The 2023 Interim Update of the Community Focus Report shows an increase in gun violence and steady numbers of child abuse and neglect cases. But there was also positive news. For example, the report finds that Springfield has a better mental health provider to resident ratio than the rest of Missouri.
Drury Professor Jonathan Groves, who helped put the report together and who presented it at the Drury Nonprofit Leadership Conference Thursday, said mental health was identified as a red flag in 2017, but things have improved.
“Since that time, we’ve seen collaborative public and private efforts to confront the issue,” he said. “In 2021, the report highlighted a success story – Burrell Behavioral Crisis Center Rapid Access Unit, a 24/7 unit for mental health that has served thousands with acute mental health crises since its opening.”
And he pointed to the Youth Resiliency Campus being built in north Springfield that will serve youth in crisis.
However, he said there’s still a need for more providers to help those dealing with drug addiction.
“The drug poisoning mortality rate for Greene County,” he said, “is 25% higher than the national rate.”
Another finding, Groves said, is that just over half of homes in Greene County that are renter-occupied are in the category of cost-burdened households. That means that those households spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
And the Ozarks Health Commission, he said, found that 28% of Springfield residents live in substandard housing.
The report shows that almost every topic area gained from pandemic recovery funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, he said, “which has led to millions of dollars for 39 city and county projects.”
Nonprofits and government agencies have used the report’s red flags and blue ribbons since 2004 to focus funding and resources for the greatest impact, according to Groves.
The update was led by Community Foundation of the Ozarks, the Springfield-Greene County Library, Junior League of Springfield, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of the Ozarks.
A revised list of red flags and blue ribbons will be developed for the 20th anniversary next year.