SPOTLIGHT ON:
Making a Difference With Data
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Knowledge for Equity Conference offers more proof that community-level data drives insight and action in ending health disparities
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In November of 2012, Community Science leaders and staff designed and facilitated the Knowledge For Equity Conference, which aimed to help community-based organizations in their efforts to better use data and other sources of knowledge to promote health equity and address health disparities.
Opening speaker J. Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE, gave attendees a summary of efforts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase data access and use, and emphasized the importance of aggregated data in driving solutions to bring more equity to the availability and accessibility of health care.
Dr. Gracia is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health (Acting) and the Acting Director of the Office of Minority Health at HHS, and offered this unique insight:
"Community-based organizations and leaders like you are central to this knowledge transformation and dissemination process. You are on the ground collecting the data, identifying what works and what doesn't work, and using data to mobilize people into action. And that's why, at HHS, we have looked to partner with community-based organizations in our efforts to end health disparities."
- J. Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE
Dr. Gracia also highlighted HHS' plans and roadmap for addressing health disparities, including the Department's first-ever Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, which outlines specific goals and actions HHS will take to reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. "Commitments to action to end health disparities and achieve health equity are occurring throughout HHS and across the federal government, and in communities across the country," she said. "Improving data quality and data access are part of these commitments."
These commitments tie back to Community Science's conduct of Data Makes A Difference workshops in each of the ten HHS regions in October 2012.
The conference's plenary address was delivered by Stephen Thomas, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the University of Maryland Center for health Equity/School of Public Health. 
Dr. Thomas set an impassioned tone for the conference; defined key terms such as health equity, health disparities, and social determinants; discussed key concepts such as the importance of "democratizing data"; and emphasized the importance of explicitly recognizing racism as relevant in the scientific pursuit of solutions to eliminate health disparities.
Dr. Thomas also presented a framework that mapped out the "four generations of health disparities research to achieve health equity" (Thomas, 2011) including, first, document the existence of health disparities; second, explain the reasons; third, provide solutions; and fourth, "take action!"
In addition to expert speakers like Dr. Gracia and Dr. Thomas, the November 13-14 conference also included 34 workshops, a town hall meeting, and four presentations on how to collect, analyze, synthesize, and use existing national, state, and local community data.
In attendance were 213 members of community-based efforts (coalitions, grassroots organizations, etc.) and nonprofit organizations, who have used or want to use data to advance their health equity or health disparities work and would like to improve their data capacity.
Coming away from the conference, attendees had a clearer picture of their roles in the collection, dissemination, and use of data - as well as improved skills and knowledge of the data sources available from federal agencies to reach their goal of promoting health equity.
For 70% of the attendees, it was the first time they had attended a conference about data to inform their health disparities work and left with improved knowledge and confidence in how to collect and use data. For a description of the conference, visit:
www.knowledge4equity.com.
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A MESSAGE FROM DAVID CHAVIS
Happy New Year from Community Science
On behalf of Community Science, I'd like to wish our friends, colleagues, and partners a happy New Year. We are looking forward to another year of making a difference in the health and well-being of the communities across this nation as well as the world. On January 23, we celebrated our 16th birthday! With the range of opportunities we have to build national and local capacity for community and systems changes, it's going to be a very "sweet 16". We are privileged to have been able to work on projects that take on issues of poverty, economic development, health disparities, food justice, the service system for children with mental health issues and their families, intergroup relations and immigrant integration, access to information and technology, minority leadership, placed based support for early childhood development, and other community change initiatives. Our long term commitment to data and evaluation capacity building really blossomed in 2012, as you see from the description of the Knowledge for Equity Conference in this issue of The Change Agent and last issue's focus on our evaluation capacity building. We are going to continue to deepen this work over the next year.
The opportunity to effectively address social issues through community change has been limited for a long time. As such, we want to use our knowledge and experience to have a greater impact. Our focus for the next five years will be to build the capacity for informed community development, while continuing to keep evaluation as a central part of our work. We have always viewed evaluation as one component of capacity building along with other services such as training and technical assistance, reflective practice and organizational learning, peer learning, and "tool" development. In 2013, we are going to spend more time transforming our knowledge, research, and experiences into useful products and services that grantmakers, community leaders, practitioners, and others can use to inform and strengthen their efforts to promote community and systems change, immigrant integration, culturally competent systems of care, and other innovations for social change.
We have learned, sometimes the hard way, that capacity building of the "doers" is not enough. Public and private leaders, as well as the general public, also need to be informed about how communities can change to address social issues and promote well-being. These leaders can then influence communities to demand more attention to well researched, reality based, and properly implemented community and other systems change initiatives. We are planning new (to us) ways to have a greater influence on public policy and public will. Our plans will be shared with you over the next few months in The Change Agent. I am happy to announce that you can follow me on Twitter -@chavispower where I will be sharing the resources for community change we come across as well as some of my thoughts. Follow me.
-David Chavis, Ph.D., Principal Associate / CEO of Community Science
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Community Science: Out and About
Principal Associate / CEO David Chavis, Ph.D. is currently featured in two videos for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on Preventative Training and Technical Assistance, part of SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention incentives.
The full-length videos can be viewed here.
In December 2012, Dr. Chavis also delivered a presentation on "Evaluating Large Scale Programs - Frameworks and Considerations" during the two-day Review of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, D.C. The review featured several panels, CTSA and Industry Perspectives, working groups and committee discussions.
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What We're Reading:
Making the Most of Statistics
It's not just the data. It's also what you do with it to transform information into meaningful insight. The following publications take that thought and run with it.
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - but Some Don't
by Nate Silver
Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data.
Current Practices In Spatial Analysis Of Cancer Data: Mapping Health Statistics To Inform Policymakers And The Public
Bell, B.S, Hoskins, R., Pickle, L.W. & Wartenberg, D.
International Journal of Health Geographics, Vol. 5 (2006)
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FEEDBACK:
What They Were Saying About Knowledge for Equity
There's no better measure of a conference than the feedback of its attendees. Below is what some had to say about Knowledge for Equity 2012:
"This was the first conference I've been to; a great intersection between data usage and storytelling."
"The conference is providing better tools to help us make our case to community leaders, legislators, and stakeholders."
"There's no substitute for this kind of learning, and I'll be recommending to my colleagues that they attend, as well!"
"I was most thrilled about using data to move to action."
"So far, this conference has exceeded by expectations."
"This conference was more about moving to action."
"I thought this would be a boring conference, but by gaining real, take-away action items, I really enjoyed myself."
BY THE NUMBERS:
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95% of conference evaluation respondents thought the conference content was
relevant
to them
- 91% gained knowledge and skills they could immediately apply to their work
- 91% said that the conference met their expectations
- 68% indicated that this was the first conference on data that they had attended
Overall feedback was positive and encouraging, with a number of attendees coming away both better informed and pleasantly surprised.
To learn more about the Knowledge for Equity conference, visit www.knowledge4equity.com.
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of note:
April 21-23, 2013
Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA), Chicago, Ill.
Hosted by the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of US and international scholars to focus on the role of culture in theory and practices of evaluation and assessment.
The CREA conference is unique in its definitive recognition of culture's centrality to evaluation
and assessment and will illuminate the landscape of culturally responsive evaluation and assessment.
May 28-31, 2013
Hyatt Regency
San Francisco,
San Francisco, CA
"The Science of Prevention: Building a Comprehensive National Strategy for Well-Being"
Join colleagues for the most important prevention science conference of the year!
The Society for Prevention Research envisions a wellness-oriented society
in which evidenced-based programs and policies are continuously applied to improve the health and well being of its citizens, fostering positive human development and citizens who lead productive lives, in caring relationships with others.
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Join Us!
If you are a motivated, conscientious professional
who can help us take the practice of social change through science and capacity building to a higher level, Community Science wants
to hear from you.
In fact, Community Science is currently recruiting for the following positions:
Senior Associate in Community Change Research & Practice
(Washington, DC)
Associate in Research & Capacity Building (Washington, DC)
To learn more about each position, or apply now, visit
the Community Science CAREERS page.
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About Community Science
Community Science is an award winning research and development organization that works with governments, foundations, and non-profit organizations on solutions to social problems through community and other systems changes
To learn more, visit our PROJECTS page.
To discuss how Community Science can collaborate with your organization, contact us at 301-519-0722 or info@communityscience.com
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