Starting with the good: the Springfield region has improved its mental health services, and more providers are available. Unemployment rates remain low while median household incomes have increased, and murders and vehicle thefts are down.
However, housing costs have increased even more than before, opioid overdoses are on the rise, Springfield police deal with more shootings across the city and families continue to struggle with child abuse and domestic violence.
Members of Springfield Community Focus presented an interim report about the state of the community, featuring those details and many more on Oct. 26. The Community Focus Report for Springfield and Greene County was presented at Drury University’s Non-profit Leadership Conference.
More than 250 representing more than 100 non-profit organizations across the Springfield metro area attended the conference, where the report helped to highlight exactly where the community’s needs are — helpful information for people seeking to serve the underserved.
“The goal behind this is focusing limited resources on unlimited needs in the community,” said Brian Fogle, President and CEO of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. “And where are those areas we need to focus on to have the most impact.”
The report highlights 11 different areas of the community, including education, early childhood, housing, safety, recreation, transportation, health, economic development and more. Each section features success stories and persisting problems, labeled as “blue ribbons” and “red flags.”
The report is generated by the efforts of about 100 people divided into committees. A steering committee led by facilitator Jonathan Groves, chair of Drury University’s communications department, and chair Lynne Meyerkord, of the CFO’s board of directors, collects and organizes information for the report.
The Community Focus Report is a joint project of the CFO, United Way of the Ozarks, Springfield-Greene County Library District, Junior League of Springfield and Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.
In presenting the report, Groves said each area reflected forward progress toward resolving red flags.
“One big theme is that the area has regained momentum this year,” Groves said. “Almost every topic area gained from pandemic recovery funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, which has led to millions of dollars for 39 city and county projects.”
Some of the highlights from Groves’ summary of the report include:
• The ratio of mental health providers to patients has increased since being identified as a challenge in 2017. A low number of providers focused on substance abuse remains a problem, with a higher-than-average suicide rate and mortality rate. Overdose deaths have jumped sharply, with the drug poisoning rate for Greene County 25% higher than the national rate.
• Gun violence has increased, with officers responding to a higher number of gunfire reports. Police confiscated more illegal guns and responded to more injured people in 2022 compared to 2021. The number of overall crime reports, as well as numbers of vehicle thefts and homicides, are down in the same period.
• While the number of owner-occupied homes increased in 2022, more than 50% of Springfield homes are renter-occupied. The median rent in Springfield is $900 monthly, and both rents and housing values have jumped sharply since 2021.
The report meshes well with the annual non-profit conference because it demonstrates how needs change, and how those non-profits can adjust.
“There are more than 100 non-profits represented here today,” said Alex Cobb, director of the Drury Leadership Collaborative. “Some of them do very specific work, so they are able to take one of those red flags and really drill down. Others are much more holistic and address all sorts of other things. The report helps to affirm that non-profits are heading in the right direction.”
Participants in the conference were able to attend several workshops over the course of the day, including sessions on coaching, using ChatGPT, developing strategies, reaching out to younger donors, emotional intelligence and more.
Thursday’s report was an interim report, intended to be an update while a more thorough report is prepared for next year. However, the biennial report about the community is due for a transformation in 2024.
Groves said that the steering committee is looking at different ways to present the report’s key statistics during its 20th anniversary.
“When the report was starting in 2004, data was offline, and it was harder to get,” Groves said. “It was harder to collect in a single spot.”
Some communities have gone toward a dashboard approach, and Groves said that may be a direction for the Community Focus Report. One concern with that approach, though, is that a dashboard does not present a narrative that ties data points together.
