What Counts: Harnessing Data for America’s Communities

With 90 percent of the world?s data generated in just the past two years, What Counts: Harnessing Data for America?s Communities challenges policymakers, funders, and practitioners across sectors to seize this new opportunity to revolutionize our approaches to improve lives in low-income communities. This book from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Urban Institute provides a roadmap for the strategic use of data to reduce poverty, improve health, expand access to quality education, increase employment, and build stronger and more resilient communities. {{p}} The book addresses such questions as: {{p}} What are the opportunities to use data from a variety of sources across multiple measures, including poverty rates, employment rates, graduation rates, and health status? {{p}} How can increased access to mortgage data improve assessment of market trends and provide early warnings of trouble? {{p}} How can increased access to data on how hospitals allocate ?community benefit? resources promote more coordinated action among those tackling the upstream determinants of health? {{p}} What?s important to consider when deciding which data to collect and analyze? {{p}} How can data be used to determine resource gaps, service redundancies, or opportunities for cost savings? {{p}} Why are standard metrics and data important, particularly for Community Development Financial Institutions and the health sector? {{p}} How can practitioners transform data into actionable information and compelling stories and get key messages into the hands of decision-makers? {{p}} How does an organization?s culture and leadership advance or limit efforts to use data more strategically? Why does establishing a different approach to using data require more than just better information?