Creating Accountability through Democratizing Data for Equitable and Resilient Communities

The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) is a peer-learning network of more than 30 cities who have been working to democratize data for equitable and resilient communities for 25 years. In this panel, we will discuss a set of coordinated goals and conversations drawing from our network's experiences and aspirations to continue furthering racial equity in each of our communities through improved data services and analysis. In addition to sharing examples of operationalizing these goals, we will discuss how making them explicit has helped us hold each other accountable and influenced partners to shift how they work.

A local partner example others can learn from is the Baltimore Community Change Project. Baltimore experienced an overall -5.7% population loss between 2010 and 2020, but population loss for communities throughout the city has not been uniform—with many communities gaining population next door to communities that lost more than 4 times the citywide average. Such a significant "enduring divergence" in population requires a just and racially equitable approach to analyze and interpret these data. Learn how BNIA has used indicators to mobilize diverse stakeholders to learn from other cities and their own growing neighborhoods to plan to reverse these trends. They will also reflect how this effort connects with NNIP's racial equity goals.