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[ HOME ] [ Mission ] [ History ] [ Projects ] [ Resources ] [ Department ] [ People ] |
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| R E G I O N A L I S S U E S | |||
The State of Ohio Regions: |
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 Executive Report
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Crime
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Demographics
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Employment Change
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Health
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Land Use
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Ohio Urbanization: 1950
- 1990
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| C O M M U N I T Y B U I L D I N G | |||
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Dayton Development Outreach Project (DCOP)
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Neighborhood Development Program (NEP)
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R E S O U R C E D E V E L O P M E N T |
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Economic Development
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Geographic
Information System
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Housing
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Other CUPA Activities
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Economic DevelopmentBusiness Retention and Expansion Reports SeriesThe Center has worked with Dayton Power and Light Company (DP&L) for over five years conducting business retention and expansion surveys in communities throughout the Miami Valley region. This highly popular and successful program has benefited many communities over the years by facilitating good business practices and greater communication between local Chambers of Commerce and area businesses. Working with CUPA, DP&L staff trains volunteers to conduct interviews with local businesses. This past year CUPA worked with the cities of Beavercreek and New Lebanon and the village of Jamestown. City of Dayton Citizens Perception SurveyThe City of Dayton contracted with the Center to design, implement, and analyze a telephone survey of City of Dayton residents. CUPA provided the City with an in-depth study design that included analysis at the Priority Board level. In addition, great emphasis was placed on the analysis of data in areas which the City has a deep interest. Rather than taking a scattergun approach to the analyses, more targeted, sophisticated analyses were provided. Over 1800 survey were completed using the CATI system and data analysis is being performed using SPSS. The final report is being produced in PageMaker and is a two-volume set. City of Dayton Office of Cultural AffairsBased upon the 1990 Census of Population and Housing from the Federal Government, Dayton's population is 182,005 citizens of which 41% or 73,748 are African Americans. This population is the second highest racial group in the City of Dayton, yet their attendance at Cultural Affairs venues and programs averages less than 15%. This report, commissioned by the City of Dayton's Office of Cultural Affairs, is to evaluate how aware the African American citizens of Dayton are about programs and activities provided by the Office of Cultural Affairs. This evaluation was conducted utilizing a mixed methodology. First an advisory council was formed, comprised of African American citizens, in order to assist in defining concepts and issues to be addressed in the assessment instrument given to a select sample of the African American community. Second, the Advisory Council's role was to use this instrument to conduct personal interviews with African American citizens of Dayton in order to determine their awareness of the Office of Cultural Affairs and its activities, as well as to find out how they become informed about the cultural activities in which they participate. City of Springfield-Strategic PlanIn December of 1997, the facilitation of the City of Springfield, Ohio's strategic plan began. Every city department participated in the planning process. Each department established their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, their mission, their critical issues, goals, objectives, strategies and actions. Employees at all levels participated. A retreat for the city commissioners and the department heads is to be held in September to continue the input process. The strategic plan should be implemented in October, it will carry through for five years. City of Xenia Citizens Perception SurveyCUPA is administering a Citizens Perception Study for the City of Xenia to find out how Xenia citizens feel about their city and the services it provides. A wide range of questions were asked to measure attitudes concerning government services, economic development, recreation, and quality of life. Over 350 surveys were completed using the CATI system and data analysis is being performed using SPSS. Comparative Economic AnalysisRecently, CUPA conducted economic research for the Dayton Business Committee which was utilized for the "Start-Up group for the Miami Valley Economic Development Coalition" to justify its mission. The data on changes in population, employment, and per capita income in the Dayton-Springfield region were compared to sixteen other regions to provide a comparative trend analysis. EDI Clearinghouse Desirability StudyThe purpose of this study is to determine whether an economic development information (EDI) Clearinghouse is a desirable tool for Dayton, Ohio. A two-phase study was conducted during Summer and Fall 1997. In phase one we identified fifteen cities in the United States known to be successful in their economic development and recruiting. We interviewed each of them about the EDI Clearinghouse concept, whether or not they used it and how. Phase two of the study identified the twenty-four United States cities most similar to the City of Dayton, in population size and population contribution to the MSA. We made contacts in each city to see if their Chamber of Commerce, or any other unit successfully implements an EDI Clearinghouse. An EDI Clearinghouse is similar to any other clearinghouse in that its primary function is the storage and dissemination of information. What makes an EDI Clearinghouse unique is that the information focuses on economic development, specifically information that business owners and location specialists require when making location decisions. In cities with no EDI Clearinghouse, business owners and relocation specialists must navigate a web of agencies to collect the myriad of information necessary to make educated relocation decisions. The theory behind bringing an EDI Clearinghouse to Dayton is this: If one central agency is responsible for maintaining ED information and making potential customers aware of it, information delivery will be more efficient, presenting Dayton as a business friendly place and a desirable environment. Home Purchasing Decisions in Southern and Dayton View
The report to the Affordable Housing Fund summarizes the results of a series of
focus group sessions with representatives of the Southern and Old Dayton View
neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio. The report is part of an ongoing effort by the
Affordable Housing Fund to design a redevelopment strategy for this community by
identifying its strengths as well as its challenges, and bringing a host of
resources together in an effort to improve the quality of the neighborhood. The
four focus groups were conducted over a two-week period in March, 1998.
Participants were asked to deliberate and discuss five guiding questions that
dealt with characteristics of the neighborhood (good and bad) and preferred
housing amenities. Following the sessions, participants were contacted by
telephone to solicit additional information regarding other housing
characteristics they prefer and to explore the mortgage levels they believe they
could maintain. This information should be helpful to the AHF in using resident
information to determine exactly how to approach the redevelopment initiative.
In addition to the focus group information, data was collected from a City of
Dayton citizen perception survey. Detailed information about the Northwest
Priority Board area (the are containing the target neighborhood) was part of
that survey effort and is reproduced here. These data provide a larger context
in which to understand the focus group responses. The findings of the report
identify patterns of support for the neighborhood and provide a good basis for
developing plans for improving the local quality of life. Many residents
commented that they fell the neighborhood is on the edge of a Renaissance. They
highlighted the assets of the area, including the existing housing stock, the
unrealized potential beauty of the neighborhood with its big trees, and its
strong community organizations. The challenges include poor infrastructure, many
dilapidated housing units, high numbers of renters, unkempt properties, and the
perception that city government officials do not care about the neighborhood's
problems. Finally, the focus groups identified the types of housing they would
like to see developed in the area. These ideas keep with the style of housing
that currently dominates the community in terms of design, size, architecture,
and lot size. However, the mortgage they report being able to support may pose a
challenge for the Affordable Housing Fund and its partners as they attempt to
assist the community and move more residents into the area and more renters into
homeownership situations.
To the top In cooperation with the University of Dayton, the Center for Urban and Public Affairs completed the Miami Valley Employment Outlook. The study focused on employers and their workforce and training needs. The study revealed that employees report a need for an additional 48,000 workers to be efficient in their firms. The report is currently being used as a marketing tool by various colleges/career schools. Neighborhood Development CorporationsOrganizations created by residents to improve economic conditions in their neighborhoods. The NDCs evolved from the Community Development Corporations in order to improve economic conditions in neighborhoods in any or all of four broad development categories including housing, business retention and expansion, business start-ups, and human resources. CUPA conducted an assessment of the
Dayton Area NDCs for the City of Dayton Department of Planning and the
Dayton/Montgomery County Housing Commission to provide four gene
ral objectives.
The assessment included the internal organizational capabilities of the
Dayton area NDCs, identified the full range of resources available to NDCs
and their utilization, evaluated the means for coordinating NDC activities
with regard to City of Dayton economic and neighborhood goals and objectives,
and offered recommendations for strengthening NDC organizations to access
resources.
To the top Statewide Projects to assist the Ohio Board of RegentsCUPA, along with other Urban University Program (UUP) centers of excellence, is assisting the Ohio Board of Regents with its strategic planning process by creating maps that display population, income, and educational attainment statistics. The mapped information provided the Board of Regents with a powerful tool to assess the impact and potential impacts of higher education. Currently, the centers are connecting information on projected growth occupations to existing education and training available in each region to aid the Board of Regents' planning effort. The Ohio Economic Development Information NetworkThe UUP Centers of Excellence are developing a statewide database that will track trends in business openings, closings, and relocations. Ohio is ahead of all other US states in the fact that for the first time, economic research can be confidently conducted on a sub-county level. This allows projects that can track the movement of firms between central cities and suburbs, for example. Ohio Family Children FirstCUPA is conducting the first ever evaluation of Ohio's Family and Children First program. As administrators of the quantitative component of the evaluation, CUPA is responsible for the implementation of the phone interviews of Family Resource Center (FRC) and School Readiness Resource Center (SRRC) participants. As a quasi-experimental design, the OFCF evaluation will take almost two years to complete and requires implementation of three separate phone interviewing stages. Interviews are conducted via a Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system with responses being directly recorded onto disk. Data analysis is performed using SPSS. Ohio's Greater Dayton Information Technology Industry DirectorySince the U.S. is the world's largest producer and consumer of information technology products and services, a directory of information technology (IT) firms in the greater Dayton region was compiled. For the purpose of this directory, two types of IT firms are included. One type is described as "pure" IT firms wherein the product/service provided is computer related, engineering, research and development, and/or IT consulting. The best current estimate of "pure" private sector employment for the IT industry in Ohio's Greater Dayton area is approximately 14, 000 people. The second type of IT firms uses IT in its processes to develop non-IT products. Employment for this second type is more difficult to estimate. The directory consists of 285 firms in the Greater Dayton area that are Information Technology firms. Of the 285, 176 of the firms responded to our revised 1997 IT survey. All other firms in the directory were included based upon a "no change" status from their 1995 information. Region 4 School-To-WorkThis is the second year CUPA has contracted with Ohio's Region 4 STW initiative to evaluate its current efforts. In the first year (1996-97), a survey was administered to benchmark on-going STW activities and to profile school-based efforts. In this current years' evaluation, a narrower field of school buildings are being sampled to measure the extent of STW activities and the level of commitment that exists. For this current year, an additional qualitative component has been added to the evaluation. Five in-depth case studies of exemplary STW buildings are being conducted to provide a "show case" of STW activity. Solid Waste Management Options ReportThe solid waste management options proposals made available to the City of Dayton over 40 years of research and experience in analyzing solid waste management technology, policy, programs and economics. The high quality and economical report gave an overview of existing solid waste management district obligations, examined City municipal solid waste management goals and objectives, reviewed the Conceptual Retrofit Plan prepared by HDR Engineering, Inc., simulated municipal solid waste management, and issued findings and recommendations for future actions Springfield Focus GroupWright State University facilitators conducted focused discussion groups with individuals concerned about the future of Springfield and Clark County. These individuals are potential leaders and supporters for refreshing The Dream. Focused discussion groups are group interviews. Questions are asked and responses are recorded. Wright State gathered qualitative information about issues of win-win annexation, county land use planning and state laws to encourage regional cooperation. David Rusk identified these issues in the April 2nd and 3rd public forums. The Wittenberg research team also provided data supporting further research. The group format provides insights into what people think about these issues and it produces ideas about what could be done to develop win-win annexation policies, create a county-wide land use plan and change state laws to support interlocal cooperation. It must be noted that information from focus group research may not accurately represent the views of people living and working in Springfield and Clark County. To be representative, focus group participants would have to be randomly selected from the population, all members must have an equal chance of being selected, and approximately 360 people would have to be interviewed. There are also other limitations to this research method. The discussion of issues in a group setting may cause some participants to speak less frankly, and responding live to questions might not give participants time to accurately voice their opinions. Despite these limitations focus group research has a long history of usefulness. Wright State partially addressed the problem of representativeness by conducting three discussion groups on each topic. With three groups, patterns can be detected and summarized. To achieve greater accuracy participants were asked to review a draft report of their focus group and identify errors or offer further comments. Finally, Wright State sent participants a questionnaire prior to their meeting. This gave participants an opportunity to express their views on the topic without the pressure of a group and responding live to questions. The questionnaire provided information (see Section 2 for the data) about the participants and asked them about their - views on the relationship between the City of Springfield and surrounding communities. - level of agreement or disagreement on David Rusk's view that a big part of the solution for problems in Springfield depend upon what happens outside of the city's boundaries. - level of agreement or disagreement with local governments working together on a broad range of matters. - thoughts prior to the discussion group meeting on Win-Win Annexation, Regional Land Use Plan or State Law Changes. Wright State conducted nine focus group discussions from June 18th to June 26th with 78 of 102 people scheduled for the meetings. Twenty-seven people participated in the Win-Win Annexation focus groups. Win-win annexation meant: the City of Springfield should work with surrounding townships to develop an annexation procedure by which everyone involved wins. Nineteen participated in the Regional Land Use Plan focus groups. Regional land use plan meant: A Clark County should develop a new comprehensive land use plan. And thirty-two people participated in the State Law Changes focus groups. State law changes meant: the State of Ohio should enact legislation that encourages greater regional cooperation. Troy Retention and ExpansionOne of the main objectives of this survey was to determine the types of technological support systems that could enhance the competitiveness of the companies located in the Troy area. Wage and Benefit Survey of Manufacturing Industries for Clark, Clinton, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Warren CountiesCUPA's purpose for the Wage and Benefit Survey of Manufacturing Industries was to obtain key data describing the manufacturing work force, job benefits, and wage structures in selected occupations in the Miami Valley region. The survey information serves as a marketing tool to provide critical information to existing and prospective manufacturing firms. Employment trends, business demographics and development are a few of the issues addressed in the survey. CUPA receives over 1,000 requests per year for the Wage and Benefit Survey. Welcome HouseBased on the Center's regional reputation, CUPA was approached by Welcome House, Inc. to perform a process evaluation for a three-agency collaboration based in Covington, Kentucky. The collaboration has been awarded a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) GAPs grant and is seeking assistance in becoming more effective and efficient in providing services to their clients. This process evaluation includes face-to-face interviews and focus groups with directors and staff of the three collaborating agonies. CUPA also contracted to collect service data for the three agencies and to write and submit their annul report to HUD. Data entry and report generation is performed using Microsoft Excel and Word. |
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Geographical Information System (GIS)GIS is active in CUPA projects, working with local communities who are seeking to implement GIS systems. Currently GIS is creating a CD-ROM system, which will include local census information with various categories, including age and population statistics, labor force statistics, educational, race, and income statistics. The capabilities of the CD-ROM system will give the viewer an opportunity to access information by census tract or block to display rivers, roads, or per capita income percentages in various urban areas, such as Montgomery, Clark, Greene and Miami Counties. GIS provides the community, as well as private or public organizations with customized applications and mapping to form an unbiased, objective opinion or product information. Project will be completed when we hire and train a GIS person. Neighborhood Development Corp (NDC)Mapping to geographically locate property owned by NDCs and FCDCs School of Medicine (WSU)Assistance for federal grant application St. Elizabeth Medical Center Community Health AssessmentCreated geographical representation of survey variables by East, West, Northeast and Northwest quadrants of the City of Dayton. Wellfield Protection ProgramCreated a map identifying the jurisdiction impacted by the Wellfield Protector Area. |
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The Technology Assistance Panel (TAP)The National Science and Technology Policy Organization and Priorities Act was established as an intergovernmental Science, Engineering, and Technology Advisory Panel. The purpose of this panel was to identify and define problems at the state, regional and local government levels which which science and technology could assist in resolving. the community-based program panel complements the activities of the national panel to improve relationships and understanding between local government and the private sector, save local governments money and/or improve services without additional cost and develop marketable products or systems which could expand the earnings of area companies. |
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HousingOhio Housing Research NetworkThis study was made possible by funding from the Ohio Urban University Program whose mission is to apply the resources of Ohio's urban universities to help identify urban problems and propose solutions designed to enhance the vitality of the state's urban regions and distressed central cities. The study was conducted by a collaborative network of researchers located at seven universities. The OHRN is engaged in the analysis of dynamics that shape Ohio cities and metropolitan areas and the identification of public policy options for the amelioration of urban problems. Seventy-seven percent of the population of the state of Ohio lives in seven metropolitan areas. Understanding of the "dynamics of change" in those areas is important for the formulation of effective public policy. For that reason, the OHRN initiated in 1990, a study of suburbanization ("Suburbanization of Ohio Metropolitan Areas, 1980-2000") The primary finding was that suburban housing construction and movement outward in the 1990's were likely to result in population losses greater than the 1980's for all central cities except Columbus. A presentation in September 1994 in Cincinnati for the Regional American Planning Association conference, completed a manuscript for urban geography based on information from the housing network group. A regional cooperation forum in the Miami Valley is scheduled for September 1995 at Sinclair Community College. The conference will be hosted jointly by The Affordable Housing Fund (formerly the Dayton/Montgomery County Housing Commission) and Wright State University's Center for Urban and Public Affairs. Urban University Neighborhood NetworkThe newly formed housing network proposal was approved and funded by UUP, initiating a collaborative effort for housing projects.
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CUPA ActivitiesThe center for Urban and Public Affairs is implementing its goals through consulting, teaching assistance, and applied research projects. variety of activities undertaken by CUPA to fulfill its outreach mission include: Applied Research Projects
Information Sharing
Training
InternshipsThe Center for Urban and Public Affairs has placed students in internship positions in various agencies throughout the Miami Valley area. These agencies include:
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Copyright Information © 2000 |
