America’s and Dayton’s struggles were well-documented in 2018 by Frontline’s documentary “Left Behind America.” It’s clear we need a new socio-economic model that addresses the inequities plaguing our country and community, one that also promotes greater citizen participation. There is widespread agreement, from 1%ers like Ray Dalio and Nick Hanauer, to those struggling month to month, that our current form of capitalism is not sustainable. Led by The Collaboratory and using Gallup’s Well-Being Index to re-define and measure community development success, a group of civic innovation thinkers and doers in Dayton, with our history of innovation, has committed to Re-Imagining America.

Re-Imagining America: Defining Dayton is citizen-driven, regional community and economic development initiative crafted in response to the Frontline documentary. The response we offer is a re-evaluation of how we measure success or satisfaction as a community, and a locus for the establishment of new initiatives and policies in response to the findings of these new metrics. 

Acknowledging the existing reality of our Dayton community as presented by Frontline, The Collaboratory initiated a citizen response. The Collaboratory is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit civic innovation lab that operates on the guiding concept that individuals, not institutions, build relationships, collaborate and lead the facilitation of community change. 

The Collaboratory has partnered with The Gallup Organization to conduct a quantitative analysis of the Dayton, Ohio MSA using their Well-Being Index. The Community Well-Being Index provides a context for capturing the important aspects of how people feel about and experience their daily lives. It measures perceptions of citizens’ lives and their daily experiences through five interrelated elements: Purpose, Social, Financial, Community, and Physical. Local community partners include the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission and the Dayton Metro Library.  

Our goal is to see citizens join us as we Define Dayton and Re-Imagine America. 

Gallup and The Collaboratory will collect data in a variety of ways. Gallup will handle the quantitative data through surveys and mailers. The Collaboratory will host a variety of events, inviting citizens to engage with us, as we build our local understanding of what makes Daytonians happy. The Collaboratory will collect qualitative data in eight identified categories of significance to well-being to be aligned with community, entrepreneurial, educational, and policy initiatives over a five-year period to enhance the Gallup data. These eight identified categories of significance include: Regional Economy/Employment, Education, Transportation, Housing, Healthcare & Wellness, Environmental Sustainability, Criminal Justice and Media. 

 We have a form below where you can provide us with some contact information regarding your imagined possibilities for Dayton. Please provide us with your name, email address and zip code so that we may reach out to you and begin a conversation. 

The Dayton, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the counties of Montgomery, Greene, Miami and Preble, is an ideal site for this research. Citizens of all of these counties will be invited to participate in the project.  

Beginning in January of 2020, Gallup and The Collaboratory will launch the initiative with a formal press conference and the commencement of the quantitative and qualitative data gathering and analysis. This Phase 1 will be completed in 10-12 months, and will be used to inform Phase 2, the identification, ideation and piloting of specific initiatives meant to address the most pressing issues and areas of opportunity revealed in the research. Phase 2 will continue for 1.5 – 2 years, and dovetail into Phase 3, the scaling up of those pilot initiatives that show the greatest potential for impact. The overall project is set to end with a Supernova after five years, at which point any number of new initiatives will be well-underway and the Well-Being Index should have seen some movement in an upward direction. This approach will allow these efforts to fully live in the community beyond the .

The Gallup Well-Being Index, which in the 2018 report, ranked Dayton 144 out of 186 communities, is well-designed to serve as both a framework and a benchmark for true, equitable community AND economic revitalization. We propose creating a Declaration of Possibility that says: Dayton will rank as one of the Top 10 communities on the Well-Being Index in 10 years-time. This data set will provide granular information on the status of the community and will permit anyone interested or engaged in economic development to identify needs and population features by neighborhood, and to track changes in perception and experience over time.  

Economic development strategies are frequently misguided if the goal is elimination of poverty or the generation of a more equitable economic community. Efforts that target needy populations often adopt a “white savior” approach which minimizes the involvement of local populations. This problem is one that the Re-Imagining America: Defining Dayton team is dedicated to addressing through citizen-generated projects. We believe it is possible for Dayton to draw upon its existing resources to create and build a better community where everyone matters and people can live their purpose, realizing their full potential.