Public Policy Institute Publications

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A Review of the Community Schools Model: Implications for Future Practice
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2026-04) Arun, Nidhi; Schultz-Wogan, Kristi; Roll, Samuel; Vargas, Emanuel; Menard, Claire; Van Allen, Elizabeth J.
Community schools aim to transform public schools into social centers, serving multiple social and civic needs. Although the concept emerged in the early 20th century, the modern era of community schools began in the early 1990s, as research revealed that fostering community partnerships and emphasizing family well-being in schools in low socioeconomic areas improved academic achievement. This report examines the community schools model as a place-based strategy to reduce barriers to educational achievement for students in high-poverty communities. Drawing on decades of research and practice, IU Public Policy Institute analysts traced the historical development of full-service community schools, reviewing evidence on how integrating student supports, expanding extracurricular opportunities, and strengthening family and community engagement can influence student outcomes. PPI analysts synthesized existing evaluations to assess what is known about the effectiveness of community schools, highlighting both promising results—such as improvements in attendance, school climate, and family engagement—and limitations in the evidence base, particularly regarding academic achievement and variation across local contexts. They also examined the theoretical foundations of the model, the key local and institutional conditions that shape implementation, and recurring challenges involving partnerships, data infrastructure, and long-term funding. PPI analysts designed this report to guide policymakers, educators, and community leaders in planning, implementing, and expanding community schools. It outlines key considerations for effective practice and long-term impact, including evidence on cost-effectiveness and return on investment.
Explaining Which Local Government Officials Contract with Nonprofits
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2025-02) Grønbjerg, Kirsten; Van Allen, Elizabeth J.
Local governments have limited capacity to provide services such as mental health, substance abuse and treatment, emergency relief services, and free or low-cost health care. Revenue from local, state and federal government funding usually cannot meet all service demands. Local government officials (LGOs) often award grants and contracts to nonprofits and other institutions that provide important services and specialized expertise to fill these gaps. Although LGOs may purchase services from other government units or private businesses, Indiana LGOs report stronger working relationships with nonprofits and higher trust levels. LGOs’ and nonprofits’ shared commitments to public and community service build a strong basis for this trust. Almost one-fourth of Indiana nonprofits receive some form of government funding, accounting for nearly two-fifths of their revenues. This policy brief is based on research by Dr. Kirsten Grønbjerg and graduate student Eric Schmidt, of the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. PPI collected the research data on behalf of the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (IACIR). The study updates data from a previous analysis of LGO contracting with nonprofits as part of a series on nonprofit-government relations in Indiana from the Indiana Nonprofits Project: Scope and Community Dimensions. The brief examines which conditions appeared to be related to whether LGOs said their unit of local government contracts with nonprofits. Understanding what predicts LGO contracting is important because, along with providing services, nonprofits can influence policy based on their expertise in implementing existing policies, serving community needs, and knowing the effects of policy priorities. When local governments contract with nonprofits, this serves as a form of endorsement and enhances the visibility and legitimacy of those nonprofits in the community.
Climate Resilience Building in the Emergency Response Network
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2025-03) Gazley, Beth; Van Allen, E. J.
Weather models show Indiana has experienced a 45% increase in the risk of heavy flooding during the past 60 years. Government agencies cannot respond to the increase in weather disasters affecting Indiana and every region of the United States alone. U.S. public policy assumes that nonprofit charities that care for the day-to-day needs of economically vulnerable people, through food banks, shelters, community health clinics, and other organizations that provide each community’s social safety net will also meet these needs post disaster. However, policymakers have not considered those organizations’ own level of disaster preparedness to assure service continuity. A statewide Indiana survey of leaders of social safety network organizations, carried out by Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor Beth Gazley and doctoral student Rachel Cash, provides rich descriptive place-based data about the realities of nonprofit service providers’ disaster planning relating to climate change. This data provides some comparisons relevant to other inland states. This brief offers Indiana nonprofit service providers, community networks, and policymakers a neutral and objective analysis of what kinds of organizations respond to local disasters in Indiana and to what extent they engage in risk reduction to adapt to climate change. It also looks at attitudes and behaviors to understand how thinking about climate change may predict an organization’s success in disaster planning. The brief underscores the need to consider nonprofits in the formulation of policy not only in the response and recovery following a disaster but also reducing risk and increasing preparedness in advance.
Indiana Local Government Officials' Contracting with Nonprofits
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2025-03) Grønbjerg, Kirsten; Van Allen, Elizabeth J.
While most local governments provide services directly, many also routinely contract with other institutions to provide services to their constituents—even for the same service the local government provided. Local government officials (LGOs) have limited capacity to provide such services as mental health, substance abuse prevention and treatment, emergency relief services, and free and low-cost health care. Moreover, revenue collected through local, state, and federal government funding usually cannot meet all service demands, In addition to lacking resources, LGOs may also lack the capacity to meet particular community needs. In such cases, they may access the expertise and capacity of nonprofits and other institutions to provide these essential services. Almost one-fourth of Indiana nonprofits receive some form of government funding, accounting for nearly two-fifths of their revenues. Based on a study prepared by Dr. Kirsten Grønbjerg and graduate student Eric Schmidt, of the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, with data collected by PPI on behalf of the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (IACIR), this policy brief updates data from a previous analysis of the extent to which LGOs contract with nonprofits as part of a series on nonprofit-government relations in Indiana from the Indiana Nonprofits Project: Scope and Community Dimensions. The brief examines the services arrangements LGOs used to provide a range of specialized services and how services have changed over time. While focusing primarily on service arrangements with nonprofits, the authors also compare them with contracts awarded to other government units and private business firms. The brief highlights the need for LGOs to have the skills and capacity to coordinate different service arrangements as well as manage services provided directly.
38th and Sheridan Project: Indy Fresh Market report
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2022-05) Chambers, Abbey; Guevara, Tom; Klacik, Drew; Palmer, Lauren
In 2020, Cook Medical selected a Northeast Indianapolis site to develop a new medical device component manufacturing facility. The venture promises to bring jobs to an area left behind by economic growth. Ongoing engagement with community members informed leaders at Cook that food access in the neighborhood was a high-priority need without a clear solution. In fact, 47% of Marion County residents live in food deserts—areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food. Food access is a complex problem, requiring innovative and dynamic approaches to meet consumer demand for grocery stores that are physically accessible, clean, secure, and price sensitive to fresh food. In response, Cook expanded its activities and investments in the area, working with its partners to build a new full-size grocery store. Two northeast side resident-entrepreneurs—who used to own and operate a small local convenience store—will eventually own and operate the new Indy Fresh Market grocery store. The future owner-operators are receiving in-depth training on all aspects of grocery store operations and management. Cook and its partners asked the IU Public Policy Institute to examine the immediate and future economic impacts of the Indy Fresh Market grocery store, provide a set of recommendations on collecting and analyzing feedback on the store’s community impact and employment outcomes over time, and enable a long-term evaluation of this key community investment.
Charting a Sustainable Course for Indiana's Rural Roads and Bridges
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2025-01) Palmer, Jamie L.; McCullouch, Bob G.; Chapple, Jonah
The Indiana General Assembly passed legislation in 2016 and 2017 that expanded the resources available to local governments for local roads and bridges. The PPI research team completed a series of reports with support from the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council. Rural Roads and Bridge Needs 2023 documents road and bridge spending and the changes in road and bridge ratings for the three-year period (2021‒23). Charting a Sustainable Course for Indiana’s Rural Roads and Bridges explores the use of the newly collected road and bridge data to evaluate future spending scenarios and the resulting conditions ratings.
Rural Road and Bridge Needs 2023
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2024-11) Palmer, Jamie L.; McCullouch, Bob G.; Chapple, Jonah; Ruess, Lee
The Indiana General Assembly passed legislation in 2016 and 2017 that expanded the resources available to local governments for local roads and bridges. This report is part of a series of research funded by the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council to evaluate the condition of Indiana’s rural road and bridge infrastructure. This report is the first to reflect three full years of data for the 91 study counties,1 allowing the research team to evaluate trends in local road and bridge inventories, conditions, spending, and revenue. This analysis utilizes data from county highway departments, including road inventories and conditions recorded in the 2021–23 local asset management plans, bridge inventories and conditions from the 2021–23 National Bridge Inventory (downloaded in October 2021, December 2022, and October 2023), as well as road and bridge spending and revenue recorded in the 2020–22 Annual Operational Reports for Local Roads and Bridges. The research team also utilized supplemental revenue data available from state agencies, and spending and revenue data from county annual financial reports. Overall, data shows that road and bridge conditions are stabilizing, and in some cases showing improvement. This suggests that the additional funding that has been made available appears to have made a positive impact on conditions that were reported anecdotally before 2016.
Disaster response and climate change: What predicts risk reduction behavior?
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2024-08) Gazley, Beth; Van Allen, Elizabeth J.
A wide range of nonprofits, both faith-based and secular, provide the social assistance, food banks, shelters, community health clinics, and other services that make up each community’s social safety net. Many of these services become vital lifelines for residents impacted by natural disasters. However, even as climate change brings more extreme weather to Indiana, these organizations vary considerably in how much risk reduction they carry out to ensure they can accommodate the needs of the vulnerable populations they serve (seniors, low-income, children, individuals with disabilities, etc.) during and after weather emergencies. Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Professor Beth Gazley and doctoral student Rachel Cash surveyed Indiana social, health, and human services charities. Along with O’Neill School Professor Doug Noonan and IU Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Associate Professor Ben Kravitz, they have explored the factors influencing risk reduction behaviors in nonprofit organizations responding to local disasters in the context of climate change. This data provides some general comparisons relevant to other states, especially to those in the Midwest. This brief offers Indiana service providers, emergency planners, and policymakers place-based information about the extent to which these essential community resources are preparing for more extreme weather. The analysis offers a neutral, nonpartisan perspective on nonprofit disaster preparedness statewide.
Indy Parks Economic Impact Study
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2021-05) Klacik, Drew; Martin, Joti K.; Martyn, Kevin; Rukes, Katie; Angadi, Rohan; Mallers, Rubi; Paul, Shreya
As a department of the city of Indianapolis, Indy Parks and Recreation provides and manages the various parks, green spaces, trails, and recreation activities in Marion County, Indiana. Across its system, Indy Parks offers 212 parks with a combined 11,258 acres of green space, and more than 3,000 annual sports, art, education, and recreation programs. Despite Indy Parks’ numerous natural and recreational offerings, Indianapolis has one of the lowest rates of park spending per resident in the nation. An internal needs study conducted in 2018 estimated that the budget for Indy Parks would need to be nearly double to fund an optimal parks and recreation system. Due to these findings, Indy Parks partnered with the IU Public Policy Institute to understand the current economic impact and community benefits of the park system on the local economy.
An updated analysis of the economic and fiscal contributions of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
(Indiana University Public Policy Institute, 2023-10) Klacik, Drew J.; Nannery, Rebecca; Siler, Justin
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) is an internationally recognized motorsports icon. Established in 1909, it is the epicenter of Indiana’s motorsports cluster and the world’s largest stadium in terms of its overall capacity. IMS can house more than 350,000 fans, including a seating capacity of 235,000. The race-related events IMS hosts throughout the year have a sizable impact on the Indiana economy. To determine the economic value of its activities, IMS engaged the Indiana University Public Policy Institute (PPI) to conduct an economic impact analysis. The resulting study used operations expenditures and visitor spending data for events from June 2022 to May 2023. While much of the economic impact and contribution generated likely happened within the Indianapolis metropolitan area, the study looks at IMS' impact across the entire state. IMS provided PPI with the data used for the analysis, including IMS, INDYCAR, and NASCAR expenditure data and the results of surveys of ticketholder spending patterns. Operations spending included expenditures on facility maintenance, the Brickyard Crossing golf course, the IMS Museum, and IMS management. The research team derived spin-off spending from IMS expenditures, INDYCAR and NASCAR team spending, and in-state and out-of-state visitor spending.

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