OPINION|
A wonderful way to start the new year is knowing the City of Springfield’s poverty rate was reduced from 25.7 percent in 2015 to 20.3 percent in 2022.
We use data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine our poverty level. The community set a goal to reduce the poverty level by five percentage points by 2025. Our overall poverty reduction has been 5.4 percentage points. We have met our goal three years ahead of plan!
In 2018, we identified our overall poverty level as 25.7 percent, based on 2014 to 2017 U.S. Census Data. By 2021, we saw our poverty level reduced to 21.1 percent. Our poverty level has continued to reduce even with other challenges, such as COVID.
Prosper Springfield oversees action plan
The focus on poverty reduction started with the Impacting Poverty Commission, formed in 2012-2013. Through the commission, Prosper Springfield was established in 2017 to oversee the commission’s Community Action Plan created in October 2015 to reduce poverty. I was hired as the Prosper Springfield Director to oversee the plan and work with private, public and social sectors to accomplish the action items in the plan and to report publicly the progress.
The action plan was developed by the commission after conducting research, hearing lived experiences and meeting for about two years. The 2015 report reflected action items and endorsements to meet two goals for the Springfield area: reduce poverty and increase education beyond high school.
The two goals also included creating a community portal to provide access to resources and services for individuals who may need help and a portal for community members to stay informed about the status of the action items in the Call-to-Action report. Prosper Springfield is in the process of updating the “Get Informed” part of the website to provide outcomes for the initiatives associated with the Call-to-Action report.
A new Community Action Report was completed in July 2022 from the Equity and Prosperity Commission, which met for six months and reviewed several reports and provided input on how to move from programming to system changes. The new report provided recommendations to address access and inclusion barriers for services and resources. New poverty reduction goals were also set in the new plan. We are now in the process of adopting the recommendations that are feasible and developing the next Community Action Plan to meet the goals set by the Equity and Prosperity Commission.
New initiatives focus on education, health equity and gun safety
Both Call-to-Action Reports focused on education, health, housing, financial stability and transportation. However, the Equity and Prosperity Commission added personal safety to the July 2022 report. Three groups have been meeting, reviewing and determining what we can do as a community to address barriers to services and resources. The groups are: Springfield Education Network; Health Equity Collaborative; and the newly formed Gun Safety & Violence Collaborative. The work of these three groups aligns with most of the recommendations in the July 2022 Community Action Plan for Education, Health and Personal Safety.
These groups have identified other needed goals and strategies. We learned a few other things about our community while working towards these goals. We shifted the focus from program access and inclusion to ecosystem alignment with realistic goals, using disaggregated data. In past reports, we focused on the four largest race/ethnic groups in Springfield. In the new report, we focused on all race/ethnic groups, and intersectional groups where we could find historical data. The new report focuses on Springfield’s population groups, intersectional groups, accomplishments, and opportunities for improvement.
We are making steady progress in reducing poverty through a community effort with private, public and social sectors. However, there is still more work to be done and more opportunity to be given to individuals with disabilities, individuals previously incarcerated and individuals without homes as well as other intersectional groups. By being more inclusive and creating greater access for people.
The graph below reflects the poverty reduction trends for the past 11 years:
Our community has historically come together to address major issues that impact the health and safety of Springfield. Through these efforts and many other efforts in the community, we will enhance systems, adjust policies and practices to make Springfield the greatest place to live, work and play.
