Connecticut Data Collaborative Earns National Recognition

The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) has presented the 2024 Network Steward Award collectively to the staff members of the Connecticut Data Collaborative (CTData), the first time the award has been presented to an entire organization.

The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership helps local communities across the country use data to shape strategies and investments so that all neighborhoods are places where people can thrive. NNIP is a national network of local organizations in more than 30 cities in the US. Each organization supports local priorities by connecting communities with the data they need and the help they need to use it.

“At CTData, we connect people and data to promote informed decision-making and to advance equity in Hartford and across the state of Connecticut. We provide accessible public data that we process, curate and display in a user-friendly format on our online data portal, and through interactive data tools. In addition, we help build data literacy skills through our CTData Academy workshops,” explained Michelle Riordan-Nold, CTData Executive Director.

“We are grateful for the recognition from NNIP, and for the connections we have developed with organizations in cities across the country dedicated to increasing the public’s access to and understanding of the how best to use data to support their work,” Riordan-Nold added. CTData became a member of NNIP a year ago, in November 2023.

CTData works in Hartford and throughout Connecticut with nonprofits, advocates, policymakers, community groups, and funders to further the use of data to drive policy and improve programs and services, budgeting and decision-making at the state, regional and local levels. Interactive data projects on topics including housing, demographics, population, and civic engagement are available on the CTData website, making these data accessible to inform decision-making.

“As Executive Director, Michelle Riordan-Nold has encouraged her team to take full advantage of and contribute to the NNIP peer network. Soon after CTData was admitted, Michelle requested the NNIP-Urban team present to their whole staff to ensure they knew about the value of the network and the opportunities to participate,” NNIP explained in announcing the award recognition.

“All the staff are very generous in sharing lessons from their projects to help fellow partners,” NNIP’s announcement added, pointing out that the staff contributed in multiple ways to the November 2023 NNIP Partners’ Meeting in Oakland just weeks after the organization was officially admitted as a partner, and those efforts have continued this year.

The CTData team highlighted by NNIP includes Assistant Director Sarah Eisele-Dyrli, Data Analyst Chenfei Ma, Director of Data Strategic Planning Fionnuala Darby-Hudgens, Senior Data Analyst Jason Cheung, Data Integration Specialist Kate Eikel, Data & Community Engagement Manager Geethika Fernando, Data Engagement Specialist Jackie Vancour, Senior Research Associate Cynthia Willner, and Multimedia Design and Operations Manager Wenyu Xie.

CTData’s Kate Eikel presented CTData’s youth fellows program at a NNIP plenary and led a session on structural framing of data, and Jason Cheung presented at an idea showcase on voter participation, NNIP noted. Jason Cheung and Jill Walsh have presented on the Connecticut Asian and Pacific Islander Ethnicities Map and Dashboard. CTData staff continued their contributions at this year’s NNIP meeting in September, volunteering to be on the committee to review Data Driven Detroit’s tour plans and presenting on the North Hartford Ascend Resource Map for the local Promise Neighborhood.

“NNIP is much stronger thanks to CTData and are happy we can recognize their contributions,” the NNIP announcement of the 2024 Network Steward Award to CTData stated.

NNIP highlighted numerous CTData contributions to their efforts in cities across the country, sharing their work in Connecticut. In addition to the peer learning sessions, they pointed out, CTData staff helped NNIP-Urban directly over the year and promoted the network. In response to a request with very short notice, Cindy Willner shared slides and background information on CTData’s early childhood project to include in a presentation to a group of stakeholders in Miami. In addition, Kate Eikel agreed to be a key informant for an evaluation of the Robert Wood Johson Foundation’s Data for Healthy communities grant portfolio to help represent the grant program and NNIP.

Among its areas of responsibility in Connecticut, CTData has been designated as the lead organization for the State of Connecticut in the U.S. Census Bureau’s State Data Center Program, serving as the liaison between the public and the Census Bureau. CTData also works with nonprofit organizations in Connecticut to develop Data Strategic Plans© to map out their use of data to further organizational missions and offers a range of programs and working groups through the CTData Academy. CTData also operates a data “helpline” for assisting data users with obtaining, displaying, interpreting, and using data.

NNIP partners include data organizations in Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Indianapolis, Oakland, Seattle Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Memphis and Washington, D.C, among more than 30 cities nationwide.

More information about CTData is available on the website at www.ctdata.org.