urban institute nonprofit social and economic policy research

ACIP Affiliates

ACIP currently works with local affiliates in seven locations: Boston; Central Valley, California; Chicago; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. These affiliates are committed to better understanding neighborhood dynamics, including those focused on arts and culture. Affiliates are currently working with ACIP to integrate arts and cultural indicators into their quality of life assessment systems and are helping to develop and test ACIP recommended indicators locally. Our aim with this work is to develop and make available an array of data and research and analysis tools that practitioners concerned with arts and culture as a dimension of quality of life can adopt or adapt. Brief descriptions of ACIP affiliates follow.

Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Indicators Project

http://www.bostonfoundation.org/indicators2004/culturallife/grid.asp

The Boston Indicators Project is an initiative coordinated by the Boston Foundation in partnership with the City of Boston/Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. The project produces a series of biennial reports that track change in ten areas of focus, including civic health, cultural life and the arts, education, the economy, the environment, housing, public health and safety, and technology and transportation.

Central Valley, California

The Great Valley Center

http://www.greatvalley.org

The Great Valley Center (GVC) is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to improve quality of life in Central Valley, California. As part of its work, GVC produces a series of annual indicator reports, State of the Great Central Valley Series, that focus on Central Valley's economy, population, and environment.

Chicago, Illinois

Metropolitan Chicago Information Center

http://www.mcfol.org

Metropolitan Chicago Information Center (MCIC) is an independent, nonprofit research and consulting organization that provides a wide range of data, research, and publications focused on social conditions and quality of life in the metropolitan Chicago area. MCIC has collaborated with ACIP since 2004.

Los Angeles, California

Active Arts Initiative

http://www.musiccenter.org/activearts.html

The Active Arts Initiative at the Los Angeles County Music Center is an effort focused on promoting the practice of performing arts among people who are not professional artists. In addition to providing programs focusing on actual arts practice, the Active Arts Initiative is working with the Urban Institute as well as practitioners and researchers in the Los Angeles area from the arts and other fields to identify and develop innovative and sustainable ways of documenting arts and cultural participation. The group is also committed to identifying ways in which data about arts and cultural participation can be used in urban policy decision-making and planning.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project 2005

http://www.temple.edu/mpip

Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project (MPIP) is sponsored by the William Penn Foundation and Temple University. The project produces Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project Report, an annual report on social, environmental, and economic indicators in Philadelphia region. The project also conducts an annual household survey of quality of life in the greater Philadelphia region.

Seattle/King County, Washington

Epidemiology, Planning, and Evaluation UnitPublic Health—Seattle and King County

http://www.metrokc.gov/health, http://www.communitiescount.org

The Public Health Department at Seattle, King County is part of a collaborative indicator initiative in Seattle and King County, which produces the Communities Count: Social and Health Indicators report. This report is produced every three years and addresses a range of issues including basic needs and social well-being, positive development through life stages, safety and health, community strength, natural and built environment, and arts and culture.

Washington, D.C.

Neighborhood Info D.C. (A Partnership of the Urban Institute and the Washington, D.C., Local Initiatives Support Corporation [LISC])

http://www.neighborhoodinfodc.org

Neighborhood Info D.C. works to support community organizations, neighborhood leadership and residents, and government as they work to improve the quality of life for people throughout the District of Columbia. The initiative seeks to provide a wide range of data on D.C. neighborhoods, including data on population, race, ethnicity, income, poverty, employment, education, arts and culture, public assistance, single-parent families, low-weight and teen births, income, housing, and crime. The Initiative is currently housed at the Urban Institute.