More Projects
04/15/2022
SAVI Changing Landscape of Poverty
In June 2019, SAVI released a report documenting the Changing Landscape in Poverty in Central Indiana. It revealed an increase in poverty in older suburban neighborhoods of Indianapolis, especially in places like the Far Eastside. But it only scratched the surface in understanding poverty, its impacts, and what can be done; and organizations need support…
04/15/2022
Great Families 2020/Social Innovation Fund
This four-year United Way of Central Indiana (UWCI) program, funded with federal assistance via the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), aimed to improve financial stability among families in Indianapolis by using a two-generational approach to service delivery. The initiative focused on strengthening families in targeted communities by following Aspen Institute’s two-generation model. Polis partnered with the…
03/16/2022
Measuring Human Social and Environmental Indicators
Not all patients follow their health providers’ treatment recommendations, to their detriment, but they may be doing the best they can under circumstances. Some people live and work in environments that work against efforts to improve health. Care and treatment of patients is expected to be more successful when the patient’s environment is considered as…
04/30/2021
Council District Crime Prevention Grant program
Polis built a new partnership to support policymaking in Central Indiana with a collaboration with the Indianapolis City County Council to develop actionable data to inform its public safety grant allocation process and to inform its committee on race and equity about the inequities Black Indy residents face in the current pandemic that contribute to…
04/11/2021
IUPUI Community Engagement Map
We developed an online Community Engagement Map leveraging SAVI, in partnership with the IUPUI Office of Community Engagement (OCE). We linked data from SAVI and IUPUI’s Collaboratory (a database of in-depth information entered by students, faculty and staff about ways they are engaged with the community.) to continually update an online searchable map that depicts…
12/21/2020
Hydraulic Assessment of Mitigating Flooding Impact
The City of Logansport endured recurring flooding issues, with the greatest concern being the concentration of structures within the flood boundary along Goose Creek. After engaging with community officials, it was determined that focusing efforts on Goose Creek would provide the greatest mitigation impact for the city. The current effective flood boundaries along Goose Creek…
03/04/2020
Decision Support Systems: Indiana Flood Mitigation Platform
Flood mitigation planning in Indiana and many other states results in the creation or update of a hard copy plan that often sits on a shelf. However, the flood mitigation strategies contained in the plans, as well as the GIS data used to support analysis for the plan, are too important to be stored in…
03/04/2020
Transportation Vulnerability Assessment: Owen County, IN
Owen County and the Towns of Spencer and Gosport in the State of Indiana experienced multiple instance of severe flooding, which negatively impacted transportation and disrupted the flow of community life. The majority of flood damages occurred along the West Fork White River, the White River, and several tributaries. The Polis Center assisted the Indiana Department…
03/04/2019
Developing an Integrated Data Portal to Manage Data: Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research & Policy
The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research & Policy at the IU School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, is engaged in research to inform health policy, improve health care delivery and promote population health. A large portion of Bowen Center’s current research focuses on the health workforce and the influence of various health care…
12/11/2017
IndyVitals: Increasing Transparency and Coordination through Better Data Access
The IndyVitals tool was conceived as a means to measure the long-term health and sustainability of neighborhoods. A second goal was to help organizations by making comparative neighborhood-level data transparent. The true power of IndyVitals is its ability to coordinate actions of community partners by highlighting the strengths and challenges of diverse neighborhoods in Indianapolis. As data can be very complex, IndyVitals offers…
03/04/2017
Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 2017 Interim Report
The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Multihazard Mitigation Council (MMC) wanted to update its landmark 2005 Mitigation Saves Study to cover the period since it was issued to current time period. It also wanted to: Analyze the effectiveness of 23 years of all federal mitigation grant and loan spending since only Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)…