We strive to be a resource organizer and community problem-solver, with initiatives and collaborative projects that put your contributions to work where they are needed most. Here is a listing of many data resources we use in our decision-making process.

The 2024-2025 Midland Health Survey was conducted to understand the health and health needs of people living in Midland County. The Saginaw Valley State University Team worked with the Health and Human Services Council (HHSC) to adapt the survey to ensure it met the needs of the HHSC and Midland County agencies, and collected data on any health issues/factors emerging since the previous data collection.

The ALICE Report is the most comprehensive estimate of what it costs to live and work in Michigan, and how many households cannot meet those costs, to date. In the ten years since the Michigan Association of United Ways has released its first ALICE Report, Michigan residents have started to get a clearer picture of their neighbors, loved ones, friends, and acquaintances than ever before.

The 2024 update to our report details the impact of competing economic forces and the expiration of pandemic-era public policy interventions on ALICE households in Michigan in 2022 and the impact of the pandemic on financial security beyond 2022. This ALICE Report provides the first look at the extent of financial hardship in Michigan using ALICE metrics as prices rose following the economic shocks of the pandemic.

Kids Count in Michigan is part of a broad national effort to measure the well-being of children at the state and local levels, and use that information to shape efforts to improve lives of children.

In these Data Book pages you”ll find that, in some ways, we are doing better by kids, teens and young adults than we were a decade ago. However, in other ways, life is harder today for families with children: economic inequality has grown, education achievement levels have remained flat and declined in some areas, and young people told us there’s more we should be doing.

Health Outcomes tell us how long people live on average within a community, and how much physical and mental health people experience in a community while they are alive.

Midland County is faring better than the average county in Michigan for Health Outcomes, and better than the average county in the nation.

The Michigan Association of United Ways (MAUW) released its first report of the new 2022 ALICE in Focus Series, thanks to the generous support of the Consumers Energy Foundation. The first report spotlights children growing up in financial hardship, in households that have an income, but still struggle to afford essentials such as housing, childcare, food, transportation, and healthcare, among other needs.

The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) brings actionable data, evidence, guidance, and stories to communities to make it easier for people to be healthy in their neighborhoods, schools and workplaces. Ranking the health of nearly every county in the nation, CHR&R illustrates what we know when it comes to what is keeping people healthy or making them sick. It shows what we can do to create healthier places to live, learn, work and play.

The Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behavior (Midland County Youth Study) was developed by the Search Institute of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The survey assesses 40 Developmental Assets and 24 risk-taking behaviors that may affect youth in grades 6-12. The Legacy Center for Community Success conducts the survey once every five years to gain insight into developmental challenges local youth may be facing. The 2021 survey was conducted in partnership with Midland Kids First.

United Ways across Michigan, with help from the Consumers Energy Foundation, have come together to bring you the ALICE Project. Standing for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed – ALICE represents those in our communities who are working yet still struggling to make ends meet.

In collaboration with the United Way of Midland County, Public Sector Consultants (PSC) led a project to determine whether available community supports and services meet the needs of adults with I/DD and of the broader community in Midland County. As a community, Midland County has embraced independence through person-centered care in its service delivery. With its wide array of services and supports, Midland County is uniquely positioned to use its experience in independence-based care to build a model to showcase the community benefit it derives not only from its health and human service providers, but also to the individuals utilizing those services. Through this evaluation, PSC’s goal was to provide a foundational understanding of the effectiveness and efficiency of services and supports for people with I/DD in Midland County as well as ascertain their potential for having a good quality of life.

Midland County’s housing market offers a kind of contradiction: it is both full of choices and generally affordable, but at the same time, it is not supporting the community’s future economic vitality, nor is it serving the needs of the county’s poorest residents. How can the Midland area community respond to the challenges and opportunities it is facing when it comes to housing? This report represents the beginning of an effort to answer that question.

czb was retained by Midland County Habitat for Humanity, in partnership with the City of Midland, the United Way of Midland County, and Midland Area Homes, to complete an analysis of the county’s housing market and to assess its affordable housing need.