Data sharing and data integration to inform decision making is now commonplace, and occurs at every level—local, state, and federal. This body of work seeks to encourage shifts of awareness and practice, centering community voice within the context of data integration and use. This toolkit is designed to help guide partnerships, collaboratives, agencies, and community initiatives.

Who May Use This Toolkit 

• Members of institutions: university-based researchers; government-agency administrators and analysts; foundation staff
• Community advocates and members: community and religious leaders; civic and neighborhood association members; students and parents/caregivers
• Bridges between community and organizations: service providers, social workers, case workers; staff of local backbone organizations; independent applied researchers

Many types of civic data use are relevant to this toolkit, including:

• Open data (data that can be shared without legal agreements in place)
• Protected administrative data (confidential data that can be shared only with sufficient security provisions in place, including data sharing agreements)
• Dashboards (administrative data aggregated to topic/ indicator/ subgroup/ population)
• Integrated data systems (systems that regularly link administrative data across government agencies to improve programs and practices through evidence-based collaboration)
• Neighborhood indicators (data aggregated to place)
• Research, evaluation, and outcome measurement using administrative data
• Tools created by using administrative data, such as risk indicator scores