Homeless Support by a Christian Based NPO in Okinawa : A Study Adopting a Four-Dimensional Model of Faith-Related Organization

オキナワ　ニオケル　キリストキョウケイ　NPO　ニヨル　ホームレス　シエン　Faith　Related　Organization　ノ　4ショウゲン　モデル　ヲ　モチイタ　コウサツ

シラハセ, タツヤ

Shirahase, Tatsuya

シュウキョウ ト シャカイ コウケン ケンキュウカイ

ホームレス

ソーシャル・キャピタル

FRO

homeless support

social capital

This paper focuses on the case of the Promise Keepers (PK), a Christian homeless support group, to evaluate the orientation of Japanese faith-related organizations. At its inception, PK supported homeless people as a congregation. However, in order to make pluralize its resources, PK has become an NPO. Thus PK has been able to provide a wider variety of services for homeless people and has become the most reliable homeless support organization in Okinawa. While PK is based on a congregation with a strong internal unity, it is also working as an NPO open to the "outside". That is, PK makes use of two inherent kinds of social capital: bonding social capital and bridging social capital. In recent years both society and academia have called for "social contribution by religions". The case study in this paper aids consideration of emerging models of religious social participation.