During the Covid-19 pandemic, many workplaces quickly transitioned from in-person work to remote work. While many workplaces have returned to offices, many other jobs have continued to be performed at home. We wanted to look at these trends using two Census Bureau data products: the American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates, and the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES).
Read MoreLast week the Census Bureau announced that it will implement updated standards for the collection and reporting of race and ethnicity data set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that are effective as of March 28th, 2024. This is the first time the OMB’s race and ethnicity data standards have changed since 1997. Read more.
Read MoreIn March, the Equity in Data Community of Practice learned about how to responsibly utilize census data to explore race and ethnicity. We heard from CTData’s own Cynthia Willner (Senior Research Associate) and Jason Cheung (Senior Data Analyst) who shared how race and ethnicity data is collected and how we can use it appropriately in our work. Watch the video of the session in this post.
Read MoreHartford youth data fellows reviewed publicly available data about children and youth in Hartford. They found that the percentage of children and youth under 18 living below the poverty line remains significant— 37 percent in recent estimates.
Read MoreHartford youth data fellows reviewed data from the CT State Department of Education to better understand critical and current issues for them— the impact of high school students missing school and their college readiness and persistence.
Read MoreHartford youth data fellows captured data about the mental health needs of Hartford youth captured by 2-1-1 emergency mental health services.
Read MoreEvery five years, Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) updates their Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, which serves as a guide to the region’s 21 towns and economic development partners. Northwest Hills COG reached out to CTData to provide a data and analysis platform to be used in community presentations and meetings the kick of the first phase of the Comprehensive Economic Development Plan update.
Read MoreOur first Equity in Data Community of Practice of 2024 was held on Tuesday, January 16th. We were joined by Mica Knox, from the COMPASS Youth Collaborative, who shared the COMPASS data team’s experience developing effective and accessible dashboards. During this session, we discussed
how to determine what should be included in a dashboard,
how to gain buy-in from staff to ensure its use, and
how COMPASS staff are using it in their planning and decision-making processes.
2023 was another banner year for CTData! In 2023, we developed our first strategic plan. Moving forward, CTData will be building and growing in two areas where we have expertise and feel we can best support the social sector – data capacity building and research and analysis.
Read MoreHartford, like other cities, has a 311 service to provide residents with a centralized and easy-to-remember number for non-emergency services and information. Residents can call 311 tollfree or submit on the website about issues with their housing, city services, their neighborhood, or street issues. In 2023 the Hartford Data Collaborative and the Hartford Youth Data Fellows analyzed City of Hartford 311 calls and requests to better understand the types of complaints filed and how those requests for service varied by city neighborhoods.
Read MoreOur first Equity in Data Community of Practice of 2024 was held on Tuesday, January 16th. We were joined by Mica Knox, from the COMPASS Youth Collaborative, who shared the COMPASS data team’s experience developing effective and accessible dashboards. During this session, we discussed
how to determine what should be included in a dashboard,
how to gain buy-in from staff to ensure its use, and
how COMPASS staff are using it in their planning and decision-making processes.
When we work with data, we are always working with a place – a state, the nation, a town, etc. In data-speak, these are called “geographies.” It simply means a physical place to where the data are connected. Explore this blog post to understand the census geographies that are most commonly used in Connecticut.
Read MoreUnderstanding childhood experiences, both positive and negative, is important to inform public health policies and prevention strategies directed to children and youth. While data related to childhood experiences exists in various data sources, our goal was to create the first data platform in Connecticut to synthesize these data sources in a user-friendly way through the use of effective visualizations and interactive dashboards.
Read MoreEach year, nonprofits and volunteer groups across the state of Connecticut engage in “get out the vote” efforts, which include encouraging eligible citizens to register to vote and encouraging registered voters to vote. However, these groups often have limited resources for “GOTV” activities, and when looking at a city such as Hartford, knowing where it might be most helpful to focus those limited resources can be a challenge. In Hartford, the Hartford Votes-Hartford Votas Coalition members hoped to address that challenge. Through a participatory engagement design, CTData partnered with the Hartford Votes Coalition to identify the data that would be most helpful for these groups and to produce a data story and dashboard that these groups could use in their GOTV efforts, engaging the GOTV groups throughout.
Read MoreIn the summer of 2023, the CT Head Start Collaboration Office, within the Office of Early Childhood, contracted with CTData to conduct a needs assessment of all Head Start and Early Head Start programs in the state. This blog post describes our work on the needs assessment and shares some key findings.
Read MoreIn 2021, the Community Service Block Grant team members (part of Connecticut Department of Social Services) talked with us about a challenge. The nine Community Action Agencies in Connecticut are required to conduct a Comprehensive Community Needs Assessment (CNA) every three years. These assessments are very data-heavy, and the staff who complete these assessments are not necessarily trained in data skills. To address this challenge, we developed a three-year project whose goal was to improve the quality of the CNAs by providing skill-building, data support, and a CNA template for CAA staff. Read more here.
Read MoreCensus Bureau data products continue to give insight into changes in mortality trends over the past few years and through the Covid-19 pandemic. Vintage 2022 Population Estimates, which are based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics, take into account final 2021 and provisional 2022 mortality data and allow data users to look at mortality by sex and by race and ethnicity.
Read MoreTo celebrate Native American Heritage month, we explored the Decennial Census data files to find some data on Native Americans living in Connecticut. In this post we share what we found about the tribes with the highest populations in Connecticut, demographics of the Native American population in Connecticut, and where Native populations live across the state.
Read MoreDriven by the track record and commitment of the Connecticut Data Collaborative (CTData) to improve data literacy, the use of data, and the involvement of residents – including youth – in the development of data to improve lives in Hartford, CTData has been accepted as a partner in the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, one of the nation’s premier organizations in the field.
Read MoreAttention Hartford youth! The Hartford Data Collaborative has opened its application for Hartford youth to join HDC starting in January 2024. The Hartford Youth Data Fellowship is a 5-month data training and community-based project development program for Hartford students as part of the Hartford Data Collaborative. The program is designed to increase data literacy and analysis skills for high school seniors and college students and improve their confidence in interpreting data and sharing their insights with others. These skills and experiences will serve youth in their college and career explorations and provide an analytic foundation for youth interested in using data to make an impact in the Hartford community.
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