Courtesy MPIP

By developing maps like the one above, Temple’s Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project will show places ripe for collaborations among arts and cultural organizations.

By identifying areas of social concern and demographic trends in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, Temple’s Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project (MPIP) is helping the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA) make the case for expanding arts and culture outreach and partnerships in the region’s communities.

The project, called a Road Map for Regional Activity Analysis, will be completed this spring.

“A lot of arts and culture organizations are involved in social service projects, such as literacy education or theater programs for autistic children,” said Nicholas Crosson, research analyst at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. “We enlisted MPIP to help us match our knowledge of what arts and cultural groups are doing with a better understanding of the concerns in the region.

“MPIP’s expertise in analyzing data and understanding the Philadelphia region made us think they would be the best ones to help us with our project,” Crosson added.

While GPCA inventories its members to determine the range of social issues they are involved with, MPIP will examine survey and census data to develop an understanding of what area residents care about most. The two groups will then marry their results and see what they find.

GPCA will use the findings to strengthen coordination among arts and cultural groups addressing some of the most critical social service needs in the region.

“Through our analysis of trends in populations and perceptions we will develop a broad picture of the area’s most pressing needs, allowing GPCA to think creatively about how its members can best address those issues and what partnerships among arts organizations would be most successful,” said Michelle Schmitt, MPIP’s project coordinator.

Slicing and dicing data to find the meaning behind it is what MPIP is all about. Funded by the William Penn Foundation, the project has collected, updated, analyzed and mapped information from dozens of data sources at the local, state and federal levels to measure conditions and track changes across metropolitan Philadelphia. Its mission is to promote regional thinking about metropolitan Philadelphia’s most important challenges.

“We crunch the numbers and craft stories about the Philadelphia region,” said Schmitt.

To learn more about the Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project, visit MPIP.