PURPOSE

The purpose of the Guilford Community Indicators Project is to develop an interactive, community-wide platform that provides data on community issues for everyone so that data can help drive decisions.

CONVENOR

The Project is convened by the Greensboro-High Point Collaborative a local chapter of Forward Cities, a national learning network of over 30 cities committed to advancing inclusive innovation and economic development in their communities. The Collaborative is led by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro and Business High Point-Chamber of Commerce. The Community Indicators Project is led by a Steering Committee from across the county with representatives from a wide range of sectors including education, government, business, health, human services, nonprofits, community organizations, and philanthropy.

Our aspiration is for these indicators to support community efforts in drafting visions of a better future -- helping communities build participation, set priorities, develop action plans, and track progress toward realization of goals.

This dashboard is being launched as a start toward this vision. The dashboard is evolving and some aspirational content is not yet developed. We see this as a beginning and look forward to working with the community to incorporate data and resources of issues of importance in the years to come.

WHAT ARE COMMUNITY INDICATORS?

Community indicators are ways to measure the well-being of communities. Community indicator projects collect and compile data in an interactive, community-wide platform that gives everyone access to the information. They measure items that have an impact on issues like quality of life, environmental sustainability and health. Making the same information available to all facilitates a county-wide conversation and advances our community narrative.

VALUES

Guilford Community Indicators is based on the values of open data, equity for all people, inclusive and transparent analysis, and the belief that we can improve by looking at accurate information about ourselves as a community.

WHO USES COMMUNITY INDICATORS?

Community indicators can be used by many people. Community members use them to learn more about their neighborhoods. Business groups use them to assess the market or the long-term prospects for the local workforce. Schools use them to educate students about local history and issues. Advocacy groups refer to them to make their case to the media, the public, foundations, and political figures. The media use them to report on what's happening in the community. Increasingly, philanthropic foundations (as well as corporate and government grantmakers) are using indicators to help identify priorities for funding and for identifying high-leverage strategies where a little money in one place will have a lot of positive ripple effects.

KEY FACTS ABOUT GUILFORD COMMUNITY INDICATORS

• County-wide Initiative
• Shaped by a high level of inclusive community involvement, through focus groups, a steering committee, and other public engagement activities
• Funded by Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Foundation for a Healthy High Point, City of Greensboro, County of Guilford, and others

DEVELOPMENT OF GUILFORD COMMUNITY INDICATORS

Development of Guilford Community Indicators was led by a Steering Committee from across the county with representatives from a wide range of sectors including education, government, business, health, human services, nonprofits, community organizations, faith institutions, and philanthropy. The Steering Committee was co-chaired by Leslie Kilgore and Gary Palmer and partnered with Sorenson Impact Center of the University of Utah - a widely recognized think-and-do tank focused on solving social problems using data, evidence, and innovation.

FUTURE OF GUILFORD COMMUNITY INDICATORS

Guilford Community Indicators continues to be a collaborative effort of the Greensboro-High Point Collaborative convened by Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro and Business High Point-Chamber of Commerce and is now part of the Technology and Data Institute (TDI). The TDI is a collaboration between NC A&T University and UNC Greensboro to support the data collaboration needs of the Piedmont region.

The TDI aims to provide the technology platform(s) and expertise that foster data driven research and information to serve the greater community, allowing partners to focus on the data instead of the underlying technology. The TDI is established under the UNCG Technology and Data Institute and is managed jointly by the CIOs from both NC A&T and UNCG, Tom Jackson and Donna Heath respectively. A stakeholder advisory board called the Community Cabinet has been assembled to oversee projects, provide strategic advice, and serve as community connections of the TDI.

Both UNCG and NC A&T realized the similar roles of both institutions within the regional community and the opportunity to work together to make community and research data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. Collaborating provides the community a single place to go and allows both universities to make optimal use of technology infrastructure.

The TDI focuses in 5 main areas:

1. Serving as a local data intermediary
2. Cultivate local capacity for informed action by enhancing the data capacities of other local institutions
3. Promoting a culture of learning and collaboration among education, government, business, nonprofit, and philanthropic community sectors
4. Leveraging data to advance both research and the community
5. Provide a framework within which NC A&T and UNCG can collaborate on data related projects