Goals
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Indicator Measures
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How are we doing?
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| 1.1 Metro Boston’s Competitive Edge in Civic Health |
1.1.1 Racial and ethnic diversity |
As of 2008, 27% of Boston’s population was born in another country and people of color comprised 51% of the city’s residents, |
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1.1.2 Massachusetts ranking on the Center for Wealth & Philanthropy Charitabe Giving Indices |
Massachusetts ranked 8th out of 50 states when adjusted for tax burden and cost of living. |
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1.1.3 Opportunities for civic discourse, Metro Boston |
Greater Boston offers an unusually large number and broad range of opportunities for public dialogue, ranging from small and informal to the technologically advanced, which have only grown in the past few years. |
1.2 High Rates of Social Capital
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1.2.1 Residents' trust in neighbors, Boston |
In 2008, nearly 81% of Bostonians surveyed felt that they could rely on a neighbor for help, up from 76% in 2006 and 79% in 2003, according to the Boston Public Health Commission. |
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1.2.2 Civic engagement and social and racial trust, Massachusetts
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A majority of people polled rate the quality of race relations as “fair” or “good,” the percentage of whites who rate the quality as “excellent” is twice that of any other racial group. A majority of those polled feel that race relations have worsened over the last 8 years. |
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1.2.3 Volunteer activity, Boston and Massachusetts |
According to Boston Cares, one of the largest and broadest coordinator of volunteer activity in Greater Boston, in 2008, volunteers contributed 60,679 volunteer hours —a 125% increase over 2007 and a 212% increase since 2004. |
| 1.3 Demographically Representative Leadership |
1.3.1 Leadership of top 100 companies by race and gender, Metro Boston and Massachusetts |
As of 2009, women fill only 10.1% of the 837 board seats in the 100 largest public companies in Massachusetts. In 2008, 87% of 111 Commonwealth Compact-signing organizations and corporations reported that employees of color made up at least 10% of their workforce, |
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1.3.2 Diversity of elected leadership by race and gender, Massachusetts Legislature |
200-member Massachusetts legislature, women lost 6 seats, bringing the total number of women Senators and State Representatives down to 50; while the number of people of color elected to the State House has stagnated at around 5% over the last 8 years. |
| 1.4 High Rates of Voter Participation |
1.4.1 Registered voters and participation rates, Boston |
Between 2000 and 2008, the total number of registered voters in Boston increased by nearly 14%. In November 2008, 234,514 Bostonians—81% of registered voters and 39% of the total population—turned out to vote in the presidential election—a 14% increase over the 2004 presidential election and a 24% increase over 2000. |
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1.4.2 Contested Elections, Massachusetts Legislature |
In 2008 Massahusetts had the lowest rate of contested elections of all US states. |
| 1.5 Healthy Race and Community Relations |
1.5.1 Reported Hate Crimes by Type, Boston neighborhood |
The number of hate crimes in Boston investigated by the Community Disorders Unit of the Boston Police Department (BPD) continued to decline overall, reaching an all-time low of 169 in 2006, despite a slight increase in 2005 to 219 reported incidents. |
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1.5.2 Degree of residential segregation, Boston and Metro Boston |
Residential segregation is proliferating in the Metro Boston region: people of color make up 24% of the Greater Boston population and 34% of the population in cities like Worcester, Fall River and Lawrence. Whereas, in Massachusetts as a whole people of color comprise only 15% of the population. |
| 1.6 Stability and Investment in Neighborhoods |
1.6.1 People living at the same address by number of years, Boston neighborhood |
As of 2008, 27% of Boston homeowners has lived in thier current home since 2005 or later compared to 61% of renters. |
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1.6.2 Small business loans by race and gender, Boston neighborhood1.6.2 Small business loans by race and gender, Boston neighborhood |
In 2008, while the number of annual SBA loans was down by 85 from 333 in 2003, the average gross loan was more than $229,000, up from about $67,000. |
| 1.7 Welcoming and Inclusive Environment |
1.7.1 Public buildings and amenities accessible to people with disabilities, Boston |
In 2006, the Massachusetts Office on Disability, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the state Information Technology Division finalized a Memorandum of Understanding that ensures effective and useable access to state computer applications and websites for individuals with disabilities. |
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1.7.2 Multi-lingual capacity in major public institutions, Boston |
As of 2008, 1,662 foreign language interpreters were available in health centers, hospitals, public service agencies, schools, and city and state offices—and increase of nearly 1,000 since 2002. |
| 1.8 Access to Information |
1.8.1 Library books in circulation, Boston neighborhood |
With a total circulation of 3,116,540 books, circulation increased during the Boston Public Library (BPL) fiscal year 2008 by 8% over FY07, with the fastest-growing branches in neighborhoods with high concentrations of children and families. |
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1.8.2 Community newspapers by linguistic group, Boston neighborhood and Metro Boston |
Boston maintains a strong community-based newspaper system with more than 70 special interest services. Of those, 24 are ethnic papers making the news available in just as many languages; 28 are neighborhood papers that keep residents up-to-date on the issues pertinent to the community. |
| 1.9 Strength of the Nonprofit Sector |
1.9.1 Nonprofits by budget and type, Boston |
In 2008, more than 20,000 of Massachusetts’ 25,000 registered nonprofit organizations held tax-exempt status, confirmed by the IRS. Among these organizations, 56% report annual revenue of less than $100,000, up from 52% in 2006 and less than 50% just one decade ago in 1998. |
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1.9.2 Revenues for the 25 largest nonprofit organizations, Boston |
In 2008, revenues for the areas largest nonprofit organizations totaled more than $1.8 Billion, according to the Boston Business Journal. |
| 1.10 Public Support and Philanthropy |
1.10.1 In- and out-of-state grants, Metro Boston |
Grant funding from Massachusttes and out-of-state Foundations to Boston-area organizations increased by nearly $50 million between 2006 and 2007 and by $90 million from in-state Foundations. |
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1.10.2 Personal philanthropic support for the nonprofit sector, Massachusetts |
Massachusetts’ charitable foundations received more than $1.4 billion in gifts and donations in 2007, up 14% from $1.2 billion in 2006. |
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1.10.3 Assets and grants of top 50 foundations, Massachusetts |
Total assets of Massachusetts’ 3,042 charitable foundations stood at more than $18 billion in 2007—a 14% increase over 2006. In 2007, Massachusetts Foundations made nearly $1.3 billion in charitable grants, scholarships and employee matching gifts—a 22% increase over 2006 |