NNIP Partner Organizations
NNIP Partner organizations all commit to ensuring that their communities have access to data and the skills to use information to advance equity and well-being across neighborhoods. They serve as data translators and navigators, educators, convenors, collaborators, and voices for change. NNIP partner organizations vary in institutional structure and funding, but they all aim to be a permanent, ongoing resource to their community. Specifically, they:
- assemble, transform, and maintain data
- disseminate information and apply the data to achieve impact; and
- build community data capacity to understand conditions and improve outcomes.
NNIP partners specialize in assembling and transforming local administrative data from public agencies that cover many sectors, such as records on births, crimes, properties, or students' education. They use data publicly available through open data portals or confidential data that require special protections. Using these data, partners create actionable and relevant indicators at the neighborhood-level to demonstrate how conditions vary within a place. The data are also updated over time to reduce the costs of data assembly for any one project and to track trends in communities.
In applying the data to achieve impact, NNIP views data as a tool that can bring stakeholders together to make progress on ambitious community goals. NNIP partners aim to provide independent analysis driven by the data and to be critical consumers and understand how each data source can be used and how it shouldn’t. But we recognize that data are shaped by the biases of the people and institutions that create them and have been used to harm people and communities. Data collection and analysis should abide by principles that prioritize justice, respect for people, and community benefits. We know involving people and communities represented in the data in the collection, interpretation, and dissemination of information will lead to better data, conclusions, and decisionmaking.
Finally, NNIP partners build community data capacity so people can access and use data to inform efforts to understand outcomes and improve outcomes where they live. Examples of activities include partners conducting training on data and technology, collaborating with local governments on open data, or holding community events to promote the use of data.
About the Urban Institute
Urban Institute coordinates NNIP, in collaboration with the elected Executive Committee. As the network’s coordinator, the Urban Institute:
- strengthens the ability of local organizations to expand the use of data through peer-learning activities and new partner development;
- learns about innovative methods and practices through NNIP cross-site projects and exchange with people with expertise outside the network; and
- elevates insights and innovations from NNIP communities through publications and presentations.
The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people’s lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists, and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.