Projects

  • The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) – In April 2010, CEI joined the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, a collaborative effort by the Urban Institute and local partners to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems in local policymaking and community building. All NNIP partners have built advanced information systems with integrated and recurrently updated information on neighborhood conditions in their cities. They concentrate on facilitating the direct practical use of data by city and community leaders, and all are strongly committed to using information to build the capacities of institutions and residents in distressed urban neighborhoods. We’re very excited about the collaborative potential of our NNIP partnership to enhance and synergize the work we do here in Kansas City, and we look forward to active participation in a number of NNIP initiatives.
  • The Green Impact Zone (GIZMO) – a project with many partners, the purpose of which is to coordinate public and private sector investments in an underserved section of the city, in a fashion that results in sustainable economic and community development. CEI’s role is to develop and provide data tools to assist with the project, as well as to track and evaluate the investments that occur.
  • The Neighborhood Housing Conditions Survey (NHCS) - Since 2000, CEI has surveyed housing conditions on both sides of the state line of the metropolitan area of Kansas City, using survey instruments developed in collaboration with cities and community development partners.
  • CityScope - a web-based map and data-server first established in 2002 to publish results of the 2000 NHCS in KCMo; CityScope also includes tract, block group, and block level data from the 1990 and 2000 Decennial Census, reported crime statistics from KCMo and KCKs Police Departments at block and neighborhood summary levels, and annual residential lending data collected in compliance with the Community Reinvestment and Home Mortgage Disclosure Acts (CRA and HMDA). The site currently records over 2000 registered users, and is scheduled for a major content and functionality upgrade in Summer 2010, including indicators derived from an extensive inventory of municipal administrative data.
  • Modeling Poverty in US Cities – a joint project with the Mid-America Regional Council, sponsored by the Civic Council of Kansas City. The purpose of this project is to develop a model that can be used to guide local investments such that they have the maximum impact towards diminishing poverty.
  • Urban Research Lab (URL) - In Fall 2005, CEI opened the Urban Research Lab in Haag Hall on the UMKC Volker Campus: 12 state-of-the-art computer workstations equipped with fully-featured industry-standard GIS and statistical software, and with complete access to the CEI community indicators geographic database. The URL is open to UMKC students, faculty, staff, and members of the KC metropolitan community. It’s used for both academic instruction, and for community research. Graduate Lab Assistants are available to provide assistance in use of lab resources.
  • Neighborhood Development Services Program (NDSP) – Financed through leverage of ongoing grant and contract revenues, and drawing on the resources of our established indicator data program, the NDSP represents CEI’s formal commitment to provide data-driven strategic planning support services to Kansas City urban neighborhoods, on demand and pro bono, to the limits of our capacity. Further leverage of staff capacity has been achieved through training and supervision of graduate and undergraduate student assistants in response to NDSP requests.
  • Habitat for Humanity – a collaboration with Habitat for Humanity to assess the impact of homes produced by Habitat on the conditions of the neighborhood in which they are located. Phase One assesses the physical conditions of homes built through 2006. Phase Two assesses the physical conditions of homes built after 2006 and the impact of HFH home ownership on the residents’ quality of life.
  • Historic East Side Neighborhoods Asset Mapping – Starting in the fall of 2009, CEI began to provide ongoing assistance and support for 10 KCMo East Side neighborhoods in an “asset-mapping” project designed to lay the groundwork for community and economic development initiatives. Services provided by CEI staff and student assistants include data collection design, training of resident volunteers, data-entry, summary reports, and mapping.