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Issue 11—January 13, 2006
Welcome to SAVI Connections, the bi-monthly electronic newsletter regarding the
SAVI system. SAVI Connections provides news about SAVI, demonstrates
various ways in which SAVI can benefit your organization, announces release of
new data, showcases new tools, highlights a variety of SAVI users, and
broadcasts user support and training options. The Polis staff encourages your
ideas and feedback.
Please address comments to: skandris@iupui.edu. View past newsletters at: http://www.savi.org/savi/SAVINews.aspx
As a SAVI user since 1998, David knew his downtown Indianapolis congregation could benefit from SAVI in its strategic planning process. He used SAVI in the information gathering phase to identify the surrounding community's need for programs and services, including the congregation's current programs, which include a free clothing program, food program, and thrift shop. David used SAVI to look at the crime, poverty, race, ethnicity, age, housing stock, and number of singles in the neighborhood and to map the locations of other churches and organizations providing similar services. Although there are several other services in the area, he discovered that a majority of the other services in the area place requirements on recipients of their services (e.g., must be a member of the church that is providing the service, be low income with HIV/Aids, be disabled, live in specific a ZIP code, etc.). He also found a high density of single adults in the surrounding area, likely because of the large number of apartments around the church. "It was right in front of our faces, but we didn't realize it until we saw it on the map," he noted. There are a high number of adults and low number of children in the community, so children's outreach programs probably will not be a service offered by the congregation. Singles with disabilities and/or low income, on the other hand, will be a high priority. Licht's advice for other congregations: "It is different for faith-based organizations because we aren't data-driven. But as you are searching for God's call for your organization, the data and numbers will help you stay on track." David is a Business Systems Consultant at the Indiana Department of Education. He is involved in the church because it gives him a chance to work in areas he isn't able to through his current job; it puts him back in touch with his social services training. He is licensed in social work and has a Masters of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary. |
Second Presbyterian Church is one of the city's oldest and largest congregations. When it began a strategic panning process in 2005, the task force soon raised questions regarding service opportunities in the larger Indianapolis community. Consultants to the planning process suggested SAVI as a way to discover some answers. One of the first steps was to learn where members lived by using the data upload function of SAVI to plot addresses. The result was revealing-members lived throughout the Indianapolis MSA, with the highest concentrations across northern Marion County and southern Hamilton County. The congregation's community, as measured by its members' residences, was metropolitan in its reach. Comparison with earlier membership maps confirmed that the church's historical growth patterns had not changed significantly since the previous planning period. When the membership distribution was downloaded into standard GIS software for further analysis, new patterns emerged as population clusters appeared, providing opportunities for the congregation to consider programs at locations other than the church building. Again, SAVI was helpful by identifying what types of human service and educational programs-assets-were present in areas where members lived, thus helping the task force avoid duplicate programming. The task force also was interested in problems within its more geographically local community. Members valued these mission opportunities and had long seen this type of service as a hallmark of the church. SAVI was helpful here as well. Using the system's rich information, SAVI provided a portrait of the immediate neighborhood that allowed the task force to consider ways it could use congregational resources to address human needs. Second Presbyterian is only one of a number of local congregations using SAVI in its planning and outreach activities. Eastern Star Church, the city's largest congregation, has used SAVI for several years to identify areas of need that the church could serve. "SAVI has been very helpful to us in grant applications," notes Kelley Gulley, special projects administrator for Eastern Star. SAVI data also has allowed staff to educate the congregation and Board of Directors about the types of juvenile services the church could provide and why. St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Carmel also used SAVI to locate its members and then combined this information with other data provided by the Indianapolis Center for Congregations as it developed a strategic plan in 2004. Central Christian Church is using SAVI in its current strategic planning process. "SAVI is a good source for what is going on in the neighborhood around the church," explains David Licht, member of the church's planning and outreach committees. Increasingly congregations are turning to SAVI as they seek to make a difference in the world around them. In addition to learning more about where members live, these churches are benefiting from reliable and comprehensive information about the needs and opportunities in the communities they serve. If you are interested in how SAVI can serve your congregation, plan to attend a special workshop at Eastern Star Church on February 17 (see announcement below). You also may call Sharon Kandris at 278-2944.
One of the easiest and most helpful ways a congregation can use SAVI is to map its members. Often the result is surprising. Even when a church knows its members live far beyond the immediate neighborhood-and a 2000 study by The Polis Center revealed that only one-third of the typical congregation's members live within 3 miles of the church building-few realize the wide geographic extent of its membership. 
To use SAVI to map congregational (or any organizational) members, follow these simple instructions:
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| SAVI for Congregations Workshop |
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SAVI is offering a customized workshop for congregations. This course is tailored to teach congregations how to use SAVI to map member locations, identify needs
in their service areas, and explore various demographics of their service area. Eastern Star Church will host the workshop, open to all congregations.
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SAVI is a community information system administered and maintained by The Polis Center, a unit in the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. SAVI is supported financially by the following organizations: Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust; Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Inc.; Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, Inc.; Indianapolis Foundation, an affiliate of Central Indiana Community Foundation; Annie E. Casey Foundation; Lilly Endowment, Inc.; United Way of Central Indiana; City of Indianapolis, Department of Metropolitan Development; Marion County Health and Hospital Corporation; Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). |
| For more information about SAVI, please visit the website at www.savi.org. |
| To subscribe to SAVI Connections, send an e-mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with no subject and only the following in the body: SUBSCRIBE SAVI_NEWS-L |
To unsubscribe to SAVI Connections, send an e-mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with no subject and only the following in the body: UNSUBSCRIBE SAVI_NEWS-L |
