Boone County releases mobility action plan to address poverty
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Boone County presented the county's upward mobility plan during a meeting Tuesday afternoon.
The work focuses on three priorities in Boone County - early grade literacy, jobs, and fair and inclusive housing.
In May 2021, Boone County was selected to be one of eight counties nationwide to participate in this first-of-its-kind study.
The complete study and presentation of the data are contained in 160 pages action plan and the general public got to hear firsthand how the county plans to improve the upward mobility for those living in poverty.
The mobility action plan was paid for by the Urban Institute which receives its funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. One of the three work groups focused on safety and supportive communities. According to the data compiled by the workgroup, violent crime has remained stable since 2016 and that property crimes have increased by 117%.
The safety work group also looked at homelessness. In 2020, 281 individuals received homelessness prevention services and more than $193,000 was spent on families to receive prevention services.
Joanne Nelson, the director of the Boone County Community Services Department, says that the report showed information and data that when compiled gave a broad picture of the need in Boone County.
"What we did this time is work with the people and organizations most affected to try and come up with the root causes of poverty. Because we can treat the symptoms all we want. But we really need to treat what is causing it," said Nelson.
Nelson says that the county learned from the workgroups that the data points themselves were not a surprise, but when the data as a whole was put together finding the causes and where they needed to focus became clear.
