Projects
OSEDA collaborates with a wide range of organizations on projects that impact the lives of virtually every Missourian. While each project has a specific focus, often there are important implications in related fields. Rather than list a project under multiple headings, each appears in the category deemed the most relevant.
Decision Support
Provides governmental entities and other organizations, from small communities to the state level, with the information needed to make informed, fact-based decisions.
- Kids Count Missouri (KCM) provides an annual report on the status of children in Missouri by county. Kids Count is a collaborative project of OSEDA, the Family and Community Trust (FACT), Children's Trust Fund (CTF), and more than 20 public and private organizations across the state. CTF and the Annie E. Casey Foundation provide the primary funding for the data book and data tool. Its mission is to improve the well-being of Missouri's children by increasing the visibility of the condition of children in their own communities and by promoting policy and programmatic changes.
- The Missouri Senior Report is intended to enhance the well-being of seniors by annually informing key audiences of the contributions and needs of Missouri seniors. The report, available on the web and in print, provides outcome and status indicators of senior well-being at the state and county levels, issue papers relevant to current policy issues, as well as links and referrals to additional resources. Outcome and status indicators are available in a variety of formats including as tables (in PDF and HTML format), maps, interactive tables that allow the selection of specific indicators, years, and geographies, and downloadable data files. The Missouri Senior Report is produced as a collaboration between the University of Missouri's Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Missouri's Area Agencies on Aging, and University of Missouri Extension.
Demographics
Draws from U.S. Census Bureau data, and many other sources, to provide comprehensive, impartial analyses on an enormous range of demographic-related issues.
- Missouri Census Data Center (MCDC) is a cooperative program among state agencies in Missouri and the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Its purpose is to enhance awareness of, and access to public data, especially that of the Census Bureau. The Missouri State Library is the administrative lead agency for Missouri's program; it contracts out most of the data collection, dissemination, and web development duties to OSEDA and the Geographic Resources Center. OSEDA has been providing these services since 1988. MCDC provides an affiliate network of over 30 public agencies around the state who provide more local assistance with access and application of the data. The MCDC data archive, which includes many national collections as well as Missouri-specific data, is one of the premier sites in the country for accessing census and other demographic/geographic data. Many of OSEDA's data projects take advantage of the data infrastructure and web access tools provided by the MCDC.
Economic Development
Utilizes its expertise in areas such as population patterns, education, income and transportation, to improve Missouri's capacity for economic development.
- The Family Wage Calculator for Missouri charts the actual costs of living and working in the state. It measures how much income a family needs to pay for housing, food, childcare, healthcare, transportation and taxes-if they do not receive any help from relatives, friends or the government-based on the ages, as well as number, of children in each household, the number of working adults in the family, whether or not the adult's employer provides healthcare, and the family's geographic location.
- Missouri Career Exploration Tool — OSEDA collaborates with the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) to create an interactive career exploration tool combining occupation projections, education and training information, industry projections, and skills data, including WorkKeys®.
Education
Focuses on efforts to improve education from preschool through the graduate level, in urban and rural environments, with short, medium and long-term timelines.
- The Missouri School Improvement Program reviews and accredits Missouri's school districts and promotes the development of school improvement projects.
Public Health
Evaluates, from a non-clinical perspective, the potential implications of efforts such as preventive medical intervention for young people to caring for the elderly.
- AgrAbility Program Evaluation increases the likelihood that individuals with disabilities and their families engaged in production agriculture become more successful. The AgrAbility focus is consistent with OSEDA's mission of partnering in the analysis of data in ways that contribute to improvements in the economic and social well-being of people and communities. The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of the AgrAbility Program in Missouri. Three key outcomes have been identified: expanded service capacity through educational programs; expanded service capacity through networking opportunities; and expanded service capacity through direct and individualized assistance. Read the full report.