Data for Impact

We all interact with data on a day to day basis. Most organizations working towards social change have to collect and analyze data internally, whether for compliance purposes, to make the case for funding, or to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. On Day 1 of this course, we will spend some time discussing various types and sources of data, best practices in data collection, and potential uses for it.  Through real-world examples, we will explore how to collect and use data to best provide an overview of a program or target (i.e., unmet needs, quality of services, and return on investment). Next, we’ll look at how to parse data from the Census Bureau at the local, state, and national level using disabilitystatistics.org. Participants will then get to practice hands-on data-visualization themselves using Data Wrapper in order to communicate meaningful narratives of their own that they can use to drive social change. 

The second day of this course will focus on how to critically assess the use of data in the world around us. How do we know what data to trust, and whether the methods used to analyze it are sound? At times, different studies on a given topic will come to completely opposite conclusions. This course will equip you with some of the basic tools to become a savvy consumer of data. Learn what questions to ask, how to distinguish data quality, how to identify reliable data sources, and how to find points of weakness in an analysis.