The Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty (MAIP) has issue-area expertise on issues facing low-income populations and an extensive portfolio of needs assessment and evaluation research. Below is a sample of recent and current MAIP projects:

Statewide Supportive Housing Tenant Outcomes Study:
MAIP is conducting a statewide study of supportive housing for the Supportive Housing Providers Association. This study includes 476 tenants from 31 supportive housing projects across Illinois. Through the study, MAIP is exploring if supportive housing reduces residents' reliance on expensive, publicly-funded emergency services. Using primarily public agency data, the study tracks individuals' usage of services for the time period 2 years before they entered supportive housing, comparing it to their usage of services 2 years after they entered supportive housing.

The Illinois Asset Building Group, Local Asset Poverty Indicator Project:
MAIP is currently working with the Illinois Asset Building Group to develop a series of fact sheets on assets for each Illinois legislative district. The goal of the project is to use local asset and other related economic data indicators to educate decision makers on the importance of assets in creating strong and stable families and communities.

DuPage County Continuum of Care's 10-Year-Plan to End Homelessness Evaluation:
MAIP conducted an evaluation of progress made on DuPage's county's Plan to End Homelessness. The evaluation focuses on the progress of the Plan's nine components to date, successes, and challenges of implementation, interaction among Plan components, assignment of responsibilities, stakeholder engagement and commitment, evaluation and reporting mechanisms and funding. This evaluation includes a review of relevant research, an analysis of the Plan components and supporting documents. MAIP also surveyed the entire Continuum membership and conducted interviews with Continuum leaders and focus groups with each Continuum committee.

McHenry County Affordable Housing Needs Assessment:
MAIP recently conducted an assessment of the need for and the supply of affordable housing in McHenry County, Illinois. Specifically, the assessment focused on economically vulnerable populations and those with additional housing support needs such as people with disabilities, mental health or substance abuse issues, seniors, and people experiencing homelessness. The assessment included an analysis of secondary data sources; surveying homeless and mental health service providers, local businesses, municipal and township representatives, and housing industry experts; roundtable discussions with low-income McHenry County residents, municipal and township representatives, and homeless and mental health service providers; and key informant interviews with county officials.

Building on our Success: Moving from Health Care Coverage to Improved Access and Comprehensive Well-Being for Illinois Children and Youth:
MAIP researched and wrote this publication for the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation. The report documents children's health outcomes in Illinois to help set the state for policy change that could realistically occur in the upcoming legislative session.

Challenges and Opportunities in Meeting the Needs of Metropolitan Chicago's Latino Community: An Evaluation of Nonprofit Services to Latinos:
In partnership with the Illinois Facilities Fund, MAIP compiled a snapshot of the current nonprofit services, capacity gaps, and four communities in the metropolitan Chicago area. A series of eight focus groups was conducted with community members and nonprofit leaders in four communities with large Latino populations to understand more about nonprofits in those communities and also to better understand unmet service needs.