Training & Technical Assistance Program to Center Racial Equity in Data Integration
Cross-sector data sharing and integration can transform data about individuals into actionable information that can be used to build stronger, healthier and more just communities. At the same time, cross-sector data can reinforce legacies of racist policies and lead to inequitable resource allocation, access, and outcomes.
AISP’s Equity in Practice Learning Community is designed to help data sharing efforts implement and build on the promising practices identified in our Toolkit for Centering Racial Equity in Data Integration. Together, we aim to create a new kind of data infrastructure that shares power and knowledge with communities.
EiPLC Sites | Cohort 1
The first cohort of the EiPLC is made up of two mentor sites and four mentee sites. Through collaboration with each other and AISP, they build, test, and implement new models for incorporating community voice in key decisions about cross-sector data use, with an emphasis on health equity and racial justice.
Baltimore’s Promise has been selected as a mentor site in cohort one of AISP’s Equity in Practice Learning Community (EiPLC). The team, which also includes education, workforce, housing and youth-serving nonprofit partners, will be collaborating to center racial equity and community voice in the governance and use of the Baltimore Youth Hub, as well as supporting other cohort sites along their journey. The Hub brings communities, providers, policymakers, and researchers into partnership to make informed decisions as they work to eliminate disparities and achieve equitable outcomes for Baltimore’s youth and families, which EiPLC participation will deepen and strengthen.
The Children’s Services Council (CSC) of Broward County, Florida has been selected as a mentor site in cohort one of AISP’s Equity in Practice Learning Community (EiPLC). The team, which includes child welfare, juvenile justice, school district, county and mental health partners will be collaborating to center racial equity and community voice and agency in the governance and use of the Broward Data Collaborative, as well as supporting other cohort sites along their journey. The Collaborative’s innovative approach to data sharing has included a focus on community participatory action research, youth system organizing with system professionals, and extensive training for partners and staff on the local history of racism and implicit bias, which EiPLC participation will deepen and strengthen.
The Institute for Social Capital (ISC) at UNC Charlotte has been selected to participate in cohort one of AISP’s Equity in Practice Learning Community (EiPLC). The team will be collaborating to center racial equity and community voice in the governance and use of their integrated data system in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. This will involve working closely with key partners in the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Criminal Justice Services, along with other members of the Mecklenburg County Violence Prevention Data Collaborative. ISC’s EiPLC participation will build on existing efforts to find cross-sector, multisystem, and collaborative solutions to preventing the racially disparate impacts of community violence.
The Connecticut Office of Policy & Management has been selected to participate in cohort one of AISP’s Equity in Practice Learning Community (EiPLC). The team will be collaborating to center racial equity and community voice in the governance and use of the state’s expanding P20 WIN longitudinal data system and other cross-agency data assets. This work will involve a host of partners, including the Department of Social Services and the Office of Health Strategy. Connecticut’s EiPLC participation will build on the State’s Data Plan and Two-Generation Interagency Plan, and focus on developing sustainable strategies for incorporating resident perspectives in P20 WIN and beyond. They also aim to improve their collection and reporting of standardized race, ethnicity, and language data during their time in the initiative.
The King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) and Public Health Seattle-King County have been selected to participate in cohort one of AISP’s Equity in Practice Learning Community (EiPLC). The team will be collaborating to center racial equity and community voice in the governance and use of their Integrated Data Hub. This will involve working closely with key partners at the King County Office of Equity and Social Justice and the Urban Indian Health Institute along with broader provider networks. King County’s EiPLC participation will build on existing efforts to bring providers and the public into more collaborative decision making over when and how integrated data are used to promote health and health equity, with a focus on the impacts of COVID-19.
Oregon’s Enterprise Information Services’ Office of Data Governance and Transparency, and the Center for Evidence-based Policy at Oregon Health & Science University have been selected to participate in cohort one of AISP’s Equity in Practice Learning Community (EiPLC). The team will be collaborating to center racial equity and community voice in the governance and use of the Oregon Child Integrated Dataset (OCID), a project that brings together data from education, health, social service, juvenile justice, and early learning programs. OCID was created to support policymakers and community leaders with accessible, cross-program data to support the health and well-being of Oregon children and families. Oregon’s EiPLC participation will build on existing efforts to address systemic inequities through data integration projects and initiatives, as included in Oregon’s Data Strategy 2021-2023.
EiPLC Sites | Cohort 2
The second cohort of the EiPLC is made up of four sites. Through collaboration with each other and AISP, they build, test, and implement new models for incorporating community voice in key decisions about cross-sector data use, with an emphasis on education equity and racial justice.
The Rhode Island Longitudinal Data System (RILDS) integrates and links data across sectors and over time to support research aligned with the state’s priorities, inform policymaking and program evaluation, and improve the well-being of all Rhode Islanders. The RILDS connects three decades of previously siloed education, employment, and health data using a custom-built machine learning algorithm to ensure accurate person-level matches. It is legislatively established as Rhode Island’s repository for longitudinal, interagency linked data, with the responsibility to report on inequities in access, opportunities, and outcomes.
Promise Partnership Utah facilitates a collective impact network that includes data sharing with education, basic needs, municipal, and youth-serving nonprofit partners. Together, these partners collaborate to center racial equity and community voice in the creation, governance, and use of a Community Information Exchange data system. This information ecosystem (1) provides comprehensive and streamlined support to students and families in meeting their basic needs and (2) enables our community to understand, evaluate, and improve the functioning of these systems over time. The Promise Partnership’s EiLPC participation will allow us to build on existing efforts for data integration, participatory data governance, and community engagement that supports our cross-sector collective impact initiative, as included in our 5-year strategic planning. Through a data sharing system, the Promise Partnership hopes to use data to accelerate targeted universalism strategies toward our 5-year goals of 100% graduation and basic needs met in two high-opportunity communities in our region. |
DCYF and SFUSD initially launched a data sharing initiative to improve the quality of the enrollment data that DCYF grantees’ programs collected. At that time, manual data entry led to an inability to reliably track youth longitudinally, and presented matching difficulties when evaluation or accountability questions were posed about youth who were enrolled in multiple programs, or enrolled in SFUSD schools and DCYF programs.
Under the terms of the agreement, a set of demographic variables for SFUSD students are shared nightly with DCYF. DCYF may also request permission to use the data shared by SFUSD for evaluation purposes, and/or to request additional data not included in the transfers. The agreement has directly benefited youth and families in San Francisco by enabling DCYF staff to meet reporting requirements with relative ease and allowing DCYF and SFUSD staff access to timely and reliable information to gauge the effectiveness of DCYF-funded programs.
Generation Next was founded in 2012 to address the opportunity and achievement gaps facing students across the Twin Cities. As a cradle-to-career backbone organization addressing systemic education disparities serving both Minneapolis and Saint Paul (MSP)—with direct engagement of the Superintendents from both districts—we convene a coalition of partners to create data-driven collective impact for students.
This coalition includes Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) and Saint Paul Promise (SPP), two of the key data integration partners taking part in this project. These place-based collective impact organizations work directly in neighborhoods through established local relationships with impact that reaches beyond their geographic focus. Both organizations’ leaders are active in the Generation Next Leadership Council and represented on the Data Committee, providing a shared platform for systems change across our region.
EiPLC Equity Fellows
AISP’s Equity Fellows are both our advisors for this initiative and play an essential role in supporting site learning and growth. Fellows work with AISP to help participating sites analyze how institutional and structural racism impacts day-to-day data access and use practices, and identify ways to shift practice. The work includes racial equity training, an equity audit tool, the co-creation and implementation of a plan to incorporate community voice into the site-based data governance, and the completion of an integrated data use case that originates from the community. These eight awesome humans bring diverse perspectives and decades of experience to this role.
Bridget Blount is the Chief Impact Officer with Baltimore’s Promise where she directs data analysis, evaluation, and the Baltimore Youth Data Hub. The Hub brings communities, providers, policymakers, and researchers into partnership to make informed decisions as they work to eliminate disparities and achieve equitable outcomes for Baltimore’s youth and families. Before joining Baltimore’s Promise in 2018, Bridget served as the Director of Data and Evaluation for the Family League of Baltimore City, where she led the development of two citywide management information systems to collect data from diverse summer program providers and prenatal home visiting programs. Bridget is passionate about helping nonprofits harness the power of data to strengthen their organizations, improve their services, and communicate their impact.
Bridget serves as an EiPLC Cohort 1 Fellow.
Meleah Ellison, Ed.D (pronouns: she/her/ella) has wide-ranging experience as a practitioner and researcher across multiple settings including K-12 education, mental health, higher education, and philanthropic initiatives, with an emphasis on educational equity, college access, social consciousness, and leadership development. Additionally, she has led teams to analyze and leverage data in order to identify organizational strengths, determine priorities, and target opportunities for growth. Regardless of the setting, Dr. Ellison’s work centers on amplifying the voices of individuals, families, and communities who have been intentionally excluded from equitable educational and professional opportunities.
Dr. Ellison holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a Master’s degree in Counseling from Wake Forest University, and a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Northeastern University.
Meleah serves as an EiPLC Cohort 2 Fellow.
Sue Gallagher, EdD, is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Children’s Services Council of Broward County, FL. She brings over 30 years of local government and non-profit experience to her role as an AISP Equity Fellow. With local partners and colleagues, Sue co-created the Broward Data Collaborative in 2017. The Collaborative’s innovative approach to data sharing has included a focus on community participatory action research, youth priorities, and extensive training for partners and staff on the local history of racism and implicit bias. Sue is excited about the opportunity to help expand deep, equitable community participation in data infrastructure and use.
Sue serves as an EiPLC Cohort 1 Fellow
Robert Gradeck has 25 years of professional experience helping people find and use civic information. He manages and co-founded the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (WPRDC) at the University of Pittsburgh. The WPRDC is an inclusive open data partnership between the University, Allegheny County, and the City of Pittsburgh. The WPRDC helps to inform many community initiatives in the areas of health, housing, environmental protection, transportation, and social justice. He is a member of the Civic Switchboard project, which helps libraries and library workers become participants in civic data initiatives, and participates in the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership. Robert is also currently a co-leader of the Black Equity Coalition’s Data Justice Working Group. He received his B.A. in Urban Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, and Masters in City Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Bob serves as an EiPLC Cohort 2 Fellow.
Blu Lewis—originally from Harlem, NY—is passionate about honoring Black Radical Traditions and building infrastructure that can shift the conditions for Black people and movements. They have over ten years of experience as a community organizer, researcher, program director, and creator of popular education curriculum. In their current work, Blu focuses on coordinating, aligning, and developing Black & POC membership-led movements centered on meeting the needs and shifting the conditions of Black communities and dismantling data capitalism. Blu resides in Charlotte, NC and is a Community Participatory Researcher for the Our Data Bodies research collective, Organizing Director of NC BLOC, and Minister of Organizing for the Movement for Black Lives.
Blu serves as an EiPLC Cohort 1 Fellow.
Kim Paull believes that we are not slices of data; we are whole human beings, raised in families, rooted in communities, bearing our history. And our data systems, culture, and context must honor that complexity. Kim has worked for over a decade in public service as a government analytics leader. Most recently, Kim led the creation of an integrated data system and holistic data culture for Rhode Island’s health and human services agencies. She is now the Director of Value-Based Care for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, leading efforts to design and fund a whole-person health care system. She lives in Rhode Island with her wife and twin girls.
Kim serves as an EiPLC Cohort 1 Fellow.
Enid M. Rey, ESQ. has twenty years of innovative, visionary leadership and achievement in the philanthropic, legal, government and non-profit sectors. She is a nationally recognized advocate and speaker in the fields of family support, positive youth development, and school integration efforts. As a skilled advocate for children, youth and families, Enid’s success is in bridging policy, protocols, process, and quality practice to affect change in the outcomes for youth and families. Fluent in Spanish and English, with extensive public speaking and media-relations experience, her work in education was featured in the 2015 This American Life episode on school integration, “The Problem We All Live With.” Throughout her career she has developed a unique vantage point that enables her to connect systems change work and grass roots community capacity building efforts. Her work is centered on the values and belief that youth and families are resident experts in their conditions and have the knowledge and capacity needed to build transformative action for their own communities.
Enid serves an an EiPLC Cohort 2 Fellow.
Thelma Wong is principal consultant at Jeong Collective. Prior to founding Jeong, Thelma led the early childhood strategy and practice divisions at School Readiness Consulting. She began her work in early care and education at EducationCounsel before heading into the classroom to become a pre-K teacher in Atlanta, GA. Over the course of her career, Thelma has partnered with families, providers of care, philanthropy, state and county agencies, and institutes of higher education to build more equitable and sustainable child- and family-serving programs.
Thelma lives in Charlotte, NC with her partner and two young children. She’s a self-described “infovore.” When she’s not playing with her kids, you can find her listening to a podcast, reading, working on a puzzle, and probably drinking tea.
Thelma serves as an EiPLC Cohort 2 Fellow.