NNIP

NNIP Welcomes the Community Innovation and Action Center at University of Missouri-St. Louis as its Newest Partner

gvelasco@urban.org — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 15:48:30 +0000

Urban Institute

Partner Organization:

Community Innovation and Action Center (CIAC)

Announcement

Date Display:

Show only month and year

Issue Area:

NNIP meta

November 11, 2024

The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) is pleased to announce the acceptance of the Community Innovation and Action Center (CIAC) at University of Missouri-St. Louis as the newest Partner organization. CIAC joins Rise as a partner organization representing St. Louis, Missouri.

CIAC engages with community partners to co-create knowledge, connections, and tools that move towards just, equitable, and democratic systems in the St. Louis region and beyond, working through the university to tackle complex data, policy, and practice problems. CIAC’s mission is driven by the conviction that the best solutions emerge through substantial participation, intentional collaboration, and high-quality information in response to community-defined priorities.

CIAC emphasizes a distinct and detailed focus on equity and anti-racism as it braids research, technology, and policy analysis by expanding their role to include not just data analysis and infrastructure, but also community engagement, participatory research, strategy development, and community-based experiential learning. Some examples of CIAC’s local data work are:

CIAC is collaborating with the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative to create tools that will enable City stakeholders and community members to identify priority properties for different actions and coordinate across agencies.
CIAC is a key partner to the Community Health Commission of Missouri in the Access to Care data effort - helping both with more efficiently acquiring health record administrative data and with developing qualitative data infrastructure for the region.
CIAC led a team of university researchers, staff at St. Louis City departments, and the region’s largest home repair providers to shed light on the enormous unmet need for home repairs in St. Louis. CIAC adapted a national methodology to measure home repair needs that had yet to be expanded to mid-sized cities.
CIAC provides ongoing data services to three other local organizations: Rise, the United Way/St. Louis Community Information Exchange and the Children’s Funding Project.

For more examples of CIAC’s efforts in St. Louis, visit their NNIP Profile. One of the roles of the NNIP network is to promote the development of community data services in new cities. Learn more about becoming an NNIP partner.

Utilizing Youth Voice to Inform Local Health Planning in Austin

canoll@urban.org — Sun, 08 Sep 2019 19:34:46 +0000

(Inactive) Children's Optimal Health

In 2018–19, 20 high school students identified the assets of and health needs for their Del Valle community, which directly informed the priorities set in the 2019 Austin/Travis County Community Health Improvement Plan. Supported by eight local organizations and agencies, the students conducted this research in a participatory project, the Youth-Led Community Health Learning Initiative (YLCHLI). The youth coinvestigators used innovative research techniques to identify assets and needs that impact residents’ health, explore priority areas for the community, and advocate for needed change.

Members of the YLCHLI Local Organization Advisory Board

Origin

In 2011, Austin and Travis County launched their first Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHA-CHIP), a four-year study to identify priority health issues in the region and mobilize to action. The CHA-CHIP found there was a need to delve into the health of specific communities within the county—of which Del Valle was one. Del Valle is an unincorporated community in southeastern Travis County, outside of Austin, so the school district is the defining government entity of the community, of which 84 percent are Hispanic and 84 percent are economically disadvantaged. Eight organizations—which included local nonprofit organizations, public health departments, and the Del Valle High School—came together to create a powerful partnership, the YLCHLI, to empower local youth and to better understand the Del Valle community and the health priorities of its members.

As a part of the initiative, Children’s Optimal Health, an NNIP Partner, contributed to the design of the youth-engaged research project, facilitated the connection with Del Valle High School, and provided guidance to implement the program in the school curriculum in a manner appropriate for the Del Valle context.

Learning through Research

In spring 2019, staff from SAFE’s Expect Respect Program and the UTHealth School of Public Health-Austin—Dell Center for Healthy Living began working directly with the youth. The programming used a health equity lens, introducing students to the structural and social determinants of health. The students used a participatory mapping method to collaboratively define their community—identifying assets and establishing residents’ needs and the changes necessary in their environment. Through a data gallery walk, youth coinvestigators identified the individual and environmental factors that affect the health of the community. Students learned how they can advocate for positive change in these areas through Participatory Learning and Action activities, exploring how to leverage research findings and community strengths in advocacy.

After exploring components of their community that challenge residents’ health, the students leveraged a “Dotmocracy” approach—an activity where all participants use dots to vote—to identify their top health priorities: physical activity, healthy eating, mental health, and access to health services. The youth coinvestigators explored these priority areas through PhotoVoice, providing imagery and stories of the residents’ experiences with these challenges. With PhotoVoice they asked:

Why is this health priority a problem in your community?
What in your community could prevent this health priority?
What are ways we can promote this health priority in your community?

Beyond the work with the Del Valle community, a second youth cohort was launched in the Montopolis area of Austin in summer 2019 with SAFE’s summer youth employment program.

Creating an Impact

To date, the youth coinvestigators have shared their findings via four community forums with local stakeholders, decisionmakers, and policymakers. These presentations included hosting a Youth Leader PhotoVoice Gallery at their high school for community leaders and reporting out their findings to the Children’s Optimal Health Board and the steering committee of the Austin/Travis County Community Health Improvement Plan. The local stakeholders have embraced the research conducted by the Del Valle High School students. The project’s findings have informed the region’s health planning efforts, including the 2019 Austin/Travis County Community Health Improvement Plan.

Students reported benefiting a lot from the experience. They had the chance to define their community for the broader public and tell the stories of its residents. They learned about local health considerations and health care access issues and felt empowered to take action in their community. They influenced the local government’s perceptions of the community’s needs and the government’s health plan for the region. The project also introduced students to data science and health advocacy, affecting some students’ future career interests.

Carrying on the Research

Children’s Optimal Health has continued to elevate the findings of the Del Valle High School youth coinvestigators through a StoryMapping project, launched September 2019. The project combines data, maps, mixed media, student work, and community stories to provide an overview of the project and continue the discussion around health equity for this community.

Youth Impact in Austin
The Youth-led Community Health Learning Initiative identified four priority health areas for their community and explored the topics through PhotoVoice. Their findings, some highlighted below, went on to inform the Community Health Improvement Plan in their community.
“There aren’t much resources for us to actually get out and do things that are active, although we do have a lot of open land, that isn’t always a reason for us to go outside.”	“Mental health issues like depression are a problem because it can make us feel different from others, like we are upside down and we don’t fit in with society.”	“Obtaining health care is far away from our community…our community does have plenty of space for a health care facility...but the issue is there's no change being done.”

Acknowledgements from the YLCHI

The YLCHLI would like to thank the Del Valle community for partnering with the YLCHLI, with a special thanks to the youth coinvestigators from Del Valle High School (spring 2019) for their stellar partnership and community health service with the YLCHLI. The YLCHLI would also like to recognize the excellent collaboration and support provided by Mr. Norris Sebastian, Tashara Mitchell, Ms. Amanda Cortez, and Mr. Miguel Delgado-Ochoa from the Del Valle Independent School District.

Funding for the YLCHLI was made possible by a community health grant from the City of Austin/Austin Public Health.

Many people contributed to YLCHLI’s success. For a complete list of team members and acknowledgements, see the Children’s Optimal Health StoryMapping page.

This story was written by Camille Anoll at the Urban Institute, drawn from documents and interviews with students and the Del Valle community. Children's Optimal Health is the Austin partner in the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, a learning network in 30 cities coordinated by the Urban Institute. All partners ensure communities have access to data and the skills to use information to advance equity and well-being across neighborhoods.

Community-Engaged Research

Health

Youth

2019

Camille H. Anoll

NNIP Local Data Inventory

stephane — Wed, 13 May 2015 18:23:43 +0000

New Reports on Putting Open Data to Work in Communities

blosoya@urban.org — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:24:08 +0000

Urban Institute

June 2014

For the past two years, the NNIP network has explored how our mission of democratizing data intersects with the growing open data movement. The project encourages more NNIP partners to actively participate in the call for governments to release data and to take the next step in using open data to improve their communities. We have learned that local NNIP partners and open data advocates have complementary strengths and should work together to more effectively advance open government data that benefits all residents. This series of reports describes the network's experiences with open data to date and charts the way forward for incorporating open data into all of our work. In addition, the case studies from four cities give a snapshot of how open data is developing in different political and institutional settings. This project was made possible with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Check out our Open Data page to see other related work by the partners.

NNIP and Open Data

How do I market my product or service to the NNIP network?

kpettit@urban.org — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:11:55 +0000

NNIP as a network does not endorse any product or service. For commercial and non-profit firms that contact UI/NNIP staff, we share information about the product or service within the network through a section on the NNIP website accessible to partners only.

Connecting People and Place: Improving Communities through Integrated Data Systems

lhendey@urban.org — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:27:10 +0000

Date granularity:

Show only month and year

Project start and end dates:

Monday, April 1, 2013 to Saturday, December 31, 2016

Annie E. Casey Foundation

In 2013, NNIP launched a three-year cross-site project, Connecting People and Place, supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to expand the relevance of integrated data systems (IDS) for local policy, increase access to information in IDS, and connect IDS with data on neighborhoods. An integrated data system is a system linking individual-level records from multiple government agencies on a periodic basis. The project, completed in Spring 2016, connected local NNIP partners, who all work to advance data-driven decision-making in their neighborhoods, with organizations and agencies running IDS.

Project Results

The Urban Institute coordinated the project and is currently taking the lead on cross-site dissemination and reports. The six participating NNIP partners each designed a site-specific project and teamed up with an agency or university hosting an IDS to exchange information, ideas, and expertise while analyzing a local policy issue. The six projects covered a wide range of topics from homelessness to chronic absenteeism to civic engagement. View more information on the results of each of the project and each partner’s issue brief here and in the documents below.

Overall, across all six sites, the project successfully demonstrated that:

Program planning and monitoring can be improved through enhanced access to information available from IDS;
Place and neighborhood matter;
Local data intermediaries and NNIP partners can add valuable perspectives to policy discussions; and
Longer term relationships between participating NNIP partners and the agencies and universities hosting IDS should continue to be developed.

For more information on cross-site project results and main takeaways, read the Urban Institute’s briefs:

Project Advisors

Two organizations with specialized expertise in IDS - Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy and the Data Quality Campaign - provided advice and technical assistance to support the project.

Project Contact:

Profile

Data Source:

Integrated Data Systems (IDS)

Issue Area:

Absenteeism

Civic engagement

Housing

Integrated Data Systems

Public Assistance

Social Services

Subsidized Housing

What role does the Urban Institute play in setting local agendas?

lhendey@urban.org — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:02:00 +0000

The Urban Institute, as the NNIP Coordinator, does not play any role in setting local agendas for NNIP Partners. Local agendas are determined by the needs of the community and the strengths of the partner organization. However, to join NNIP, partners must demonstrate that they are involved in more than one issue area.

Where can I go to download all the neighborhood data?

lhendey@urban.org — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:55:38 +0000

There is no one single dataset available that has the data that all our partners collect. Many partners do make some of their local data available for download, when possible on their own websites. NNIP as a partnership is working on a “shared indicators” system to create a standard set of indicators that every partner will strive to collect. Please see the cross-site project page on Shared Indicators for more information on this effort. Data for selected national datasets are available through the Urban Institute National Data Repository.

There is already a partner in my city, can my organization still join?

lhendey@urban.org — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:40:10 +0000

We recognize that regions have many organizations doing good work with neighborhood data - whether visualization, analysis, or technical assistance for the community groups.

In general, the NNIP model is that our designated partner disseminates lessons from their participation in the NNIP network to its local collaborators. We encourage people interested in building local tools and capacity around neighborhood data to reach out to the existing partner to discuss the potential for collaboration.

In a few cases, two or more organizations have applied jointly to join NNIP when they serve unique roles that combined fulfill the partnership requirements.

Can my organization become an NNIP partner for multiple areas?

lhendey@urban.org — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:54:33 +0000

The geographic coverage of NNIP partners varies. Some partners are organizations with just a few staff and only focus on the city in which they are located. Other partners are much larger and focus on multiple jurisdictions. In a few cases, the regional council of governments is part of the partner, extending their focus to the metropolitan area. However, because the nature of the work of NNIP involves neighborhoods and building relationships with organizations and residents in the community, we believe it is important that NNIP partner sites are not operated from locations remote from the communities that they are serving.