How the Research Was Designed
and Conducted
Early Research: Sacred Places at Risk
S
ince its founding in 1989, Partners for Sacred Places has sought to
understand how congregations use their physical, financial, and
human assets to serve their communities. In the early 1990s, it was
clear that congregations hosted a wide variety of programs that
benefited the wider public ranging from soup kitchens to day care centers
to job training; though this outreach had never been documented in any
comprehensive scholarly study.
Thus, in 1996 Partners sponsored the first scientific, national study
documenting how congregations with older buildings serve the public by
hosting and supporting a wide array of outreach and social service
programs. Conducted in partnership with Dr. Ram Cnaan and the
University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, and
published by Partners as Sacred Places at Risk, the research found that the
average urban congregation provided over $140,000 (in 1997 dollars) in
resources—volunteers, staff and clergy time, free or below-market space,
cash, and in-kind services—to support community-serving programs each
year. In addition, the study found that 81% of those benefiting from
church or synagogue-hosted outreach were not members of those
congregations. This became the first hard evidence that sacred places, in
effect, serve as de facto neighborhood community centers. Sacred Places at
Risk established a new methodology for documenting the public value of
congregations and led to a new generation of scholarly study.
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