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November:
CTData Conference 2022 Recap: Why Am I Always Being Researched? by Eva Liu and Steve Gates from Chicago Beyond.
The guidebook Why am I Always Being Researched.
The ODI Data Ethics Canvas is a tool for anyone who collects, shares or uses data. It helps identify and manage ethical issues – at the start of a project that uses data, and throughout.
October:
Other Resources:
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This article, about a group of Trinity College students that took an 87-page legal document and turned it into easy-to-read graphics that the people most affected by this agreement might be able to understand and interact with, caught the attention of many. These students conducted analysis and compiled charts to explain the progress of the Sheff v. O’Neill agreement. They also interviewed those they hoped would use the charts to ensure the information was clear to them.
Guidelines for ethically imputing race and ethnicity. Sometimes you need data disaggregated by race and ethnicity to inform decisions - but you don't have it. Data analysts use imputation to fill in gaps in data using scientific methods, and this guide, Ethics and Empathy in Using Imputation to Disaggregate Data for Racial Equity gives recommendations and standards about how to impute race and ethnicity ethically. This guide was created by Urban Institute's Racial Equity Analytics Lab
The Equity in Data community of Practice has discussed shifting the onus of trust from individuals to our institutions. The Association of American Medical Colleges has put a great deal of thought into this idea and developed a list of 10 principles, toolkits, and videos on this idea. The Principles of Trustworthiness Resources
The questions we ask determine the answers we will get. In July, our group (very briefly!) talked about the idea of improving the questions we ask. Here are some articles to help in that endeavor:
Do no Harm Guide: Applying Equity Awareness in Data Visualization, a guide on equity in data visualization. Video overview on the Tableau Racial Equity Data Hub page.
Why Data Privacy is a Human Right (and What Businesses Should do About it) "The United Nations has declared internet access a human right, and...I believe classifying internet access as a human right means a lot more than just enabling people to watch TikToks." This article highlights the potential cost to businesses for violating data privacy, but it also implicates an important idea relevant to anyone who collects data that we talk about a lot as a group: Trustworthiness.
What to do when you Can't Pick the Data, from We All Count. As data people, we often find ourselves having to work with data either in a way that wasn't intended, or to work with data that wasn't collected with intention. This piece offers options of what to do when we have to work with data that isn't ideal.
Aligning Systems With Communities to Advance Equity through Shared Measurement: Guiding Principles
Shifting the Evaluation Paradigm: The Equitable Evaluation Framework (EEF). This new report, a joint publication between the Equitable Evaluation Initiative and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations "encourages those engaged in evaluative work to consider long-standing beliefs and assumptions in their practice with a general overview of the EEF, which seeks to seed and grow a field of EEF Practice Partners expanding notions of validity, objectivity and rigor — while also embracing the complexity of this work and all in the service of equity." Here's more information about the Equitable Evaluation Framework.
Lean Research. "Lean Research is an approach and an initiative to improve the practice of data collection involving people and communities in development and humanitarian contexts."
Why Am I Always Being Researched? A Guidebook for Community Organizations, Researchers, and Funders to Help Us Get from Insufficient Understanding to More Authentic Truth. "If we do not address the power dynamic in the creation of research, at best, we are driving decision-making from partial truths. At worst, we are generating inaccurate information that ultimately does more harm than good in our communities. This is why we must care about how research is created." This guidebook is designed "to help shift the power dynamic and the way community organizations, researchers, and funders uncover knowledge together."
Research Brief: Paying Respondents for Data by We All Count. We all look for ways to increase the participation in our data collection, but have different perspectives on the appropriateness of paying people for data. Some see this as essential, others see it as manipulative. There is no easy answer, but we make decisions about it each time we collect data, perhaps without thinking through all aspects of the issue. This research brief will provide you with some information to help you make a more intentional decision.
Principles for Advancing Equitable Data Practice (Urban Institute). Outlines 3 basic principles we can apply to our data practice, along with bulleted examples and links with in-depth examples.
Toolkit for Centering Racial Equity Throughout Data Integration (Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy). Great resource for identifying ways to integrate equity principles even if you’re not involved with data integration (which is in the title)
Flexner Report, and “Racial Bias in Flexner Report Permeates Medical Education Today”
More Than Numbers: A Guide Toward Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in Data Collection , which includes sample questions for collecting data on gender identity and sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, and ability.”
Essential Equity: Women, Covid-19 and Rebuilding CT, a report funded by members of the Connecticut Collective for Women and Girls (and written by some of my CTData colleagues), just came out, and our Women and Girls Data Portal was updated as part of that effort.
Local Officials Lost Precious Time to Protect Black Residents from Coronavirus, Washington Post, June 3, 2020
Three ways to improve data to combat structural racism. "Championing the ethical use of data — through tactics like ongoing data disaggregation — can be a powerful tool in combating structural inequities, shedding light on the magnitude of the challenge, and elevating new ideas.
Black People Need Better Vaccine Access, Not Better Vaccine Attitudes, Rhea Boyd in the NY Times. In December we talked about the history of racism perpetrated against communities of color that have continued up through today. This piece reframes the current narrative from vaccine hesitancy, which blames communities of color for not receiving vaccines, to lack of vaccine access.
Digital Defense Playbook: Community Power Tools for Reclaiming Data. “Our Data Bodies (ODB) has conducted research and produced a workbook of popular education activities focused on data, surveillance, and community safety to co-create and share knowledge, analyses, and tools for data justice and data access for equity.”
Presentation from GARE that mentioned their messaging strategy – ACT: Affirm, Counter, Transform. Also, the Let’s Talk About Race: How Racially Explicit Messaging Can Advance Equity.
The report we focused on was the Principles for Advancing Equitable Data Practice.
What to do when you Can't Pick the Data, from We All Count.
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7 min Guided Meditation for Mindful Breathing with Alli Simon
The June 2021 presentation about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Demographic Data Collection with Jasmine Johnson, the co-author of More Than Numbers: A Guide Toward Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in Data Collection.
Coded Bias on Independent Lens. "In an increasingly data-driven, automated world, the question of how to protect individuals’ civil liberties in the face of artificial intelligence looms larger by the day. Coded Bias follows M.I.T. Media Lab computer scientist Joy Buolamwini, along with data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from all over the world, as they fight to expose the discrimination within algorithms now prevalent across all spheres of daily life."
From the CTData 2020 conference, an example of an organization collaborating with the community on their data work. They talked about the importance of knowing the racial history related to your work in your geography. It’s on CTN, fast forward to about 2:51:00.
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“Imbeciles - The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck” - Adam Cohen. NPR article speaking with the author of “Imbeciles.”
Related to December’s conversation, the CT Mirror has a story and a podcast looking at whether the vaccine rollout is racially equitable.
(From one of our members): The Illinois Continuous Quality Improvement Conference s looking for conference presentation proposals that are about community engagement and equity (among other topics). Take a look at the RFP if you are involved with quality improvement or human services generally.
Closing Equity Gaps in DC’s Wards and Neighborhoods, which Sonia shared in the presentation. This also uses an asset frame – “People above poverty,” “Living wage,” “Retail bank branch locations,” “Affordable home sales,” etc.
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The Journey of Advancing Equitable Data Practice in our Connecticut Organizations
Data for the Community with the Equity in Data Community of Practice
Census Reporter page on Race and Hispanic Origin in Census data. Excellent page with information about how race and ethnicity (Hispanic Origin) are summarized in census data. Includes a helpful list of the tables that include race and Hispanic Origin, and also the letters the are added to the end of a table code for specific racial categories. (Feb 2021)
Blog Post: What to Do When You Can't Pick the Data. Excellent post with ideas of how to deal with ethically questionable issues when it comes to especially our demographic categories. (Shared Feb 2021)
Racial Equity Tools has over 2,700 resources on racial equity, from basic concepts to integrating equity into data work (under the “Evaluate” section).
Just for fun: a mapping project on how coronavirus has changed people’s lives. There are some lessons about cultural values and data in there…
An article on how information and data has been visually encoded throughout history, Decolonizing Data (Evergreen Data)
Elevate Data for Equity project, a library of resources “to help change norms and practices of data use to advance equity and prevent harm to communities of color and people with low incomes.”
Combining Racial Groups in Data Analysis can Mask Important Differences in Communities, and Urban Institute demonstrating the range of poverty levels among racial groups when those groups are disaggregated by national origin categories.
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Policy Viz Episode #189: Mimi Onuoha. Onuoha is a data analyst and artist. In this episode, she talks about her interesting Missing Data Project and gives some interesting ideas for us data people to think about. (Feb 2021)
Policy Viz Episode #190: Rhea Boyd. She talks about the importance of naming racism when you include race as a variable in a data analysis. The variable isn't actually race but racism (since there's no biological reality of race), but the category of race doesn't convey that clearly. (Shared Feb 2021)
Data Science Ethics episode from September 17, 2019, Data Ethics & Policy with Sheila Colclasure
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What is Community Asset Mapping? - The Laundromat Project
Discovering Race & Ethnicity Data on data.census.gov. Webinar on Tues, Feb 23 ad 2-3pm ET. Description: The Census Bureau has ample demographic and socioeconomic data by race and ethnicity, and it's all available in our new data platform, data.census.gov. In this webinar we will define the concepts of race and ethnicity in accordance to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Standards, and demonstrate how to navigate data.census.gov to access this data. We'll also show you key tips and tricks to zero-in on the data you need, and guide you to additional resources to help you in your search. (Feb 2021)
Tableau Racial Equity Data Hub. Tools and videos about using census race and ethnic origin data. (Feb 2021)
Measuring Race and Ethnicity Across the Decades: 1790-2010. Resource Map of how the US Census Bureau designation of "race and ethnicities" has been changed over time. (Shared Feb 2021)
Some interesting data by the US Crisis Monitor, providing data on protests and violence at protests in the US. Just in case you’re looking for some interesting data to which you would like to apply new skills.
CTData’s Women and Girls Data Portal
Closing Equity Gaps in DC’s Wards and Neighborhoods, which Sonia shared in the presentation. This also uses an asset frame – “People above poverty,” “Living wage,” “Retail bank branch locations,” “Affordable home sales,” etc.