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NNIP PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Greater New Orleans Community Data Center The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center works to expand the ability of the local nonprofit community to access and strategically use local information in decision-making and grantwriting. To this end, the Data Center plays a role at several levels: 1) collaborating with local funders to help them use data to strategically invest in the community; 2) assisting nonprofits and collaboratives in obtaining and using data in their grant proposals and planning efforts; and 3) aligning efforts with other local capacity-building organizations to create a more seamless system of resources for nonprofits. Based on the NNIP model, the Community Data Center began in 1997 as a grant from Baptist Community Ministries to Tulane University. In 1999, the project was transferred to the United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area who currently acts as the fiscal agent for the organization. Support for the Data Center is provided by the United Way for Greater New Orleans, Baptist Community Ministries, and Tulane University. Four in-house employees and several consultants make up the Data Center staff.
Products The primary information product generated by the Data Center is its web site (http://www.gnocdc.org). This 1000+ page resource is freely available, and provides indicators at the neighborhood and parish levels for the Greater New Orleans area. Statistics are broken down into categories covering demographics, housing, education, health, poverty and more. Sources include the U.S. Census, state government agencies, Medicaid, Kids Count, the FBI and a local health asset inventory. Each of the 73 New Orleans neighborhoods has corresponding maps detailing census tract, street, and zip code boundaries, as well as a 1-5 page written 'snapshot' of the area's history, people, programs and buildings, complete with photographs. One-on-one technical assistance is available for those who do not find the data they need on the web site, and the Data Center also conducts short workshops in conjunction with another New Orleans capacity-building organization. In addition, the Data Center publishes an e-newsletter with tips on using data and announcements of data updates.
Design Philosophy The web site is designed from a user-centered perspective, with an eye toward continuous quality improvement. The development team draws from the fields of information architecture, information design, usability engineering and instructional design to accommodate the local nonprofit community's information-seeking strategies. A central component of the data display is the integration of 'just in time' learning moments, with the philosophy being that learning is most relevant when it is tied to a user's immediate goals.
The Data Center web site has a technical infrastructure that is scalable, generalizable, customizable and portable. Scalability allows for new data sets to be added with minimal production effort (e.g., 3 weeks to publish 26,000 data points from Census SF3). Generalizability allows for programming modules to be reused for rapid development of new information products. Customizability allows for exceptions to be accommodated (e.g., five Orleans neighborhoods did not have health risks survey data, so those data pages were customized with a message rather than an empty data table). Portability allows for the potential to apply this data system to new geographic regions with minimal programming changes. PARTNER BIOGRAPHIES: Charlotte Cunliffe is responsible for overall project direction and design as well as serving as the group leader for the Community Data Center's technical assistance group. Charlotte has spent about five years working with funders, nonprofits and community organizations around the development, use and dissemination of data and information for organizational decision-making. In addition, Charlotte brings over 10 years of experience as a management consultant - staffing and then directing data-driven market research and analysis, strategic planning, and program management in healthcare systems around the country. Charlotte has an MBA from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University where she concentrated in finance and strategic management; an MPH in Health Systems Management from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a PhD in Economic Development from Tulane. |