Using Census Data for Grant Writing and Community and Neighborhood Analysis
Teaches participants about using both local and national data sets like the American Community Survey and Decennial Census to inform their work, such as understanding the demographics of their service areas.
CI:Now partnered with the Census Bureau Denver Region's data dissemination specialist to do consecutive single-day trainings in San Antonio, Texas. This training teaches participants to access and use data from the Census—especially American FactFinder—and CI: Now’s local Data Explorer tool. The training is tailored for nonprofit advocacy and social service delivery organizations that use data for budget analysis, grant writing, needs assessment, and planning.
In a computer lab, participants used American FactFinder to pull national data for practice. Participants used Census 2010 for population numbers and basic characteristics and the American Community Survey for social and economic characteristics, such as school enrollment, household income, poverty status, nativity, and language spoken at home. Special emphasis was placed on researching small-area data to understand the demographics of local service areas. The training included three hours of Census data training from the Census Bureau trainer, followed by 45 minutes of training by CI:Now staff on CI:Now’s tools.
