This article examines black churches located in economically challenged neighborhoods in a northeastern US city. Employing the concepts of the organizational divide and Heek’s design—actuality model, we conducted interviews with clergy at seven black churches to understand their level of information and communication technology (ICT) use and capacity to secure funding from the White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives (FBCI). Through the use of e-government services, the FBCI is expanding public—private partnerships with faith-based organizations to implement social programs that address community challenges. Our findings suggest that black churches are rich storehouses of local information and have a long history of providing social support and spiritual strength. This may make them logical beneficiaries of the FBCI. Paradoxically, the black churches that provide social programs to economically challenged citizens are often underresourced and lack the organizational capacity to secure FBCI resources.
Billingsley, A. ( 1999) Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform . New York: Oxford University Press .
2.
Billingsley, A. and C. Caldwell ( 1994) ‘The Social Relevance of the Contemporary Black Church’, National Journal of Sociology8(1): 1-23.
3.
Birdsell, D. and D. Muzzio ( 1999) ‘Government Programs Involving Citizen Access to Internet Services’, Markel Foundation, URL (consulted November 2008): http://www.markle.org/downloadable_assets/gov_citizenaccess.pdf
4.
Bositis, D. ( 2006) ‘Black Churches and the Faith-Based Initiative’ , Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, URL (consulted November 2008): http://www.jointcenter.org/publications1/publication-PDFs/FAITH3.pdf
5.
Chaves, M. ( 1999) ‘Congregations’ Social Service Activities’ , Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, The Urban Institute , URL (consulted November 2008): http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/cnp_6.pdf
6.
Davis, D. ( 2001) ‘President Bush’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives: Boon or Boondoggle?’ Journal of Church and State43(3): 411-22.
7.
Drucker, P. ( 1990) The New Realities. New York: Perennial Library.
8.
Du Bois, W.E.B. ( 1967) The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. New York: Schocken Books.
9.
FBCI (White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives) (2001) ‘Unlevel Playing Field: Barriers to Participation by Faith-Based and Community Organizations in Federal Social Service Programs’, Executive Office of the President of the United States, URL (consulted November 2008): http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/unlevelfield.html
10.
FBCI (White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives) (2002) ‘Overview of President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative’, Executive Office of the President of the United States, URL (consulted November 2008): http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/mission.html
11.
Federal Register ( 2003) ‘Department of Education: Community Technology Centers Program’, Federal Register68(119), 20 June, URL (consulted November 2005): http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/2003-2/062003e.html
12.
Frazier, E. ( 1964) The Negro Church in America. New York : Schocken Books.
13.
Gurstein, M. ( 2003) ‘Effective Use: A Community Informatics Strategy Beyond the Digital Divide’, First Monday8(12), URL (consulted November 2008): http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/
14.
Heeks, R. ( 2001) Reinventing Government in the Information Age: International Practice in IT-enabled Public Sector Reform. New York: Routledge.
15.
Heeks, R. ( 2002) ‘Information Systems and Developing Countries: Failure, Success and Local Improvisation’, The Information Society18(2): 101-12.
16.
Heeks, R. and S. Bhatnagar ( 2001) ‘Understanding Success and Failure in Information Age Reform’, in R. Heeks (ed.) Reinventing Government in the Information Age: International Practice in IT-enabled Public Sector Reform, pp. 49-71. New York: Routledge.
17.
Kirschenbaum, J., R. Kunamneni and L. Servon ( 2002) ‘The Organizational Divide’, in L. Servon (ed.) Bridging the Digital Divide: Technology, Community and Public Policy, pp. 144-76. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
18.
Lane, J. and L. Lanza-Kaduce ( 2007) ‘Before You Open the Doors: Ten Lessons from Florida’s Faith and Community-based Delinquency Treatment Initiative’, Evaluation Research32(2): 121-53.
19.
Larsen, E. ( 2000) Wired Churches, Wired Temples: Taking Congregations and Missions into Cyberspace. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
20.
Larsen, E. and L. Rainie ( 2003) The Rise of the E-citizen: How People Use Government Agencies’ Web Sites. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
21.
Lee, R. ( 2003) ‘Diffusion of Innovations: A Preliminary Assessment of the Perception and Use of Technology in Complex Social Environments’ , in M. Khosrow-Pour (ed.) Information Technology in Organizations: Trends, Issues, Challenges and Solutions , pp. 355-8. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.
22.
Lincoln, C. ( 1974) The Black Church Since Frazier. New York: Schocken Books.
23.
Lincoln, C. and L. Mamiya ( 1990) The Black Church in the African-American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
24.
Lipsky, M. and S. Smith ( 1990) ‘Nonprofit Organizations, Government and the Welfare State’, Policy Science Quarterly104(4): 625-48.
25.
Marchionnini, G., H. Samet and L. Brandt ( 2003) ‘Digital Government: Introduction’, Communications of the ACM46(1): 24-7.
26.
Michalski, L. ( 2003) ‘Lack of Technology Denies Grants to Blacks, Study Says’, The Patriot-News, 3 June, p. 1.
27.
National Telecommunication and Information Administration ( 1995) ‘Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the "Have Nots" in Rural and Urban America’, URL (consulted 25 August 2007): http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fallingthru.html
28.
National Telecommunication and Information Administration ( 1997) ‘Falling Through the Net II: New Data on the Digital Divide’, URL (consulted 25 August 2007): http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/falling.html
29.
National Telecommunication and Information Administration ( 1999) ‘Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide’ , URL (consulted 25 August 2007): http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn99/contents.html
30.
National Telecommunication and Information Administration ( 2000) ‘Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion’ , URL (consulted 25 August 2007): http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn00/contents00.html
31.
National Telecommunication and Information Administration ( 2002) ‘A Nation Online: How Americans are Expanding Their Use of the Internet’, URL (consulted 25 August 2007): http://www.ntia.doc.gov/opadhome/digitalnation/index_2002.html
32.
National Telecommunication and Information Administration ( 2004) ‘A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age’ , URL (consulted 25 August 2007): http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/anol/NationOnlineBroadband04.htm
33.
Office of Management and Budget (2003) ‘Implementing the President’s Management Agenda for E-government’ , Executive Office of the President of the United States , URL (consulted November 2008): http://www.docstoc.com/docs/785830/e-government-Strategy-Implementing-the-President-s-Management-Agenda-for-e-government
34.
Persons, G. ( 2004) ‘National Politics and Charitable Choice as Urban Policy for Community Development’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science594: 65-78.
35.
Robertson, B. ( 2001) ‘Beyond Access: A Foundation Guide to Ending the Organizational Divide’, National Committee for ResponsivePhilanthropy, URL (consulted November 2008): http://www.policylink.org/pdfs/Bridging_the_Org_Divide.pdf
36.
Scherlis, W. and J. Eisenberg ( 2003) ‘IT Research, Innovation and E-government’ , Communications of the ACM46(1): 67-8.
37.
Tat-Kei Ho, A. ( 2002) ‘Reinventing Local Governments and the E-government Initiative’, Public Administration Review62(4): 434-44.
