Connecting People and Place: Improving Communities through Integrated Data Systems

In 2013, NNIP launched a three-year cross-site project, Connecting People and Place, supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to expand the relevance of integrated data systems (IDS) for local policy, increase access to information in IDS, and connect IDS with data on neighborhoods. An integrated data system is a system linking individual-level records from multiple government agencies on a periodic basis. The project, completed in Spring 2016, connected local NNIP partners, who all work to advance data-driven decision-making in their neighborhoods, with organizations and agencies running IDS.

Project Results

The Urban Institute coordinated the project and is currently taking the lead on cross-site dissemination and reports.  The six participating NNIP partners each designed a site-specific project and teamed up with an agency or university hosting an IDS to exchange information, ideas, and expertise while analyzing a local policy issue. The six projects covered a wide range of topics from homelessness to chronic absenteeism to civic engagement. View more information on the results of each of the project and each partner’s issue brief here and in the documents below. 

Overall, across all six sites, the project successfully demonstrated that:

• Program planning and monitoring can be improved through enhanced access to information available from IDS;
• Place and neighborhood matter;
• Local data intermediaries and NNIP partners can add valuable perspectives to policy discussions; and
• Longer term relationships between participating NNIP partners and the agencies and universities hosting IDS should continue to be developed.

For more information on cross-site project results and main takeaways, read the Urban Institute’s briefs:

• Using Integrated Data to Improve Communities: Lessons from a Cross-Site Project.
• People and Place Matter: Using Integrated Data Systems to Understand Chronic Absenteeism

Project Advisors

Two organizations with specialized expertise in IDS - Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy and the Data Quality Campaign - provided advice and technical assistance to support the project.