Minnesota Child Response Initiative:

Geo-mapping Project in Suburban Ramsey County

Introduction and Background

The Minnesota Child Response Initiative (MCRI) is a partnership led by the Tubman Family Alliance and consists of domestic violence programs, mental health agencies, and the Minneapolis Police Department. The primary mission of the project is to “break the cycle of violence and help to heal the emotional wounds that chronic exposure to violence inflicts on children, families, and communities.” The MCRI project has been organized into three primary components in order to facilitate this mission: intervention, system change, and research. The system change component of the project seeks to identify the needs that various communities have in terms of children’s exposure to violence through community needs assessments (in the form of surveys and focus groups) and a geo-mapping project. This report outlines the findings from the geo-mapping in suburban Ramsey county. Analysis was limited primarily to suburban Ramsey county because St. Paul differs so dramatically in terms of demographics from the rest of the county.

Geo-Mapping

The purpose of the geo-mapping project is to use GIS software to highlight areas that appear to have high need in terms of children’s exposure to violence and limited resources (i.e. to identify areas where there is an apparent gap between needs and available services). “Need” was defined across a number of factors. The 2000 census data was used to provide a “snapshot” of each area in terms of demographics and socioeconomic indicators. . Domestic assault counts for each city/town in suburban Ramsey county were also obtained from the Tubman Family Alliance which, through a previously existing process, receives information about all reported domestic assaults in the area.. Finally, social service resources were contacted. The agencies to be contacted were originally obtained from the United Way web site and the yellow pages. We then determined, based on a series of questions asked of staff at each agency, whether they provided services for children and of what those services consisted. Addresses for agencies that provided some services for children and/or some violence specific programming were then geocoded and overlaid on the domestic assault information.

Findings

Figure 1 shows total population by precinct city/town with the number of domestic assaults reported in 2002. Roseville and Maplewood are the most populous areas. Maplewood had the highest number of assaults reported in 2002 (199), while there were 131 incidents reported in Roseville. The following areas had over 100 assaults reported in 2002: New Brighton, Moundsview, Roseville, Shoreview, Little Canada, Vadnais Heights, and Maplewood. Moundsview and Vadnais Heights emerge as areas of comparatively high need; both reported over 100 domestic assaults in 2002 and have relatively high concentrations of young children (12-13%). Figures 3-6 show the percent of the population in each city/town made up of a given minority population. These maps are included because efforts to meet the needs of children exposed to violence must be culturally relevant and culturally specific. Figure 3 indicates that American Indians make up a relatively low percentage of suburban Ramsey county’s population in general (only .6% overall). Figure 4 shows that the highest concentrations of Asian Americans are found in Lauderdale (11.4%) and Falcon Heights (15.6%). Figure 5 shows the highest concentration (4.9%) of African Americans to be in Little Canada. Lauderdale has a comparatively high concentration of Hispanic/Latinos. (Figure 6). Overall, as can be seen on the “pull out” boxes on each map, minority communities make up fairly small percentages of suburban Ramsey county’s population. Generally, as can be seen in the starred notes on each map, minority populations tend to be more concentrated in the city of St. Paul than in the surrounding Ramsey county suburbs. Figure 7 shows domestic assault counts and median family incomes in suburban Ramsey county. The lowest median income (below $40,000) is found in Lauderdale, which was also shown to have comparatively high concentrations of minority populations. The red and blue near North Oaks and Shoreview indicate a concentration of wealth in the north central portion of suburban Ramsey county. Figure 8 shades the cities/towns by the percent of families with children that have incomes below 185% of the federal poverty guideline (an income often considered to be the cutoff for “working poor”). The highest concentrations of “working poor or poorer” families in suburban Ramsey county are found in Lauderdale and Falcon Heights, where nearly a quarter of the families with children have incomes below this level. Figure 9 shows the percent of families with children in each city/town with incomes below the federal poverty guide. Overall, 4% of families with children in suburban Ramsey county are impoverished. Again, Falcon Heights emerges as an area of comparatively high need (nearly 15% of its families live in poverty). Figure 10 shows the percent renter occupied by city/town in suburban Ramsey county. This measure is included because a comparatively high concentration of residents living in rental properties is considered to be on indicator of potential socioeconomic instability in an area. Overall, 26.2% of all of suburban Ramsey county’s residents live in rental properties. The highest concentrations of renters are found in Falcon Heights and Lauderdale.

Finally, Figure 11 shows the places in suburban Ramsey county shaded by the number of domestic assaults reported to Tubman Family Alliance in 2002 overlaid with points geocoded to represent social service agencies that serve children and/or provide some violence specific programming (the green starts on the maps). The majority of such resources are located in the open space on the map, which represents the city of St. Paul. Many suburban Ramsey county residents utilize these resources.

Important Caveats

Although we made our best efforts to obtain accurate and comprehensive information about services in suburban Ramsey county, it should be noted that these maps are potentially missing relevant information. For example, we were unable to obtain consistent information about the size of the agencies, i.e. the number of people typically served. As a result, areas that emerge as particularly high need may in fact be served by relatively few large agencies. Additionally, our methods for obtaining agencies to contact were limited to published resources, such as the United Way web site and the yellow pages. As a result, small agencies that do provide services to children could be missing from this picture.

Conclusion

Despite the limitations of the resource information provided in these maps, we feel that this geomapping project does provide a valuable starting place for understanding and planning to meet the needs of children exposed to violence. These maps should be used together with representatives of communities around the county in order to inform community and city planning for this vulnerable group of children and families.

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