Alton City Council Approves SIUE Hire For Child Friendly City Data Study
ARPA funding finalized for data analysis by SIUE graduate student as Alton seeks “Child Friendly City” designation.
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ALTON – In another split vote, Alton aldermen approved $14,616 in ARPA funds to hire an SIUE graduate student to conduct a data study as the city aims to earn “Child Friendly City” status.
Alton City Council members on Wednesday voted 5-2 to approve the disbursement of $14,616 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to pay an SIUE graduate student to collect and analyze data as part of the city’s effort to become a UNICEF-certified Child Friendly City.
This follows Monday’s 5-2 vote from the Committee of the Whole after some debate over the item’s benefit to the city, as previously reported on Riverbender.com. Each member voted the same way at both meetings, with Ward 1 Alderman Chris Bohn and Ward 3 Alderman Michael Velloff consistently voting against the resolution.
A graduate research assistant(GRA)from SIUE will be tasked with collecting and analyzing data about Alton’s public safety, social services, living environments, and more to complete one of the first steps for Alton to recognized as a Child Friendly City. This data would be used as guidance to ensure the city’s children are considered in future policy decisions; it would also serve as a baseline to compare the effectiveness of any programs developed to solve problems identified upon studying patterns in the data.
This GRA will work for 20 hours per week for a nine-month period from September 2025 to May 2026 and will provide progress updates “as appropriate” to city staff and council members, under the approved proposal from the Southern Illinois University System Office of Community Engagement.
Though the item wasn’t debated any further at Wednesday’s meeting, both aldermen questioned its ability to bring tangible, positive change to the city earlier this week. Velloff asked if the city could do this data collection and analysis “in-house” with city staff, which it reportedly cannot, and whether this initiative will fix any of the city’s streets or lead to the hiring of additional police officers, which it will not.
Prior City Council members passed a resolution in April of 2023 calling for up to $1 million in ARPA funding to be spent “on projects that will support young people’s learning, growth and recovery through youth programming and skills development in the City of Alton,” according to the resolution.Since the previous council members already allocated this money specifically for this purpose, Mayor David Goins said these funds cannot be used on street repairs or other projects.
More details about the discussion and debate behind this resolution are available in this related story on Riverbender.com. A full recording of the Aug. 27, 2025 Alton City Council meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
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