Our weekly program Making Democracy Work is a collaboration between KSMU Radio and the League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri. It's hosted and produced by LWV volunteers, and it airs each Monday morning at 9:45 on KSMU.
In this episode of our local program Making Democracy Work, host Amanda Stadler speaks with Traci Nash, facilitator of the Community Focus Report with Ozarks Public Health Institute at Missouri State University.
Stadler: The Community Focus Report is a long-standing assessment of local strengths and growth areas, known as blue ribbons and red flags over various focus areas. How is the Community Focus Report used?
Nash: The Community Focus Report is primarily used by leaders in our community. This includes nonprofit organizations, philanthropic organizations, academics, residents, city leaders, community leaders. The report really serves as a look at what's happened in the community over the last few years. It tries to tackle the things that we are proud of, that we want to showcase avenues for success, as well as the things that the community consistently identifies as needing some assistance and some support.
Stadler: The last report was released in 2024. What are some of the things that we can expect with the report this year?
Nash: The 2026 report is the first report that we have published since transitioning from a biennial report to a full-time program. Our goal with the full-time program is to increase our data capabilities so that the report that we are producing is backed by some local data, as well as federal data that is publicly available. We've also added two chapters to this report. For the first time ever, food and faith will have their own chapters within the Community Focus Report, giving us the chance to look at some more areas of the community and do the same type of strengths assessment.
Stadler: You mentioned that two new chapters will be included this year. Can you talk a little bit about the reasoning or process behind how those got added?
Nash: As part of our transition to the full-time program, we partnered with Community Partnership of the Ozarks to work with their Community Collaboratives program. These are groups that are meeting monthly around particular topic areas, and we wanted to utilize existing networks of community action rather than creating our own. So, food and faith are collaboratives within the CPO infrastructure. They meet regularly to talk about issues like food systems, as well as ways in which the faith community can get involved in community service projects and deepen their impact in the community.
Stadler: So these last few years have really been a big change for the structure and kind of process behind the Community Focus Report. But looking ahead, what do you see that's coming up next or what are you excited about for the report?
Nash: I'm excited about so many things for the Community Focus Report. I feel like we are only getting started. We've increased our data capacities, particularly this year, by bringing on a new analyst with some academic level data analyst perspective. I'm also excited because we're partnering with Ozarks Public Broadcasting to produce a new show called Community in Focus, in which we'll tackle a different topic each episode each month. In addition to that, we have expanded capacity for publications outside of the every two-year structure that we've had before. So, I'm looking forward to deep diving and producing some white papers on more specialized topics.
Stadler: And you've mentioned a lot about just the breadth of topics that the report covers, and how important that community involvement and community engagement piece is to the report. So how can people learn more about the report in general or get involved in any of the topic areas?
Nash: That's a great way to start by engaging with the report. Pick a topic in which you're interested and read about it. Learn who is currently working to address the issues within that particular topic area, and reach out to them to figure out how you can support them. We know that civic engagement is a theme throughout all of the chapters this year. The importance of participation by community members. If we're interested in actually trying to make this place better.
Stadler: And what is something that you wish people knew about the Community Focus Report? If you could have listeners leave with one takeaway, what would that be?
Nash: Read the Community Focus Report. Learn about what's going on in your community because small changes make a big difference.