APHA 2024 Presentation - Building Trust Through Inclusion
Created as part of my work with the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities · 2024
Data Visualization + Storytelling · Community Engagement + Faciliatation
Presentation at the American Public Health Association’s 2024 Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I presented about how Data Chats are a great way to engage those who are most proximal to issues that we as public health practitioners aim to serve - children and families. This presentation tells the stories of how I facilitated Data Chat sessions with residents in Pomona, CA, lessons learned, and recommendations for practice.
Abstract:
Issues: Understanding how to improve the complex developmental ecosystems that shape children’s ability to flourish often require using and linking multiple types of data and presenting it in new and more useful ways. Historically, communities have not been part of the data collection, analysis, and interpretation process, partially due to the belief that such data is too complex for communities and is not useful, meaningful, or accessible to them.
Description: As part of the Early Childhood Ecosystem Accelerator project, community Data Chats were conducted in Pomona, CA. Residents and representatives from community-based organizations and governmental institutions examined, annotated, and discussed neighborhood-level contextual and child development data through a facilitated process that enabled the examination of spatial patterns of measures of context, developmental health, and resiliency.
Lessons Learned: Community members engaged fully, developed experience-based hypotheses about the findings, ground-truthed the data, and interrogated root causes. Participants reported how critical reflective conversations with others led to an increased understanding of Pomona’s developmental ecosystem. The process not only increased knowledge but enabled the emergence of several champions who could sustain this effort.
Recommendations: This process demonstrated the value of inclusion and specifically, the value of the sharing, co-creation, and co-analysis of data in partnership with communities. It is critical to challenge assumptions about communities, deliver data in the most accessible and engaging way possible, and trust that communities can understand and use data. Through this process, we can enhance and create new relationships, shift power to communities, and create sustainable, transformative change.
