Over the past weeks, I had a chance to meet with nearly every commissioner of every city and the county.  In the course of those meetings, we talked about the way change happens in community and the role that data can play to facilitate how residents know their neighborhood and how data can inform the decisions and actions made by neighbors, governments and nonprofit organizations.  Data that is available frequently, like monthly or more often and at the neighborhood scale is the best.               

My conversation with commissioners about data was always how data is related to community change.  We ended up talking about how change really happens.  What must be present or realized for something to really shift?  In particular, what needs to be activated for communities to meaningfully change?    

Sure, things are always changing no matter what we do.  Communities are alive and therefore constantly adapting and responding to pressures.  But what do we know about how change happens in communities?  What systemic factors are relevant to change in community?

As it turns out, there is some pretty good evidence about how communities change based upon analysis of decades of efforts and paying attention to lasting change.  Several months ago, Allison Pinto, PhD. (Allison works with SCOPE) wrote about just this topic PBI: Sarasota.   This blog post shows that data is one of four elements that are essential for community change.  Read the blog to hear more - but the other three are Community Building, Programs and Services and Policy/Systems. 

We have begun using the phrase "community data for community change" as a part of the ecosystem of how change happens. 

Tim Dutton

Executive Director