On January 3, 2014, Eleanor Tutt, Data Management Coordinator for Rise, was elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP).

NNIP (www.neighborhoodindicators.org) is a collaboration of the Urban Institute (www.urban.org) – a nonpartisan economic and social policy research center – and local partners in 37 cities to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems for community building and local decision-making.  NNIP partners focus on democratizing information – facilitating the direct practical use of data by city, community, and neighborhood leaders.

Rise became the 32^nd NNIP partner in 2009 in partnership with four universities – Washington University, University of Missouri Saint Louis, Saint Louis University, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  Rise’s commitment to democratizing data is evident in initiatives such as Neighborhood Data Gateway (www.datagateway.org), as well as our individualized data and outcome measurement technical assistance to Community Development Corporations.  Eleanor has actively represented St. Louis at NNIP partnership meetings as an attendee and presenter since 2008, and Rise is hosting the next NNIP meeting, which will be held in St. Louis, April 2-4, 2014.

NNIP is important not only because of the data, but because of how the data is used.

Through the work of NNIP partners, neighborhoods and communities benefit from increased access to data on a wide range of topics from property conditions to public health, and assistance in the direct practical use of that data to design impactful programs, influence policy, and measure success.  NNIP partners focus on building the capacities of local institutions and residents, resulting in stronger programs, collaborations, neighborhoods, and regions.

Our commitment to democratizing data and the work of NNIP is yet another component in Rises’ ongoing commitment to “lifting our communities”.

Congratulations Eleanor!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

2:30-4:30 pm, UMSL at Grand Center

The Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis presents a workshop on how to carry out constructive community engagement that involves data. This workshop is designed in partnership with Rise, UMSL, and Urban Strategies. The training will begin at 2:30pm on Tuesday January 28th, at UMSL at Grand Center, 3651 Olive. Among other topics, it will cover:

• How to plan and prepare for a community engagement meeting,
• Engagement techniques and strategies to provide all meeting attendees different avenues to voice their thoughts,
• How to determine what information or data would be important to have for residents at meetings on different topics, and
• How to present and talk about data in an easily understandable way.

At 4:00pm an optional half hour session focused on how to engage and prepare residents to participate in the City of St. Louis’ Consolidated Planning Process will begin. This community engagement workshop is aimed at CBN and SLACO members along with government officials.

In the fall, the annual discussion unfolded about how federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) dollars to the City of St. Louis would be spent.  Federal regulators insisted that the City change its method of deciding where the dollars would be spent.  In a nutshell, the change can be described as moving away from the tradition of Aldermen deciding how CDBG money would be spent within the ward, and toward  a City-wide competition.

The entire experience has led many interested parties in the City to want to increase participation at the grassroots level.  The Consolidated Plan should have considerable influence over how millions of dollars are spent over the next five years, so make sure your neighborhood is well represented.

To register for the January 28 sessions, click here. Registration deadline is January 21, 2014.