You’ve seen the data on the neighborhood zone profiles, but now what? We’ve put together information on how to use the NVI, deep dives into what we’ve learned from the data, and more.
NVI Deep Dive is a blog series designed to help you explore the data behind the Neighborhood Vitality Index and start having conversations. In each post, we’ll show you how to identify trends and connections that can inform how you engage with and impact your neighborhood zone.
This blog looks at the relationship between residents’ willingness to report crime and participation in neighborhood programs. Are neighbors who engage more likely to report crime...or less? Let’s take a closer look at what the data reveals.
This blog asks: Where do people find the information they need to carry out their daily lives? The answer matters if society is concerned with ensuring that residents have the tools and knowledge to live effectively in their environment.
We created some one page example guides on how you can use data in your community and work. Read the guides, download PDFs, and share with your collaborators!
Malachi is a program director at a community development organization in Northwest Detroit. Participation in their community meetings has been low for the last year. Read about how Malachi uses NVI data to engage with residents.
Pete is a long-time volunteer in his church’s food pantry. He’s a retired English teacher and started helping the pastor with grant writing. Read about how Pete uses NVI data to connect his neighbors with food.
Patricia is a principal at an elementary school where the students are almost all from the local neighborhood, but the school struggles to engage parents and adult guardians in school activities and teacher conferences. Read about how Patricia uses NVI data to meet parents where they're at.
Camille is a support group leader at a nonprofit who works in her neighborhood to help moms prepare for new babies and support them with their breastfeeding journey. She heard that only two thirds of mothers received adequate prenatal care. Read about how Camille uses NVI data to help her neighbors get prenatal care.
Whether NVI data is representative is a complicated question, and it doesn’t have a simple yes or no answer. When we talk about “representative” data, what we really mean is this: do we believe the survey responses we collected would look similar if every Detroiter took the survey?
Council districts and neighborhood zones in Detroit range in size, number of parcels, and population count. These differences impact how we interpret data describing these places.
What geographic area is the right size? To answer this question, we convened the Defining Neighborhoods task force from our broad spectrum of partners.
When we say “representative,” we just mean: do we think the answers we got would be similar if everyone answered? In this case, the answer is mostly yes for the city as a whole and for each City Council District. That means the people who answered the survey give us a good idea of what most people in Detroit might say—if we had asked everyone.
The 2024 Neighborhood Vitality Index (NVI) continues to show the importance of responsible data collection efforts. Driven by valuable feedback from key stakeholders, a collaborative project with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation, and a partnership with the City of Detroit, allowed us to refine the index, ensuring it more accurately reflects the lived experiences of residents and provides actionable data for community development.
