A recent report by Monitor Institute at Deloitte attempts to asses the landscape of the use of data in the social sector. They present three ‘characteristics of a better future’:
More effectively put decision-making at the center Better empowering constituents and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion More productively learning at scale In the next couple of posts, I’d like to lay out the case that the tools and techniques associated with data science present the opportunity to help make this future a reality.
The non-profit organizaiton I work at collects tons of data. But the ways in which many organizations in the sector tends to be fairly limited. I want to talk about why I think that challenge exits and how we are working to change that fact, putting our data to work improving opportunities for young people1.
Challenge A lot of infrastructure has been built up in the social service sector around data collection.
Philadelphia has consistently been identifed as one of the most segregated cities in the country. Once this fact is stated, the analysis usually stops. We’re left to infer how living in communities which are racially segregated impacts the lives of residents. Here I try to explore this topic.
This is partially motivated by a conference I went to a few months ago. The presenters were discussing the ways in which historical, intentional segregation has influenced opportunities for subsequent generations.
