Past Projects

 

Children in Poverty

In the fall of 2005, the Good Community Committee (the Community and Social Issues Institute’s [CSII] community advisory panel) recommended that the CSII focus its resources on problems identified by the Community Focus: a Report for Springfield and Greene County. The last two Community Focus reports have identified the problem of children living in poverty as a “red flag issue.” The 2004 report said, “Too many children in our community suffer from the lingering effects of poverty,” and “The needs of many at-risk children in Springfield are not being met.”

In response, the CSII initiated a study to learn more about these children in Springfield and Greene County.

Five Missouri State professors, representing a variety of disciplines, collaborated to do the work, utilizing a significant number of both graduate and undergraduate students. Those faculty members were Dr. Denise Cunningham, Department of Early Childhood and Family Development; Dr. Sue George, Department of Early Childhood and Family Development; Ms. Bev Long, School of Social Work; Dr. Cindy MacGregor, Department of Educational Administration; and Dr. Paul Rollinson, Department of Geography, Geology, and Planning.

A community advisory panel, consisting of four community leaders whose work brings them into contact with children in poverty, worked closely with the research team. Members of the Advisory Panel were Sr. Lorraine Biebel, Founder and first Director of The Kitchen; Dr. Sandy D’Angelo, pediatric psychologist at Burrell Behavioral Health; Dr. Judy Dasovitch, Medical Director of The Kitchen Clinic; and Rev. David Huskisson, Chair of the Minister’s Coalition of Springfield.

The Springfield Mayor’s Commission for Children underwrote a part of the costs of this project and served as a sponsor.

The results of the study were presented at the April 3, 2007, Mayor’s Summit on Children, and will provide a base of information upon which a comprehensive community plan for action concerning local children will be based.

The Power Point presentation of study results may be seen and downloaded from the following link:

Children in Poverty
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Readiness for School

Prior to the establishment of the CSII, the Mayor's Commission for Children began a study of school readiness of children in Springfield and Greene County. One of the basic charges of the MCC is to find ways for the community to assist in getting children ready to succeed in school.

 

The CSII Director is playing a leadership role in this study. Six leading community agencies have been brought into the planning committee. Beginning in the fall of 2006, data on the readiness of students entering 135 of the 141 kindergarten classrooms of the county will be gathered. Social and emotional readiness will be considered, along with more traditional aspects of readiness.

 

Data from the 2006-2007 school year will be used to determine bench marks, and it is anticipated that this assessment will be replicated at appropriate intervals in the future in order to track changes which result from future efforts of the MCC and others to better prepare local children for success in school.

 

For a compilation of the Institute's accomplishments, please contact the Director (by email or at 417-836-6679).