DOI: 10.3886/icpsr21180.v1
title: Northwest Area Foundation Ventures Social Indicators Survey, June-September 2005
title: Version 1

description: The survey was designed to obtain information pertaining to community, neighborhood, local government, and community-based activities in an effort to discover ways to reduce poverty among the Ventures Communities (selected by the Northwest Area Foundation) in the Northwestern states of Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington. Respondents were asked to identify their place of residence (state, county, and town) and length of time they had lived at that location, as well as a series of questions pertaining to their opinion about the community, the attitudes of persons within the community, and relationships between community members. The survey queried respondents about their community involvement and group memberships, and their connection with resources outside the community, and their neighbors, to solve inner-community issues. Respondents also appraised the quality of government services in the community, trust in local leaders and members of ethnic groups, the level of cooperation of community members in an emergency, and the effectiveness of individuals or organizations in reducing the number of people in poverty. For the next topic, respondents were asked to evaluate their personal or household financial status, such as their ability to obtain a loan, line of credit, or other financial services, and their ability to pay for basic living costs. Respondents were also asked whether they had received financial assistance from family, and to estimate the number of people or families in the community who could not afford basic living costs. The survey also asked respondents to identify their interest in public affairs, how frequently they accessed newspapers for information, and how often they voted in elections. Respondents evaluated how often young people move away to find better opportunities, their perception of safety while walking in the community at night, and the potential for the start up and growth of small businesses. In addition, respondents were asked about their health and quality of life. General demographic information includes: age, gender, race, religion and religious involvement, education, marital status, and employment status. Geographic information, in addition to location of residence, was obtained such as whether their residence was urban or rural, and whether or not they lived on or near an Indian reservation. Finally, household information was collected including household composition, income and current assets, the presence of a telephone or cell phone, and access to the Internet.
description: Response Rates: Overall, 55 percent (Measured by the accepted scientific standard set by the Council of American Survey and Research Organizations (CASRO)), and against eligible participants, 72 percent.
description: For each of the 11 Ventures Communities, a target area was determined with the aid of maps provided by the Northwest Area Foundation and for those communities where the Ventures boundaries were not identical to county boundaries, Census Tracts. Telephone exchanges were selected based on the percentage of numbers in the exchange that were inside the target area. Telephone numbers were randomly selected from all numbers in these exchanges. Please refer to the "Methodology and Sampling" section of the ICPSR codebook for further information.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: All Ventures Communities, Banner Public-Use
DS2: Central Oregon, Banner Public-Use
DS3: Cheyenne River Reservation, Banner Public-Use
DS4: Idaho, Banner Public-Use
DS5: Iowa, Banner Public-Use
DS6: Lummi Reservation, Banner Public-Use
DS7: Minneapolis, Banner Public-Use
DS8: Montana, Banner Public-Use
DS9: North Dakota, Banner Public-Use
DS10: South Dakota, Banner Public-Use
DS11: Turtle Mt. Reservation, Banner Public-Use
DS12: Washington, Banner Public-Use
DS13: All Ventures Communities, Banner Restricted-Use
DS14: Central Oregon, Banner Restricted-Use
DS15: Cheyenne River Reservation, Banner Restricted-Use
DS16: Idaho, Banner Restricted-Use
DS17: Iowa, Banner Restricted-Use
DS18: Lummi Reservation, Banner Restricted-Use
DS19: Minneapolis, Banner Restricted-Use
DS20: Montana, Banner Restricted-Use
DS21: North Dakota, Banner Restricted-Use
DS22: South Dakota, Banner Restricted-Use
DS23: Turtle Mt. Reservation, Banner Restricted-Use
DS24: Washington, Banner Restricted-Use
DS25: All Ventures Communities, Restricted-Use
DS26: Central Oregon, Restricted-Use
DS27: Cheyenne River Reservation, Restricted-Use
DS28: Idaho, Restricted-Use
DS29: Iowa, Restricted-Use
DS30: Lummi Reservation, Restricted-Use
DS31: Minneapolis, Restricted-Use
DS32: Montana, Restricted-Use
DS33: North Dakota, Restricted-Use
DS34: South Dakota, Restricted-Use
DS35: Turtle Mt. Reservation, Restricted-Use
DS36: Washington, Restricted-Use
description: Adults aged 18 and over living in Ventures Communities (selected by the Northwest Area Foundation) in the Northwestern region of the United States, in the following states: Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington. Smallest Geographic Unit: census tract
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)(1) To protect respondent privacy, the following variables are only available in the restricted version of this collection: ZIPCODE, COUNTY1, COMM1, HHNUM, AGE, and EMPLOY4A. (2) Qualitative Data: Open-ended responses to some questions are only available in the restricted version of this collection. (3) SAMPLEID is unique WITHIN each Venture Community. To uniquely identify each case in the combined All Venture Communities datasets, the variable QUOTA should be used in combination with SAMPLEID. (4) Variable and value labels may appear truncated within Stata for Windows and Unix. Please refer to the Stata setup files for full labels. (6) AGE: Although the universe is composed of adults aged 18 and over, 1 case coded '88' (born 1988) was allowed to participate in the survey. (7) It appears that some of the skip patterns shown in the CATI instrument have not always been followed. (8) It appears that for eight respondents the variable COUNTY1 does not map directly to the variable QUOTA. In addition, the variable COUNTY1 for some respondents appears to have been post-coded to include codes '45' through '50' to create the banner tables.