Public Opinion Center (Dayton, Ohio)

The Public Opinion Center was located at 941 Third National Building, 32 North Main Street, Dayton, Ohio 45402. This agency was begun in September, 1970 under auspices of the Dayton-Miami Valley Consortium (DMVC), a regional federation of institutions of higher education. The records were part of the Community Research Incorporated collection.

The parent organization of CRI was the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, at 333 West Fifth Street, Dayton, Ohio 45402. MVRPC executive director was Dale E. Bertsch. CRI board chairman was John Torley, who also served as president of the Dayton Malleable Iron Company. CRI was a non-profit organization established in 1957 by civic and business leaders. It foundered after Dr. Jeptha Canell resigned as director in 1974 to take over at DMVC.

The Public Opinion Center was the nation's first opinion survey agency operated for the public benefit of a single regional community. The Center was established as a DMVC project for:

1. Urban research purposes

2. Enhancing urban communications

3. Testing public acceptance of alternative public programs

4. Measuring attitudinal changes on certain kinds of issues

5. Reducing citizen alienation and increasing citizen awareness and participation in public decision-making. The Center sought to identify community sentiment and help public and civic agencies develop and evaluate policies and programs.

The Center also tried to assist government agencies, non-profit organizations, and community groups with advice, technical assistance, and performance of in-depth surveys to meet special needs. The Public Opinion Center relied on the student and faculty resources of DMVC institutions and on trained interviewers and supervisors from the community to conduct its surveys.

Base support for the Center was provided by a Charles F. Kettering Foundation grant to the DMVC. The grant covered the first fourteen months of operation, as part of a proposed three year pilot project to assess the utility of public opinion polling in the Dayton Miami-Valley area; The Public Opinion Center became defunct in 1976.

From the guide to the Public Opinion Center (Dayton, Ohio) Records, 1970-1975, (Wright State University, Special Collections and Archives)