Creating a Geography of Opportunity: Connecting the Dots Among Neighborhoods, School, and Housing to Increase Equity

BTCC is a network of organizations and individuals collaborating to provide training, build relationships, and promote actionable change to address the root causes of social problems in Monroe County. This Quarterly Gathering is open to all community members and will include a presentation and discussion on inequities in housing and education. School equity and zip codes are intimately connected. This presentation, led by educational equity researchers, the Bloomington Housing Authority, and nonprofit South Central Indiana Housing Opportunities, will paint a picture of this issue in Bloomington and then present next steps to address local inequities in housing and educational access. Using new GIS mapping technology, we will first provide a geographic depiction of low-income housing options within school zones, highlighting a few examples of the relationship between residential patterns and school equity. Then, to look more deeply at the experiences of parents living in a high poverty local school zone, our research team will describe findings from door-to-door interviews in the Fairview Elementary school zone. We will highlight conditions in Bloomington found to affect the school/housing/community relationship and ultimately impact children daily in neighborhoods around Fairview Elementary: walkability, access to resources, childcare before/after school, housing options, and family/school relationships, among others. This presentation will conclude with an open discussion around possible next steps toward creating a geography of opportunity, to make Bloomington more equitable for all.

The following individuals will be presenting:

Christy Wessel Powell, Assistant Professor of Education at Purdue University; She and her research team was awarded a grant to study the connection between neighborhoods and school equity using a geographical lens during the summer of 2019. Her research team consists of:

-Gina Weir, Independent Researcher located in Bloomington, Indiana,

-Alexandra Panos, Assistant Professor of Literacy Studies at the University of South Florida,

-Casey Pennington, Graduate Student at Indiana University

-Deborah Myerson, Executive Director of South Central Indiana Housing Opportunities (SCIHO).

-Amber Skoby, Executive Director of the Bloomington Housing Authority (BHA)

Cost: Free

For more information contact:

Stephanie Solomon
(812) 335-7276
[email protected]