A new report issued by the local non-profit Brightpoint highlights significant poverty issues in Northeast Indiana. The Community Needs Assessment looks at demographic trends across 12 Northeast Indiana counties.
For example, the 106-page document shows Brightpoint’s service area with a high school graduation rate of 91 percent, a full point higher than the Indiana state average.
It also shows that while the regional unemployment rate is close to the national average at just over five percent, there has been a gradual increase in the poverty rate over the last five years. That rate currently stands at 15 percent.
Brightpoint Development Manager Jennie Renner says while the information can benefit her organization’s scope, it can aid other groups in the area down the road.
“We think that the information that’s available in this report can be useful to lots of different agencies and institutions because we really need to align with all these other services in the community to make this work,” said Renner.
Renner says while Brightpoint serves 35,000 people in the region, she notes that help is always needed from other organizations. Brightpoint’s full Community Needs Assessment can be viewed online at mybrightpoint.org/cna.