Resource Details
Local Data as an Equity Tool
Author: Fay Walker, Sonia Torres Rodríguez, Mica O'Brien | Year of Publication: 2021
Data intermediaries and backbone organizations, two types of place-based organizations, play a key role in helping their communities attain equitable outcomes by building local data capacity, creating data-driven partnerships, and centering community voices. To better understand how backbone organizations and data intermediaries have used data to improve service provision and center community voices during the pandemic, researchers interviewed organizations affiliated with the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, Promise Neighborhoods, and StriveTogether to identify strategies and practices place-based organizations can employ to build local data capacity with their partners, use local data to improve service provision and day-to-day operations, and amplify community voices. Drawing on findings from these interviews, this brief outlines three steps to building local data capacity and using data to build racial equity: enhancing data access for community change; building local data infrastructure for responsive services; and using data to amplify community voices through research design, data collection, and dissemination.