What is data, and why is it important?

Data includes any information we can collect or record, including demographic information, survey responses, photos and video, and more. We collect data to help make sense of our world, document problems and make the case for solutions, and track progress.

For example, the Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map displays location-based data on nineteen indicators of environmental health, such as pollution from heavy traffic or nearby factories and rates of heart disease, as well as socioeconomic challenges like poverty and unemployment. This map helps environmental justice advocates, policy makers, and policy implementers determine where targeted interventions are needed and how to focus their time and energy for the greatest impact.

Frontline Communities’ Ambivalent Relationship with Data

Frontline communities, including Black, Indigenous, people of color, immigrant and refugee, low-income, and disabled communities, among others, have a complex relationship with data. Our communities face high levels of surveillance, marginalization, and gatekeeping. Data misuse creates distrust and heightens vulnerabilities. Governments and other institutions have used both personal information and aggregate data against our communities to police and discriminate, blocking us from housing, loans, jobs, health services, education, etc. 

Even if our data isn’t used against us, sometimes it isn’t used for us either. Government entities extract data from us through surveys and listening sessions, then never get back to us about how they’re using it or never use it at all. This disconnect leaves communities disempowered and skeptical about the benefits of sharing their information.

At the same time, we know data is crucial to improving our quality of life. Data can illuminate the realities we face and provide a basis for advocating for better conditions. We can use it to understand problems, search for and test solutions, and make the case for policies and programs that work for our communities.

We may already suspect or know something to be true. For instance, areas with high percentages of BIPOC residents are subjected to more environmental pollution. By collecting data, we’ve been able to prove this fact to policy makers and advocate for greater protections through the Healthy Environment for All Act.

The Just Futures Partners’ Draft Data Framework and Logic Model for Community Assemblies

We’re keeping all of this in mind as we create a data framework for Washington community assemblies. We know that we need to collect data in a transparent and ethical way if we are going to collect it at all.

Our proposed data model includes four levels of data collection and impact: individual participants in community assemblies, assembly anchors, movement partners, and decision makers.

Individual community assembly participants are responsible for contributing ideas, providing feedback, sharing personal stories and lived experiences, supporting follow-up actions that emerge from assemblies, engaging in continuous learning, and networking and building relationships. They can expect to gain a greater awareness of and voice in policy processes. They’re accountable to bringing their expertise, staying engaged, and advocating for the assembly’s resolutions.

Assembly anchors are responsible for organizing and facilitating the assemblies, recruiting participants, collecting data, synthesizing the assembly outcomes, liaising with any community partners, documenting, disseminating, and sustaining ongoing engagement with assembly participants. They can expect to increase their agency over community issues and to mobilize their communities for active participation and engagement in decision-making processes. They’re accountable to gathering solutions and working with movement partners to elevate, uplift, mobilize, and organize to put those solutions into action. Anchors serve as vital links between community members and political processes.

Movement partners are responsible for facilitating assembly anchors’ access to expertise and training, and for supporting efforts to implement assembly-created solutions. They can expect to increase their capacity, promote community building initiatives and co-governance activities, and support resource mobilization. They’re accountable to analyzing and synthesizing assembly solutions into policy language.

Decision makers include government leadership and elected officials. They are responsible for educating themselves on and committing to assembly-created solutions, supporting and implementing solutions. Their commitment to the solutions is crucial for institutionalizing the changes we need. They can expect to create mechanisms for including community priorities in decision-making processes. They are accountable to acting on and formalizing assembly solutions into legislative action.

In the short-term, we’re excited to pilot community assemblies across Washington, practice collecting data, synthesizing solutions, and putting assembly-created solutions into action. In the long-term, we aim to build deep capacity in communities, sustain robust networks of partners, establish collaborative governance as a standard practice, and improve community and environmental well-being.

Partner Feedback on Our Data Framework & Logic Model

Convening in Tacoma

On June 27, we convened the Just Futures Partners, government agency employees, community representatives, and other stakeholders at the Hotel Murano in Tacoma to share our draft data framework and logic model and receive their questions and feedback. This is in line with our collaborative approach to ensure the framework being developed is practical and inclusive.

Here’s some of what we heard:

• We need to create a reciprocal relationship with data. Community members should be able to access their own data and give input on data collection, storage, presentation, and use.
• We need to balance quantitative and qualitative data.
• Governments should support communities to collect, process, and create narratives around their own data, rather than governments creating narratives for them.
• We should use memorandums of understanding and release forms to ensure we have consent for the data we collect and how we use it.
• We should believe community members when they share their needs.
• Government shouldn’t ask communities to collect data that they’ve already collected. Make use of data that already exists.
• We’re still learning about best practices for coding and storing data.
• Measuring civic engagement and success of assemblies and other collaborative governance efforts should include assessing meaningful actions, on-the-ground impacts, and community happiness.
• Can we support more vulnerable communities (undocumented, incarcerated, sex workers, etc.) to participate in assemblies through strategic partnerships, so they can retain some measure of anonymity.

Post-Convening Survey

We conducted a post-convening survey. Responses highlighted the importance of community data infrastructure and identified barriers and solutions.

When asked why it is important to invest in community data infrastructure, participants shared:

• Data is an asset, and this asset should benefit and belong to the people it originates with. This is sometimes hindered by government/private sector framing of data as a public commodity that can be extracted and separated from the people.
• Involving community allows the right questions to be asked. Lack of existing relationships and failure to project the benefits (on agency/org side) are barriers.
• The information gathered from local community organizations should be in real time and accurately reflect the actual needs of the community. This necessitates ensuring that our organization has the proper equipment, infrastructure, and security measures to store data in-house and in the cloud, which involves associated storage costs.

Regarding solutions for developing a robust data-sharing framework, we heard:

• We must establish policies and bylaws that allow for secure information sharing between organizations while protecting clients’ private information. Building trust and maintaining ongoing communication are essential components of this process.
• To foster collaboration, we should compile a list of local community organizations interested in partnering with government agencies for data sharing. We can then contact these organizations to determine the best ways to assist them in gathering, securing, and sharing their data effectively.

Participants also offered feedback on how government leadership can support better collaboration between agencies and the community on data sharing:

• They have to model it, and they have to spend the money.
• Effective collaboration between agencies and the community on data sharing can be supported through active government leadership. Officials should conduct in-person walkthrough meetings to understand the needs of organizations and how they serve the community. This hands-on approach demonstrates that government leaders are in tune with the community’s needs and committed to supporting the organizations they fund or collaborate with for data collection. Maintaining virtual connections can help sustain trust and communication following these in-person meetings.

Next Steps

Thank you to everyone who shared their input! We will take all of the feedback we received during the convening and through our post-convening survey as we continue to build out our data framework and logic model.