Aligning with Partners
Community Data & Reports
The Frey Foundation is eager to share our experience and resources with others, providing research, data, and other metrics to help guide decisions and investments in the broader community. We’ve gathered a number of data sources and reports on key topics below, but please feel free to reach out if our expertise, findings, or community connections can be of help to you.
Arts Resources
Arts & Social Impact Explorer
Americans for the Arts
Arts Vibrancy Index Report
SMU Data Arts
SMU DataArts assess arts vibrancy across the country by analyzing four measures under each of three main rubrics: supply, demand, and public support for arts and culture on a per capita basis. It gauges supply as total arts providers, demand with measures of total nonprofit arts dollars in the community, and public support as state and federal arts funding. The report has been updated and published annually since 2015. A 2021 report was not released due to the impact of COVID-19 on the arts community.
Arts Vibrancy Index Map
SMU Data Arts
SMU DataArts assess arts vibrancy across the country by analyzing four measures under each of three main rubrics: supply, demand, and public support for arts and culture on a per capita basis. It gauges supply as total arts providers, demand with measures of total nonprofit arts dollars in the community, and public support as state and federal arts funding. The report has been updated and published annually since 2015. A 2021 report was not released due to the impact of COVID-19 on the arts community.
Early Childhood Resources
2025 Kids Count In Michigan
Michigan League for Public Policy
Kids Count in Michigan, led by Michigan League for Public Policy, 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 the lives of children. The data book has been produced since 1992.
Analyzing Gaps in Early
Childhood Services and
Funding in Kent County
First Steps Kent
First Steps Kent published an updated early childhood gap analysis in November 2017. It provides a scan of the capacity of the early childhood landscape in Kent County to identify where gaps in services and funding exist.
Child Care: A Critical Need
in Michigan
Michigan League for Public Policy
In partnership with Think Babies Michigan, Michigan League for Public Policy released a report in March 2021 on the state of child care in Michigan and by county. Child care in Michigan continues to be a critical need. High costs and low availability persist throughout the state, with families with low and middling incomes having the fewest options for care.
Data Dashboard
KConnect
KConnect led a collaborative effort to identify eight success measures spanning the prenatal to career continuum as well as 27 indicators or critical levers of change. This is outlined in the workplan and local metrics are tracked, disaggregated and shared on the data dashboard.
Workplan
KConnect
KConnect led a collaborative effort to identify eight success measures spanning the prenatal to career continuum as well as 27 indicators or critical levers of change. This is outlined in the workplan and local metrics are tracked, disaggregated and shared on the data dashboard.
Kent County ECE Study
IFF
IFF, with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, published Split by More Than the Grand River in 2023. The report examines the early childhood education (ECE) landscape across Kent County, Michigan, and quantifies the access to ECE programs for infants/toddlers and preschoolers. This is an update to the initial assessment completed in 2018.
Environment Resources
2020 Protected Laws Survey
Hearth of the Great Lakes
Heart of the Lakes, the statewide association of Michigan’s land conservancies and other nonprofits dedicated to land and water conservation, regularly surveys their members to track land conservancies’ successes by using their unique protection tools. The last survey was conducted in 2017.
How's My Waterway?
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Created by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), How’s My Waterway was designed to provide the general public with information about the condition of their local waters based on data that states, federal, tribal, local agencies and others have provided to EPA.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trails Plan 2022-32
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
In November 2021, Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released its 2022-2032 trails plan. The plan, which was built around the concept of “explore, connect, sustain,” provides a framework for the DNR’s management of more than 13,400 miles of state-designated motorized and nonmotorized trails and pathways.
Housing Resources
Northwest Michigan Housing Dashboard
Housing North
The Northwest Michigan Housing Dashboard is a tool that provides housing, demographic, and economic data to help communities and stakeholders understand local trends and housing needs. Covering a ten-county region, it offers insights into market conditions, affordability, and development patterns to support informed decision-making.
Housing Metric Library
Housing Kent
The Housing Metric library, created by Housing Kent and the Housing Stability Alliance, provides data and metrics to support affordable housing efforts in Kent County. It tracks key indicators across the areas of housing affordability, stability, and quality, aimed at informing strategies to address housing inequities and improve community well-being.
Michigan Zoning Atlas
Michigan Association of Planning
The Michigan Zoning Atlas is a publicly accessible online tool that maps and
visualizes local zoning codes across Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties,
providing insights into land use for housing by highlighting variations and
barriers in zoning regulations that affect housing development and
availability.
Grand Rapids/Kent County Housing Needs Assessment
Housing Next
On behalf of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, Housing Next engages Bowen National Research to evaluate housing needs of the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan and to recommend priorities and strategies to address such housing needs.
Northern Michigan Housing Needs Assessment
Housing North
Housing North engaged Bowen National Research to conduct a Housing Needs Assessment for its 10-county region in Northern Michigan. The report was released in 2023 and estimates the housing gaps of the region between 2022 and 2027.
Other Resources
ALICE in the Crosscurrents: COVID and Financial Hardship in Michigan
Michigan Association of United Ways
ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, and represents households that earn above the Federal Poverty Level but cannot afford the basic cost of living in their county. Since 2014, the Michigan ALICE report has provided high-quality, research-based information to foster a better understanding of who is struggling in our communities.
What Makes a Successful Place?
Project for Public Spaces
The Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a cross-disciplinary non-profit dedicated to placemaking, evaluated thousands of public spaces around the world and found that to be successful, they generally share the following four qualities: they are accessible; people are engaged in activities there; the space is comfortable and has a good image; and finally, it is a sociable place: one where people meet each other and take people when they come to visit. PPS developed The Place Diagram linked below as a tool to help people in judging any place, good or bad.