The Capacity for Illinois Townships to Manage Increased Financial Assistance Caseloads during COVID

This study examines the change in demand for financial assistance from Illinois townships and the capacity of townships to meet the demands, with special attention to the collaborative capacity of townships. The results suggest that townships with greater collaborative capacity and larger staff resources were more likely to respond to the increased financial assistance needs in 2020 than other townships. As such, this study makes a meaningful contribution to the current governance capacity and intersectoral collaboration literature and practices by examining how the townships managed increased service demands during the first year of the COVID pandemic.