By Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Urban Institute
Download book (pdf, 1.6 mb)
With 90 percent of the world’s data generated in just the past two years, What Counts: Harnessing Data for America’s Communities challenges policymakers, funders, and practitioners across sectors to seize this new opportunity to revolutionize our approaches to improve lives in low-income communities. This book from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Urban Institute provides a roadmap for the strategic use of data to reduce poverty, improve health, expand access to quality education, increase employment, and build stronger and more resilient communities.
The book addresses such questions as:
- What are the opportunities to use data from a variety of sources across multiple measures, including poverty rates, employment rates, graduation rates, and health status?
- How can increased access to mortgage data improve assessment of market trends and provide early warnings of trouble?
- How can increased access to data on how hospitals allocate “community benefit” resources promote more coordinated action among those tackling the upstream determinants of health?
- What’s important to consider when deciding which data to collect and analyze?
- How can data be used to determine resource gaps, service redundancies, or opportunities for cost savings?
- Why are standard metrics and data important, particularly for Community Development Financial Institutions and the health sector?
- How can practitioners transform data into actionable information and compelling stories and get key messages into the hands of decision-makers?
- How does an organization’s culture and leadership advance or limit efforts to use data more strategically? Why does establishing a different approach to using data require more than just better information?