By: Angela Maher, Research Associate Alex Dorman, Research Fellow Forty percent of low-income residents of Cuyahoga County reported that their financial situation is worse today than it was two years ago. People experiencing poverty report a rising perception that it is getting harder to get out of poverty, yet many hold hope their incomes will...
Age-Friendly Consulting Services
“A world in which you would want to grow older.” – World Health Organization definition of an Age-Friendly World Over the past ten years, the Center for Community Solutions has collaborated with cities and counties throughout Ohio as they have engaged in the process to become Age-Friendly communities. The first guide to Age-friendly cities was...
Housing Affordability has remained stable in Cuyahoga County
The Center for Community Solutions worked with United Way of Greater Cleveland in 2023 to develop a community needs assessment. The project examined the conditions in Cuyahoga County related to Economic Mobility, Housing Stability and Health Pathways. The full report and executive summary provide analysis of data, pre-existing community assessments and 211 data trends. Mixed...
What is the status of Ohio women in 2023?
Women and girls comprise half of Ohio’s population and hold most of the college degrees in the state, yet they are more likely to be in poverty than their male counterparts. Women make up more than half the electorate but are not equally represented in elected office. Women tend to live longer, and in Ohio,...
Community stakeholders offer updates on Cleveland’s lead crisis
National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week was October 22-28, 2023, where many individuals and organizations across the US held various events to increase awareness about lead poisoning prevention in order to decrease childhood exposure to lead. Organizations in Cleveland participated in this weeklong campaign, including the Lead Screening and Testing Commission, which held its quarterly meeting...
Redistricting and representation in rural, white Ohio
Key Findings Ohio recently completed a two-year process to create new Senate and House district maps The majority of new districts are comprised of mostly census-designated rural regions 73 percent of senate districts and 63 percent of House districts are majority rural Rural regions comprise about 90 percent of the Ohio’s land, yet only...
Ohio cities are getting more diverse; rural areas are not
When you have a good idea, own it. When you borrow a good idea, give credit! Credit for this next good idea came from a caller on a radio show a few weeks ago. I was driving through the beautiful hills of Southeastern Ohio listening to an interview with Dr. William Frey, a researcher at...
Cleveland is again the second poorest city, but there is some good news on race and gender
Community Solutions’ early analysis of the 2022 data released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week was mixed. Most of the good news came on Tuesday with the release of the Current Population Survey. This source includes statistics on poverty for states and the country as a whole, including both the Official Poverty Measure (OPM)...
New report finds more than 70 percent of pregnancy-related deaths were preventable
Last week the Ohio Department of Health released the latest report on maternal mortality in Ohio, A Report on Pregnancy-Related Deaths in Ohio 2017-2018. There is a lot to unpack in the report and we’ll spend more time with the details in the coming weeks. However, we identified some key data points that should be...
Record Low Unemployment Statistics Leave Out Millions of Ohioans
Ohio’s unemployment rate of 3.3 percent in July 2023 was one of the lowest on record, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet this number tells only part of the story. Many Ohioans have removed themselves from the labor force completely and no longer count in official unemployment statistics. Many Ohioans have removed themselves...