A new guide helps communities set up groups that can help analyze their neighborhood data and put it to good use.
"Local data intermediaries" work with raw government data to produce accessible neighborhood indicators, which residents and stakeholders can use to fuel the changes and improvements communities want to see.
A guide to creating the intermediaries was published May 31 by National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP)—a network of more than 20 such groups—and the Urban Institute.
Two scholars from the Institute explain in Next City that liaising between government and communities requires "trust, technical expertise, knowledge of the local context and coordination among multiple stakeholders." But if successful, they say, intermediaries can help "surface, explain and address the issues distressed communities face."
They give special note to NNIP's Baltimore chapter, which was able to add to the national discussion about the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody by drawing on 15 years' worth of data about his neighborhood.
FULL STORY: Your City Needs a Local Data Intermediary Now
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
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Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research