2023 Annual Report Letter
2023 was another banner year for CTData! We increased revenue by more than 50% year over year. We also hired two new team members, adding a Director of Data Strategic Planning and a Census State Data Center Coordinator. We served more than 100 organizations and doubled the number of registrants at CTData Academy workshops and events compared to 2022.
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. As part of strategic planning, we rewrote our mission:
To connect people and data to promote informed decision-making and to advance equity in Connecticut.
In 2023, we continued to deepen existing partnerships and develop new ones. For Compass Youth Collaborative, we developed training on an internal dashboard; for Get Out The Vote efforts in Hartford, we provided a voting map and data story; for the Northwest Hills Council of Governments, we created a data dashboard that they used in their Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy; and for the City of Hartford, we pulled public data together in a Tableau storyboard so they could have data on young children in Hartford.
Jason presented our evictions work at the Association of Public Data Users conference, I shared our Equity in Data Community of Practice work at Disaggregation Nation, and CTData and COMPASS will be presenting at the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference.
We had record attendance at our first in-person conference since Covid. Natalie Evans Harris, formerly of the Black Wealth Data Center, kicked it off by discussing data gaps in understanding black wealth. Ninety-seven percent of survey respondents said they learned something new, and 78% made a new connection – fulfilling our mission of “Connecting People and Data for Good!”
If you are looking for census data, I suggest you contact us (info@ctdata.org) or peruse the many census data blog posts we published in 2023 (First Population Estimate by Planning Regions; Native American Heritage; Known Errors in Vintage 2022 Population Estimates; Multigenerational Households; Overview of the four sources of Population data), 2020 Census Data Demographic and Housing Explorer, or our population statistics hub.
Our Hartford Youth Fellows continued to inspire us with their analysis of Hartford data – exploring 311 incidents, Health and Safety issues by neighborhood; chronic absenteeism; college readiness, and more.
With the hiring of our Director of Data Strategic planning, we launched two new cohorts of nonprofits that are going through Data Strategic Planning. One nonprofit started measuring activity levels by days and times of the week to help determine when resources to run a program are needed most. Another program, for the first time was able to evaluate the level of dosage needed for Medically Assisted Treatment. Nonprofits that have completed Data Strategic Planning have seen the data culture of their organization shift and data literacy increase for all those involved.
In the fall, we became a National Neighborhood Indicators Partner! We are very excited to join a network of organizations doing similar work across the country.
We also welcomed two new board members: Carmel Ford and Rydell Harrison.
I’m proud of the work of CTData – connecting people and data good!
Many thanks for your partnership and support,
Michelle
Click here to read our full report!