Job Loses At Non-Profits

We all know how difficult the economy is right now. New York State as every other state is struggling. There's something that strikes me however in terms of news and information about job losses in the not for profit sector. Just about everywhere you go you hear about the importance of economic development. All kinds of jobs need to be developed, created, or saved both in the private and public sector. It's big news when a Governor holds the line with public employee unions and jobs are potentially lost and/or ultimately saved. Big news when private companies or local municipalities announce 5 or 500 layoffs.

Well here's where it gets interesting. As I've stated before, I worked for many years in the non-profit or social sector as an administrator of an organization supporting people with developmental disabilities. There are 400+ programs like this across New York State. The reason there are so many is because NYS provides support to over 120,000 people with developmental disabilities in community settings across a wide geographic area. The organization I worked for was part of a larger statewide organization that has representation in just about every county across the state. Obviously the size of the organizations differ based on geographical areas served, budgets and supports, so the number of employees varies as well. The number of employees at each organization range from small (200) to large (over 1000) as well.

These are really important jobs, performed by very talented and dedicated people who chose to provide these supports to people with all ranges of needs. Budget cuts have impacted these organizations in a pretty sustained way over the past 12 to 15 months. At the same time, state government and the media have raised issues about the quality of supports and care that people receive. Obviously, it's always important to raise issues about quality of care but the real problem is, you can't have it both ways as NYS government seems to want it - cut costs but increase regulation and oversight to get at important quality issues. These two things just don't add up.

So how does all of this tie in with economic development and job growth or job loses? As I said, this sector has sustained substantial budget cuts over the past 12 to 15 months, being told like everyone else to do more with less. As a result, there have been major reorganizations of supports and services and in many cases pretty serious layoffs of employees or reductions in hours or a combination of both. But who knows about this? Who is hearing about it? More specifically, who is even keeping track of the data of the layoffs in this sector of the workforce? It would seem important that this information be tracked from a point in time to show elected officials, legislative leaders, funding sources, contractors and other parties that this sector and the people it supports, a vulnerable population, is being impacted significantly. Without that type of action it seems as though people are just waiting to get kicked in the rear end and at the same time saying, "here,  do it again". Data like this is important for a couple of reasons. It helps people in the organizations themselves get a feel for what others have done and perhaps duplicate as necessary. It helps underscore the potential damage to a fragile system and support advocacy efforts. Just as an example, if there are 400 agencies providing supports and each laid off 10 people, that's 4000 jobs. Again, this is only an example without clear data but I think it shows the potential impact of having this type of information.