About Us

About Plan 2020

Plan 2020, a partnership forged by the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and the City of Indianapolis’ Department of Metropolitan Development, established the framework for an unprecedented, coordinated collaboration between public, private and philanthropic organizations with one goal: to realize the community’s collective vision for the future by stitching as many existing plans, ideas and initiatives together into a broader, cohesive storyline.

Plan 2020 acknowledges city government as a critical player in shaping the future of Marion County, while recognizing the city’s full ability to craft the steps to a more inclusive, vibrant, thriving Indianapolis extends well beyond mere governing. Plan 2020 leverages Marion County’s diverse array of residents, leaders, institutions, organizations, enterprises and movements in their entirety by placing the stable, long-term, values-driven vision of the city in their hands, holistically influencing local government by allowing that vision to inspire updates to the city’s technical guidance documents. The vision, values and strategy components of the process comprise Plan 2020’s Bicentennial Plan for Indianapolis.


About IndyVitals

IndyVitals measures the long-term impact of the work of Plan 2020 partners at the neighborhood level. It helps to insure that neighborhoods of all types are improving because of the work of partners by making comparative neighborhood-level data transparent. But it’s more than a simple set of indicators. The true power of IndyVitals is its ability to coordinate actions of community development partners through data. By using defined neighborhood boundaries, it promotes continued planning and investment coordination among partners by highlighting the strengths and challenges of diverse neighborhoods in our city. All partners are able to see the same data and read the same story, responding with programs, resources, and initiatives that are relevant to the specific needs of every neighborhood.

Data is very complex, and coupled with existing SAVI community profiles, IndyVitals provides a range of ways to read the story for each neighborhood, from a simple one-page scorecard for neighborhood residents and leaders to a complex array of linked datasets for those interested in diving deep to see how different datasets are related. Are you an interested citizen who wants access to high-level metrics about a Marion County neighborhood? Do you work for a non-profit or community-based organization that needs detailed data about neighborhoods? Are you a policymaker tasked with exploring patterns and trends within existing data? If you answered yes to any of these questions, IndyVitals has something for you. Simply select a neighborhood from the map or list provided to view an interactive report for that neighborhood. Most data can also be exported in print-ready reports or for import into spreadsheet software for personalization.

IndyVitals was created by The Polis Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in partnership with Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and the City of Indianapolis’ Department of Metropolitan Development. It is powered by the SAVI Community Information System (www.savi.org).


IndyVitals Advisory Committee

Thank you to the following individuals who served on the IndyVitals Advisory Committee that guided the development of this website:

  • Brad Beaubien, Long Range Planning Administrator and Plan 2020 Co-Manager, Department of Metropolitan Development, City of Indianapolis
  • Leigh Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Mapleton-Fall Creek Development Corporation
  • Demetrius Glover, Vice President of Strategic Information, United Way of Central Indiana
  • Tedd Grain, Deputy Director, Local Initiatives Support Corporation
  • David Hirschle, Project Manager, Office of Sustainability, City of Indianapolis
  • Sharon Kandris, SAVI Director, The Polis Center at IU Indianapolis
  • Steven Meyer, Executive Director, King Park Development Corporation
  • Brooke Thomas, Deputy Director and Plan 2020 Co-Manager, Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee

About SAVI

SAVI (Social Assets and Vulnerabilities Indicators, www.savi.org) is one of the nation’s largest neighborhood information systems. The mission of SAVI is to help organizations and individuals make informed decisions by 1) providing reliable data about communities; 2) creating actionable information; 3) developing tools for data analysis; and 4) building capacity, especially for nonprofit and community-based organizations, to use data effectively.

Although SAVI serves many audiences, its primary focus is nonprofits, neighborhood organizations, and researchers. SAVI is often used for community assessments, grant writing, strategic planning, community asset mapping, and community planning.

SAVI was chosen to power IndyVitals because it already maintains a wealth of data about the health and stability of Indianapolis neighborhoods and visualizes it in meaningful ways for various audiences. IndyVitals builds on that foundation, drawing data from SAVI along with additional data sources and leveraging its data visualization platform, customized for Plan2020’s purpose.

How does SAVI create community-level metrics? SAVI collects unprocessed data from 30 local, state, and national sources. Those sources collect the data for administrative purposes such as administering social services, public safety and public health services. In many cases, the data SAVI collects are confidential data that would otherwise not be publically available. SAVI cleans the data, adds a geographic identifier to locate each data point, and then summarizes the data, transforming them into meaningful indicators about the community that can be displayed through maps, trend charts, and other graphics.

SAVI supports place-based decision making. SAVI’s greatest strength is that it allows you to answer "where" questions such as:

  • Where are the areas of greatest need?
  • Where are the services and resources to meet those needs?
  • What communities have the poorest health outcomes?
  • Where should we locate a new program?
  • Where do the people we serve live?

SAVI allows you to explore how communities have changed over time and how they compare demographically and socio-economically relative to other communities.

SAVI can help community improvement efforts be more strategic and effective by increasing their access to (and capacity to use) data.