Rapid and sweeping changes in demographics in the National Capital Region have created a misalignment of the location of vital social and health services and children and families who need them most. As a result nonprofit and local government agencies are having to rethink how and where they provide services to better meet the growing and changing demand, according to two reports released this week by Venture Philanthropy Partners.

The first report, Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: a Regional Perspective on Changing Demographics, analyzes the impact and implications of these profound demographic shifts on nonprofits providing critical services to children and youth of low income families drawing on hard data and VPP’s direct experiences working with 12 nonprofit organizations over the past decade.

The second report, Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts; Part II: Lessons on Regional Scale offers practical lessons from the experiences of four nonprofit leaders in the VPP portfolio who expanded to new jurisdictions to fill unmet service needs. In addition to interviews with each of the four leaders, long-time observers of the region's human services sector also shared insights about the short- and long-term implications of the demographic trends in light of the economic crisis that the region, the country and the world are experiencing.

The third report, Demographic and Economic Trends in the National Capital Region and Their Effects on Children, Youth and Families, presents a variety of demographic and economic data compiled for VPP by Greater Washington Research at Brookings. The data provides a picture of how the region has changed and grown in the past decade.