Very few people go into community service work for the money. Two-thirds of Toronto's front-line workers — the folks who provide home care to the sick and elderly, immigrant services, crisis counselling, child care and employment training — earn less than $40,000 a year.

The benefits aren't much of an inducement, either. A quarter of community service workers have no drug or dental benefits. Half have no pension. Thirty per cent work overtime for no pay. Nor are they drawn to the sector because they're unfit for other jobs. Two-thirds are university graduates. Twenty per cent have post-graduate degrees. Half are fluent in at least two languages.

What motivates them is a desire to serve those in need, build a stronger society and live according to their values.

That makes them easy targets for government cost-cutters. They care too much about their clients to quit. And they're too busy delivering vital services to speak out or fight back.

This week, the leaders of Toronto's community service sector — comprised of 1,342 organizations providing everything from youth programs in violence-prone neighbourhoods to housing for the mentally ill — got together to talk about their plight.

"For every dollar the community service sector gets, we deliver $1.14 in services," said John Campey, executive director of the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto. "The difference comes of out salaries and working conditions.

"This is not a model that can be sustained."

The trouble is, it has lasted for 10 years. Policy-makers have learned that the staff of non-profit social agencies will sacrifice their own wages and benefits, rather than hurt their clients.

Moreover, the sector doesn't speak with one voice. Everyone agrees there is a funding crisis, but there is no consensus on why it exists or what to do about it. Some blame racism. (Close to half of community service workers belong to visible minorities.) Some blame gender inequality. (More than three-quarters are women.) Some blame neo-conservative politicians. Some blame a hardening of public attitudes toward the disadvantaged. Some blame themselves for letting it happen.

In the absence of any organized response, individual workers are faced with a painful choice: Leave the sector to earn a decent living or stay in the hope that governments will eventually see the damage they are doing and stop starving the community service organizations.

This week's brainstorming session, organized by the Family Service Association of Toronto and the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, was an attempt to forge a third option.

The gathering began with the presentation of a two-part report called On the Front Lines, which provided a statistical sketch of working conditions in the community service sector (available at http://www.socialplanningtoronto.org). For most of the 100 or so people in the room, the study contained no surprises.

Then came a discussion of what could be done. Three major themes emerged:

The community service sector has to get better at telling its own story. Most citizens don't realize how extensive it is, how vital it is to Toronto's social and economic health or how badly it is struggling.

The managers of non-profit agencies have to stop being so timid about offending political leaders. It hasn't done them any good so far. In fact, it has increased their vulnerability. "There is still a belief (in government) that this is an efficient service-delivery model," said Ted Richmond, a program manager at the Laidlaw Foundation.

The current climate in Ottawa is not as inhospitable as it might look. Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper believes in small government, he understands the importance of strong community-based organizations. "The health of our societies is driven by the health of our cities," he told delegates at last month's World Urban Forum in Vancouver. "Healthy cities have voluntary, neighbourhood-based groups at the very core of their political organization."

A second encouraging signal came from Treasury Board President John Baird, who announced the creation of a blue-ribbon panel last month to review Ottawa's grants and contributions. One of its three members is Frances Lankin, president of the United Way of Greater Toronto. (The other two are Ian Clark, who heads the Council of Ontario Universities, and Marc Tellier, chief executive of the Yellow Pages Group.) "There is a recognition that something is not right," said Yves Savoie, executive director of the Family Service Association.

No collective action plan emerged from the meeting. But the participants did resolve to be a little less nice, a little less naive and lot better at standing up for themselves.