Race,resource utilisation,and perceived need among urban community development workers from faith-based organisations

Organisations providing social services in communities of high crime and violence must address staff well-being. The current study surveyed 284 urban community development workers from faith-based organisations in five US cities. The study explored the effects of race and ethnicity on service utilisation and perceived need using binomial logistic regression. Race and ethnicity significantly predicted medical service utilisation, indicating that Caucasian participants were five times more likely and African-American participants were 3.8 times more likely than Latino/a participants to utilise medical services. Race and ethnicity did not predict differences in use of psychological or spiritual services, nor of perceived need for services. Furthermore, volunteer staffs were approximately four times more likely than paid staff to report self-addressing their psychological and spiritual needs rather than utilising services, despite a felt need for support. Barriers to resource utilisation and implications for policies and practices of urban community development organisations are discussed.