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NNIP PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Metropolitan Chicago Information Center Institutional Setting The Metro Chicago Information Center (MCIC) is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1990. MCIC is a neutral third party expert committed to generating strategic information that improves local and regional economic and quality of life conditions in communities. While it has also worked on city and regional strategies, community development has always been an important part of its portfolio. MCIC has steadily maintained a membership base of about 200 organizations, about 100 of which are organizations involved in community participation in community planning that use MCIC data and technical support for needs assessments, strategic plans, funding proposals, public education / advocacy reports, evaluations, and mandated inventories of service needs and/or assets in their catchment areas.
MCIC maintains capacities for: Facilitation of Development Plans - Facilitated discussion with community development staff and community residents on the details/status of development plans, either anticipated or in progress, including "emergency" assessment of deals that appear to be in trouble or that have hit a major barrier. Communication Tools for NCP Agencies - MCIC maintains an advanced, continuously updated information system on neighborhood conditions that is the basis for community workshops and PowerPoint presentations by local agencies on content areas such as: status of housing, demographic trends, local market analysis, commercial trends and how to recruit businesses. MCIC is a primary partner in the Northeast Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) efforts to build a multi-source virtual data warehouse for the Chicago region. Community Surveys. MCIC's survey capacity meets all requirements, from large-scale surveys with professional interiewing and scientific sample quality control, to local community information projects such as intercept surveys to determine shopping patterns or local business plans. MCIC conducts evaluation studies to compare costs and benefits of data collection strategies. For 13 years MCIC conducted a regional quality-of-life survey. Our information system on neighborhood conditions expanded markedly in 2002 when MCIC was selected to be the data intermediary to serve the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's long-term, 16 neighborhood, New Communities Program (NCP) - already noted for its resident led "Quality of Life Planning" approach website:http://www.newcommunities.org/ . MCIC is substantially expanding its holdings of neighborhood level data to do this work, and is tasked with preparing maps, tabulations, and reports to determine the patterns of neighborhood change associated with the NCP work. LISC's publication "Measuring Community Development: An Emerging Approach to Quantifying Neighborhood Revitalization" is a summary of MCIC work that is the forerunner of this activity (available on MCIC website at: www.mcic.org ). MCIC is funded largely through work with local foundations, local governments and other area nonprofits. We have maintained our commitment to serve smaller, community organizations even while the philanthropic underwriting for these activities has decreased. We have done this by leveraging our data base resources, and other organizational capacities (survey design and administration, focus groups) to undertake about to 100 custom research projects per year that generate revenues which subsidize services to smaller, community organizations and the other public benefits we provide. PARTNER BIOGRAPHIES: Garth Taylor is President the Metro Chicago Information Center -- a not-for-profit organization dedicated to research, data collection, and serving community information needs in areas of public policy concern in the six-county Chicago metropolitan area. During 15 years as founding leader of MCIC he has directed studies, designed surveys, engaged in consultations, presented findings, taught classes, and volunteered time on a wide range of topics concerned with the quality of life in American cities. He has also had the experience of growing and nurturing a non-profit organization through start-up, expansion, and steady-state phases. Prior to leading MCIC, he was Director of Research and Planning at the Chicago Urban League. Prior to that he taught neighborhood sociology, survey methods, data analysis, and public policy research for a number of years at the University of Chicago. His 1984 book on neighborhood change in Chicago is one of the early classics in the urban revival genre - documenting to the role of transportation and place amenities in overcoming adverse reactions to crime, and documenting the role of coordinated, institutional action in stimulating individual investment and overcoming the psychology of neighborhood tipping. His 1986 book on Boston won a national award from the American Political Science Association. He is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters on survey research and data analysis methods. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. He is a recent recipient of the year-long Community Service Fellowship sabbatical grant from the Chicago Community Trust, in recognition of a distinguished career of leadership in the nonprofit community. |