Ram Cnaan, MSW, PhD

Professor
Associate Dean for Research
Chair, Doctoral Program in Social Welfare

Bio | Research | Link to Scholarly Papers | Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Research

The Study of Social And Community Services Provided By American Religious Congregations

Description: This is an exploratory study to provide empirical data documenting the scope and nature of social service delivery by local congregations. To date over 200 American congregations and 50 Canadian congregations have participated in the study. This research contributes to an area that has been largely neglected in the social work and social welfare literature. This research seeks to answer the following questions: 1) What is the role of American religious congregations is providing social services? 2) Is congregational social service delivery increasing in response to government cutbacks? 3) What is the financial value of the congregational social services?

Project Sponsors:
The Kellogg Foundation
The Manhattan Institute
The Lilly Endowment
Partners for Sacred Places
The Philadelphia Historic Preservation Corporation
The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work

Dates: 1996-current

Project Staff:
Ram A. Cnaan, Principal Investigator (cnaan@sp2.upenn.edu)
Femida Handy, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
Stephanie Boddie
Gaynor Yancey

Research Sites:
Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Indianapolis, Mobile, and San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco and Oakland)

Project Related Publications:
Jeavons, Thomas H. and Ram A. Cnaan. "The Formation, Transitions and Evolution of Small Religious Organizations (under review).

Cnaan, Ram A. and Robert J. Wineburg. "Social Work and the Role of the Religious Community in Social Service Provision" (under review).

Cnaan, R. A. with Wineburg, R. J. and Boddie, S.C.(In final preparation). The newer deal: Social work and religion in partnership. New York: Columbia Press.

Cnaan, R. A.(Forthcoming). Empowerment through organized religion. In: Wes Shera and Lillian Wells (Eds.). Empowerment in social work: Toward the 21st century. Columbia University Press: New York.

Cnaan, R. A. (1997). American organized religion and empowerment. In: Festschrift of Antonin Wagner (17-31). Zurich, Switzerland.

Cnaan, R. A. (1997). Social and community involvement of religious congregations housed in historic religious properties: Findings from a six-city study. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work - Program for the Study of Organized religion and Social Work.

Cnaan, R. A. (1996) Social and community involvement of Philadelphia religious congregations housed in historic religious properties: Data analyses of mailed questionnaires. Report Submitted To: Historic Religious Properties Program of the Philadelphia Historic Preservation Corporation.

Project Number: CNAA-96-01

Entry Date: September, 1998