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Mid-America Regional Council

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The Children and Youth Project Team of the Homelessness Task Force of Greater Kansas City is working to secure new resources for children and youth services in our nine county region. Communities throughout the state of Missouri and other places have secured new public and private funds to meet growing needs. The project team believes that the community could support new resources if needs are demonstrated and a plan for investing new funds is broadly supported.

The Institute of Public Policy has been hired as consultants to facilitate and conduct a regional needs assessment and build a strategic investment plan to address the needs of at-risk children and youth. The approach involves four phases.

  • Phase 1: A community needs assessment using secondary public data and agency level surveys to identify the number of children and youth in need of services and quantify services being offered and the service gap.
  • Phase 2: A public opinion phone survey using random digit dial techniques to reach a sample that is representative of the respective geographic regions. The survey gauges awareness of services needs and level of support for new financial resources.
  • Phase 3: Convening stakeholders to review the needs assessment data, identify trends that point to community priorities, articulate community goals for addressing the most pressing issues and review the final investment plan.
  • Phase 4: Developing the investment plan that includes the work of the stakeholder convening and an economic impact analysis independently conducted by IPP.

The final investment plan will include all data and analysis relevant to each county independently and to the nine counties as a region. The investment plan and supporting data will be used by each county to move ahead in pursuing the right local financial resources to address the most pressing needs. The plan and the data will also provide a regional structure for the Mid-America Regional Council as they provide guidance and support for regional planning and development.