Data and Tech Training Catalog

In 2016, NNIP and Microsoft’s Civic Technology Engagement Group launched a project to expand training on community data and technology for government and nonprofit staff members. It includes a brief summarizing the training landscape and action steps for various stakeholders, a guide for organizations interested in providing training, and a fact sheet summarizing results from a survey on current content and practices.

This catalog highlights examples of training courses from around the country that advance data and technology literacy. It includes descriptions and downloadable materials for primarily in-person trainings that have been conducted by local data intermediaries, nonprofits, universities, government agencies, and others. We encourage you to browse and adapt the materials to embark on training for your own community. If you would like to contribute a course to the catalog, send a note to [email protected].

Unless otherwise noted, this materials contributed to this catalog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, which means you can share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material). 

Creative Commons License

Logic Models: How to Integrate Data Collection into Your Everyday Work

Coaches local nonprofit program staff to understand how to create and measure outcomes using national and local data sources
Author:
Community Research Institute, Grand Valley State University

Course Categories:
Evaluation / Program Mgmt.

Logic Models: What They Are And How They Can Help

Learning the basics of logic models
Author:
Communities Count
Communities of Opportunity

Course Categories:
General Data Literacy

Navigating the Quality of Life Explorer

Offers detailed exercises for navigating the local website to access local data
Author:
City of Charlotte

Course Categories:
Local Data Website

Our Data, Our Analysis

Basic introduction to data and quantitative analysis
Author:
Data Center

Course Categories:
General Data Literacy

Out of the Spreadsheet and Into the Community

Introduces data to nontechnical audiences using open-source tools and creative approaches
Author:
MIT Center for Civic Media

Course Categories:
General Data Literacy

Performance Analytics: Tools & Techniques

Provides local government employees foundational skills to understand and implement open data and performance analytics programs in their communities
Author:
GovEx

Course Categories:
Evaluation / Program Mgmt.

Performing a Community-Based Assessment

Offers a well-documented curriculum for using qualitative and quantitative data to conduct a community needs assessment
Author:
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

Course Categories:
Work-related Task

Process Evaluation

Basics of data collection methods
Author:
Communities Count
Communities of Opportunity

Course Categories:
General Data Literacy

Research Justice for All

Learning to center community knowledge to achieve research justice
Author:
Data Center

Course Categories:
General Data Literacy

Step-by-step guides on simple technology to better serve voters, candidates, and poll workers

Includes a wide range of introductory training documents for work-specific tasks like social media management, Excel, and Google Forms
Author:
The Center for Technology and Civic Life

Course Categories:
Work-related Task

The Basics: Focus Groups, Listening Sessions And Interviews

Learning about implementing focus groups
Author:
Communities Count
Communities of Opportunity

Course Categories:
General Data Literacy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Data Science for Social Good

Provides a comprehensive toolkit to build a data-based project for social good
Author:
University of Chicago

Course Categories:
Quantitative Analysis
Software

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.
Author:
CI: Now

Course Categories:
Local Data Website
National Data Source
Work-related Task

Using Data to Improve Health Services

Includes explanation of demographic and health data and best practices for using data to create community profiles
Author:
Charles Rynerson
Sheila Martin

Course Categories:
National Data Source

Using SAVI to Support Grant Applications

Teaches participants how data from a local data website can support stronger grant applications
Author:
The Polis Center at IUPUI

Course Categories:
Local Data Website
Work-related Task

Using Small Area Data

Shares the importance of neighborhood context in understanding client needs and teaches how to geocode client data and map it alongside neighborhood indicators
Author:
NeighborhoodInfo DC

Course Categories:
National Data Source
Software
Evaluation / Program Mgmt.

We Can Be Surveyors

Learning to include community in survey design
Author:
Data Center

Course Categories:
General Data Literacy

Who’s in Your Neighborhood? Using American FactFinder

Introduces participants to American FactFinder as a tool to find local data relevant to their work
Author:
Data You Can Use Inc.

Course Categories:
National Data Source

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