NNIP Accepts New Partners in Los Angeles and Houston

Announcement by Urban Institute
December 15, 2016

Kinder Institute for Urban Research   (Houston)
Neighborhood Data for Social Change   (Los Angeles)

On behalf of NNIP, we are excited to announce that two new partners have been accepted into NNIP! The Sol Price Center for Social Innovation at the University of Southern California will represent Los Angeles and the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University will represent Houston. Both organizations follow the NNIP model, facilitating the practical use of neighborhood data in local policymaking and community building and emphasizing working with low-income communities. 

Led by Dr. Gary Painter, the Price Center promotes the exploration and understanding of how to create sustainable, holistic vitality in low-income, urban communities. As a few examples of their work, the Price Center has collaborated with the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Office and community groups on evaluating the LA Promise Zone, partnered with LA County Homeless Services Authority and the LA Unified School District to understand the impact on academic outcomes, and helped the Little Toyko Service Center developed indicators to inform their economic development agenda. We’d like to give special thanks to Melody Head at the Los Angeles Branch Office of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Caroline Bhalla (an NNIP Alumna) at the USC Price School of Public Policy who helped champion the need for a local data intermediary in LA over the past several years and convened stakeholders across the region to discuss local data needs. You can learn more from the Price Center’s partner profile.

Led by Bill Fulton, the Kinder Institute aims to advance understanding of the most important issues facing Houston and other leading urban centers through rigorous research, policy analysis, and public outreach and to collaborate with civic and political leaders to implement promising solutions to critical urban issues.  Kinder has been partnering with the city and community organizations on a number of projects, including: a survey on community needs in the Firth Ward, an analysis of neighborhood disparities for Mayor Sylvester Turner’s economic opportunity transition committee, and an urban redevelopment plan in the Third Ward, to identify policies to avoid displacement during redevelopment.  We’d like to give special thanks to Amanda Timm at Houston LISC and the Houston Community Data Connections steering committee members who helped champion the need for a local data intermediary in Houston and worked to guide Kinder as it took on this role.  You can learn more from Kinder’s partner profile.

One of the roles of the NNIP network is to promote the development of local data intermediaries in new cities.  Learn more about becoming an NNIP partner.