Posted By: Jason Rima April 1, 2021 @ 12:31 pm Local News, News Springfield’s poverty rate has dropped to a five year low. The group Prosper Springfield says the poverty rate is now 22.9 percent. That’s still very high, but the group hopes to keep working on creating a culture of equity and inclusion. Press Release Officials with Prosper Springfield, a collective impact model initiative, announced today that Springfield’s poverty rate has declined to a five-year low. At 22.9 percent, however, Francine Pratt, Prosper Springfield Executive Director, says there is much more work to do. In 2013, a 30-plus member Impacting Poverty Commission convened by Prosper Springfield backbone agency Community Partnership of the Ozarks, used a Collective Impact Model with representatives from private, public and social sectors to convene, research and understand the major causes and impacts of poverty. By October 2015, the IPC created a Call to Action Plan to move Springfield toward the goal of reducing poverty by 5 percentage points by 2025. At the time, Springfield’s poverty rate was 29.7 percent.