Hartford Youth Research Initiative Highlighted at National Conference

The work of the Connecticut Data Collaborative will reach a national audience later this month as Kate Eikel, Data Integration Strategist, and Geethika Fernando, Data & Community Engagement Manager, joined by Hartford Youth Researcher Shian Earlington, will present highlights of a new initiative at the All In: Data for Community Health National Meeting, a virtual event being held on October 25-26, 2022.

They’ll be leading a session on October 25, titled Community Data Project, in which they will discuss the first year of youth engagement programming post-COVID in the City of Hartford. This session will introduce ideas for incorporating and onboarding youth researchers into integrated data systems and sharing youth researchers’ insights with their communities.

Shian Earlington is a Hartford native majoring in biochemistry at Capital Community College. She aspires to be a pediatric surgeon who aims to help premature babies and expecting mothers; she will discuss her passion for social justice and her experience reviewing data about her community.

CTData’s Hartford Data Collaborative initiative – a partnership of Hartford agencies and community leaders that facilitates data sharing and integration – has been working with city and state partners this year after receiving a $80,000 grant for a new initiative, Behavioral Health Indicators for City Youth. The grant, from Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH), is part of a multi-state initiative, Learning and Action in Policy and Partnerships (LAPP), supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Through this initiative, CTData has been collaborating with state and city agencies and Hartford youth to develop and analyze data aimed at improving understanding of issues related to youth behavioral health, which could lead to changes in youth programs and policies. The project also provided an opportunity for the Hartford Data Collaborative to partner with Hartford youth to serve as co-researchers analyzing city data on youth engagement programs.

The Youth Researchers have gained professional development skills in data literacy and analysis and shared their knowledge and insights about Hartford youth with city and state leaders as well as their community.

“Our session will highlight the benefits of working with youth as co-researchers,” said Kate Eikel, Data Integration Strategist at CTData. “We partnered with youth who were already passionate about helping their community and gave them the analytical tools needed to use data insights to affect change in their city. City leaders told us that youth researchers helped them better understand the impact of their work.”

This month's All In national meeting will explore the theme of Centering Communities to Transform Shared Data Systems. Sessions throughout the conference will highlight successful efforts to promote health and well-being through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

All In: Data for Community Health is a learning network of communities that are testing exciting new ways to systematically improve community health outcomes through multi-sector partnerships working to share data. Organizers point out that “Developing data systems that combine health care and public health datasets with data from other sectors like education, social services and housing can help community leaders acquire a more complete picture of factors that impact community health outcomes.” Collectively, All In includes over 150 community collaborations across the country.

CTData is a public-private partnership that advocates for the public availability of open and accessible data. CTData works 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.

Striving for informed decision-making across Connecticut, CTData seeks to empower an ecosystem of data users by democratizing access to public data and building data literacy. Among its areas of responsibility, CTData has been designated as the lead organization for the State of Connecticut in the U.S. Census Bureau’s State Data Center Program and as Connecticut’s official source for data related to the 2020 Census. CTData also works with nonprofit organizations to develop CTData Strategic Plans© to map out their use of data to further organizational missions.

CT Data also runs the CTData Academy, providing opportunities for individuals, businesses and organizations to become more informed data users and critical data consumers. The Data Academy accomplishes this through informational sessions and workshops throughout the year to help participants become more comfortable with using and disseminating data.

CTData offices are located on Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford; additional information and access to more than 200 datasets is available on the website at www.ctdata.org.