and effectiveness of protest tactics in a campaign by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now against H&R Block around pred…
Acorn's Accelerated Income Redistribution Project: A Program Evaluation
Objective: This study evaluated the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now's (ACORN) efforts to increase the uptake of families claiming the earned income tax credit through door-to-door canvassing and managing free tax preparation clinics in three pilot cities. Method: The mixed-method program evaluation included administrative record review, a telephone survey (N = 1,063), and individual and focus group interviews. Results: Durin…
African American and Latino Perceptions of Cohesion in a Multiethnic Neighborhood
Although cohesive neighborhoods are associated with a wide variety of positive outcomes for residents, little research on neighborhood cohesion has been done in multiethnic neighborhoods. This exploratory study combines the administration of Buckner's Neighborhood Cohesion Index to 50 Latinos and 50 African Americans, with semistructured qualitative interviews with 14 Latino and African American residents. Results from the quantitative cohesion m…
Resident Perceptions of Housing, Neighborhood, and Economic Conditions After Relocation From Public Housing Undergoing Hope VI Redevelopment
Objective: This study evaluates participant perception of neighborhood, economic, and housing well-being of residents 4 and 5 years after forced relocation from a public housing complex in Atlanta, Georgia. Method: The study used a mixed-method, posttest-only design with two data points. Focus groups with 93 participants combined qualitative, open-ended questions with quantitative measures. Results: Four years after relocation, residents living i…
New Turf for Organizing: Family Child Care Providers
Child-care providers are among the lowest paid wage workers in the United States. Nationwide, less than 5 percent of child-care providers are represented by labor unions. This article addresses the question,: How can family child care providers be effectively organized? I describe and analyze Local 880 Service Employees In ternational Union's effort to organize family child-care providers in Illinois. Adapting the grassroots-organizing model that…
A Program Evaluation of Los Angeles Acorn's Welfare Case Advocacy
Bureaucratic confusion and client dissatisfaction since the 1996 changes in welfare policy opened opportunities for third party advocacy on behalf of welfare clients. This paper evaluates Los Angeles ACORN's case advocacy program for welfare clients. Outcomes analyzed include client satisfaction with ACORN's advocacy and effects of the program on welfare clients who later became ACORN members. Ninety-one percent of clients surveyed (N = 99) state…
Community Partnerships: An Innovative Model of Social Work Education and Practice
Community challenges force human service agencies to collaborate in providing services. Such collaborations require practitioners to have skills not found in mainstream social work curricula. This paper explores how a new MSW program evolved through dialog with community leaders and resulted in a curriculum with a sole concentration of community partnerships
Impacts of child care subsidies on family and child well-being
Evaluation of a Job-Finding Club for Tanf Recipients: Psychosocial Impacts
Objective: The impacts of a job-finding club for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients required to work were investigated. Dependent measures included welfare recipients’ self-esteem, assertive job-hunting behavior, and perceived barriers to employment. Method: Pretest and posttest data were collected from four 2-week job-finding clubs sponsored by a welfare agency in a suburban county in Georgia. Results: Twenty-five of 40 pa…
Innovative Organizing Practices: Acorn's Campaign in Los Angeles Organizing Workfare Workers
The work requirements in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) set the stage for unprecedented expansion of workfare programs across the nation. Shortly after the PRWORA passed, the Los Angeles chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) began a union-style organizing drive of the 25,000 General Relief (GR) recipients in Los Angeles County's workfare program. Over the past fo…
School bullies, victims, and aggressive victims: Factors relating to group affiliation and victimization in early adolescence.
The occurrence of bullying, victimization, and aggressive victimization was documented in a sample of 5th graders. Bullies comprised about 14% of the sample, whereas aggressive victims and victims comprised, respectively, 5% and 18%. Bullying and aggressive victimization was positively related to yo
Impacts of child care subsidies on family and child well-being
Resident Perceptions of Housing, Neighborhood, and Economic Conditions After Relocation From Public Housing Undergoing Hope VI Redevelopment
Objective: This study evaluates participant perception of neighborhood, economic, and housing well-being of residents 4 and 5 years after forced relocation from a public housing complex in Atlanta, Georgia. Method: The study used a mixed-method, posttest-only design with two data points. Focus groups with 93 participants combined qualitative, open-ended questions with quantitative measures. Results: Four years after relocation, residents living i…
Community Partnerships: An Innovative Model of Social Work Education and Practice
Community challenges force human service agencies to collaborate in providing services. Such collaborations require practitioners to have skills not found in mainstream social work curricula. This paper explores how a new MSW program evolved through dialog with community leaders and resulted in a curriculum with a sole concentration of community partnerships
In Defense of the Community Reinvestment Act
In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 has probably received more media attention in the past 2 years than it garnered cumulatively over the previous 30 years. Numerous conservative pundits and commentators have blamed the CRA for the subprime crisis and the subsequent worldwide financial meltdown. Most social workers are probably unaware that the CRA is probably responsible for more investme…
Don’t Be a Blockhead: Acorn, Protest Tactics, and Refund Anticipation Loans
The recent proliferation of community-based responses to urban problems has been characterized by a shift away from protest tactics to more moderate approaches of building community and consensus, developing social capital, and identifying and improving local assets. This case study examines the persistence and effectiveness of protest tactics in a campaign by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now against H&R Block around pred…
Innovative Organizing Practices: Acorn's Campaign in Los Angeles Organizing Workfare Workers
The work requirements in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) set the stage for unprecedented expansion of workfare programs across the nation. Shortly after the PRWORA passed, the Los Angeles chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) began a union-style organizing drive of the 25,000 General Relief (GR) recipients in Los Angeles County's workfare program. Over the past fo…
Voucher Users and Revitalized Public-Housing Residents 6 Years After Displacement
Objective: A total of 6 years after displacement by a Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) project, this research examines residents who returned to the redeveloped community and residents who decided to keep their vouchers and were living in private sector housing. Respondents were compared on the following variables: application process and decision to move back, satisfaction with housing, material hardships, and perception of …
African American and Latino Perceptions of Cohesion in a Multiethnic Neighborhood
Although cohesive neighborhoods are associated with a wide variety of positive outcomes for residents, little research on neighborhood cohesion has been done in multiethnic neighborhoods. This exploratory study combines the administration of Buckner's Neighborhood Cohesion Index to 50 Latinos and 50 African Americans, with semistructured qualitative interviews with 14 Latino and African American residents. Results from the quantitative cohesion m…
New Turf for Organizing: Family Child Care Providers
Child-care providers are among the lowest paid wage workers in the United States. Nationwide, less than 5 percent of child-care providers are represented by labor unions. This article addresses the question,: How can family child care providers be effectively organized? I describe and analyze Local 880 Service Employees In ternational Union's effort to organize family child-care providers in Illinois. Adapting the grassroots-organizing model that…
Evaluation of a Job-Finding Club for Tanf Recipients: Psychosocial Impacts
Objective: The impacts of a job-finding club for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients required to work were investigated. Dependent measures included welfare recipients’ self-esteem, assertive job-hunting behavior, and perceived barriers to employment. Method: Pretest and posttest data were collected from four 2-week job-finding clubs sponsored by a welfare agency in a suburban county in Georgia. Results: Twenty-five of 40 pa…
Why You Should Care About the Threatened Middle Class
In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined and the gap between the middle class and the wealthy has widened. We explain how this is bad for democracy, the economy, and the aggregate health of the nation. We examine the governmental policies and interventions that increased the middle class following the depression and maintained its vigor through the post-World War II period. The impetus fo…
The association between hunger-coping economic tradeoffs and food insecurity among female recipients of charitable food assistance
Tanf leavers and economic self-sufficiency: Results from a study in Georgia
Since 1996 the U.S. government has stated the primary purpose of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is to help needy families achieve self-sufficiency. Twenty years after welfare reform this cross-sectional, survey study tests this proposition with a sample of 60 former TANF recipients in Georgia. Applying three different operational definitions of economic self-sufficiency (ESS), between 4% and 17% of respondents were self-sufficient…
A Program Evaluation of Los Angeles Acorn's Welfare Case Advocacy
Bureaucratic confusion and client dissatisfaction since the 1996 changes in welfare policy opened opportunities for third party advocacy on behalf of welfare clients. This paper evaluates Los Angeles ACORN's case advocacy program for welfare clients. Outcomes analyzed include client satisfaction with ACORN's advocacy and effects of the program on welfare clients who later became ACORN members. Ninety-one percent of clients surveyed (N = 99) state…
School bullies, victims, and aggressive victims: Factors relating to group affiliation and victimization in early adolescence.
The occurrence of bullying, victimization, and aggressive victimization was documented in a sample of 5th graders. Bullies comprised about 14% of the sample, whereas aggressive victims and victims comprised, respectively, 5% and 18%. Bullying and aggressive victimization was positively related to yo
Evaluation of a Job-Finding Club for Tanf Recipients: Psychosocial Impacts
Objective: The impacts of a job-finding club for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients required to work were investigated. Dependent measures included welfare recipients’ self-esteem, assertive job-hunting behavior, and perceived barriers to employment. Method: Pretest and posttest data were collected from four 2-week job-finding clubs sponsored by a welfare agency in a suburban county in Georgia. Results: Twenty-five of 40 pa…
Innovative Organizing Practices: Acorn's Campaign in Los Angeles Organizing Workfare Workers
The work requirements in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) set the stage for unprecedented expansion of workfare programs across the nation. Shortly after the PRWORA passed, the Los Angeles chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) began a union-style organizing drive of the 25,000 General Relief (GR) recipients in Los Angeles County's workfare program. Over the past fo…
Impacts of child care subsidies on family and child well-being
Community Partnerships: An Innovative Model of Social Work Education and Practice
Community challenges force human service agencies to collaborate in providing services. Such collaborations require practitioners to have skills not found in mainstream social work curricula. This paper explores how a new MSW program evolved through dialog with community leaders and resulted in a curriculum with a sole concentration of community partnerships
Resident Perceptions of Housing, Neighborhood, and Economic Conditions After Relocation From Public Housing Undergoing Hope VI Redevelopment
Objective: This study evaluates participant perception of neighborhood, economic, and housing well-being of residents 4 and 5 years after forced relocation from a public housing complex in Atlanta, Georgia. Method: The study used a mixed-method, posttest-only design with two data points. Focus groups with 93 participants combined qualitative, open-ended questions with quantitative measures. Results: Four years after relocation, residents living i…
New Turf for Organizing: Family Child Care Providers
Child-care providers are among the lowest paid wage workers in the United States. Nationwide, less than 5 percent of child-care providers are represented by labor unions. This article addresses the question,: How can family child care providers be effectively organized? I describe and analyze Local 880 Service Employees In ternational Union's effort to organize family child-care providers in Illinois. Adapting the grassroots-organizing model that…
A Program Evaluation of Los Angeles Acorn's Welfare Case Advocacy
Bureaucratic confusion and client dissatisfaction since the 1996 changes in welfare policy opened opportunities for third party advocacy on behalf of welfare clients. This paper evaluates Los Angeles ACORN's case advocacy program for welfare clients. Outcomes analyzed include client satisfaction with ACORN's advocacy and effects of the program on welfare clients who later became ACORN members. Ninety-one percent of clients surveyed (N = 99) state…
Acorn's Accelerated Income Redistribution Project: A Program Evaluation
Objective: This study evaluated the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now's (ACORN) efforts to increase the uptake of families claiming the earned income tax credit through door-to-door canvassing and managing free tax preparation clinics in three pilot cities. Method: The mixed-method program evaluation included administrative record review, a telephone survey (N = 1,063), and individual and focus group interviews. Results: Durin…
African American and Latino Perceptions of Cohesion in a Multiethnic Neighborhood
Although cohesive neighborhoods are associated with a wide variety of positive outcomes for residents, little research on neighborhood cohesion has been done in multiethnic neighborhoods. This exploratory study combines the administration of Buckner's Neighborhood Cohesion Index to 50 Latinos and 50 African Americans, with semistructured qualitative interviews with 14 Latino and African American residents. Results from the quantitative cohesion m…
Don’t Be a Blockhead: Acorn, Protest Tactics, and Refund Anticipation Loans
The recent proliferation of community-based responses to urban problems has been characterized by a shift away from protest tactics to more moderate approaches of building community and consensus, developing social capital, and identifying and improving local assets. This case study examines the persistence and effectiveness of protest tactics in a campaign by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now against H&R Block around pred…
Inequality and Its Discontents
In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined, and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened. In contrast to the last twenty years and the "gilded age" that preceded it, from the time of the first New Deal through the 1970s, the middle class prospered. Wealth and income were more equitably shared in America. This article examines policies that strengthened the middle class during the N…
Why You Should Care About the Threatened Middle Class
In the last two decades, the income and security of the individual middle class worker has declined and the gap between the middle class and the wealthy has widened. We explain how this is bad for democracy, the economy, and the aggregate health of the nation. We examine the governmental policies and interventions that increased the middle class following the depression and maintained its vigor through the post-World War II period. The impetus fo…
In Defense of the Community Reinvestment Act
In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 has probably received more media attention in the past 2 years than it garnered cumulatively over the previous 30 years. Numerous conservative pundits and commentators have blamed the CRA for the subprime crisis and the subsequent worldwide financial meltdown. Most social workers are probably unaware that the CRA is probably responsible for more investme…
Voucher Users and Revitalized Public-Housing Residents 6 Years After Displacement
Objective: A total of 6 years after displacement by a Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) project, this research examines residents who returned to the redeveloped community and residents who decided to keep their vouchers and were living in private sector housing. Respondents were compared on the following variables: application process and decision to move back, satisfaction with housing, material hardships, and perception of …
Tanf leavers and economic self-sufficiency: Results from a study in Georgia
Since 1996 the U.S. government has stated the primary purpose of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is to help needy families achieve self-sufficiency. Twenty years after welfare reform this cross-sectional, survey study tests this proposition with a sample of 60 former TANF recipients in Georgia. Applying three different operational definitions of economic self-sufficiency (ESS), between 4% and 17% of respondents were self-sufficient…
From Class Assignment to Organizing Your Neighborhood: One MSW Student’s Journey
This article documents how an MSW student in an introductory community practice course took her class assignment and over the course of two years revitalized, democratized, and transformed a sclerotic, corporate-run Home Owners Association (HOA). While the community analysis assignment required the student to interview six of her neighbors, the resulting increase in social capital in the neighborhood led, over the next two years, to the student b…
The association between hunger-coping economic tradeoffs and food insecurity among female recipients of charitable food assistance
Tanf Leavers and Debt: An Exploratory Study From Georgia
This exploratory study measured the types and amounts of debt experienced by families in Georgia that exited Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) between 2009 and 2015. The research employed a cross-sectional, descriptive, survey research design. A sample of 87 participants was interviewed individually and self-reported their levels of consumer debt. The median level of debt across the entire sample was $7,000. The largest category of d…
Political science (13 works) · Economics (11 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (6 works)