National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas users:

This year, the National Equity Atlas team was fortunate to work with some of the most talented and devoted equity leaders and advocates across the country to bolster community action with robust data. As 2017 comes to a close, we would like to thank you for being part of our community and share some of the highlights from our year:

  • Data for Community Organizing: When Renters Rise, Cities Thrive
    In September, dozens of cities participated in the #RenterWeekofAction to demand solutions to the renter affordability crisis. Our team partnered with Right to the City, Homes for All, and CarsonWatch to support these actions by producing fact sheets for the nation and 38 cities, and found that if renters paid only what they could afford on rent, they would have an extra $124 billion in their pockets each year, or $6,200 per rent-burdened household. View the fact sheets and check out media coverage in Next City, CityLab, Truthout, and LA Weekly.
  • Advancing Equitable Growth Solutions: Reports and Analyses
    We released several original research reports powered by National Equity Atlas data to make the economic case for racial equity and support the development of the data, tools, and policies that can make it a reality.

Informing Community Action: Equity Profiles

In 2017 our team worked with community partners of cities, counties, and regions from coast to coast to produce 15 equity profiles:

In 2018, we will be deepening and expanding our comparative and place-based research, as well as strengthening the National Equity Atlas tool to further democratize data. We look forward to sharing it with you.

With best wishes for the new year,

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas users:

Happy November from the National Equity Atlas team! We are busy behind the scenes this month updating our data to 2015 for release early next year. We also launched our first report in our employment equity in Southern States series and are gearing up for next week’s webinar focused on data for advocacy. We hope you will join us!

Webinar: Using Data to Support Organizing and Policy Advocacy
Thousands of people in dozens of cities across the country participated in this year’s #RenterWeekofAction, holding actions and assemblies to demand better protections for renters. Join the National Equity Atlas team and Right to the City on December 6 at 12 p.m. P.T. / 3 p.m. E.T. for a webinar about how data supported these efforts. Equity Atlas team members Pamela Stephens and Ángel Ross will describe our analysis, Malcolm Torrejón Chu of Right to the City will discuss communications and messaging strategy, and Josh Butler of Housing Long Beach and Issac Simon Hodes from Lynn United will describe how they used the data in their local campaigns. Register here.

Employment Equity: Putting Georgia on the Path to Inclusive Prosperity
Yesterday, as a part of our work to advance economic inclusion in the South, we released a new report and fact sheet highlighting the importance of employment equity in Georgia. The Atlas team, along with our partners from Partnership for Southern Equity, shared our findings and held a panel discussion with leaders from The Urban League of Greater Atlanta, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Decide Dekalb Development Authority, and the Atlanta Federal Reserve. Community mobilization was a key theme: panelists and audience members agreed that the data was powerful, and the most pressing need is for community members to use it to demand job solutions from their elected representatives.

In the News…
This past month, National Equity Atlas data was used:

  • To make the case to preserve and expand affordable housing in Texas neighborhoods through proactive policies in The Daily Texan.
  • To demonstrate the school poverty challenges the Denver Public School District is trying to tackle with some of its recent reforms in The Denver Post’s online news hub.
  • To explain how wage disparities between White employees and employees of color can be addressed through empowering youth of color in Vice Impact.


Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas users,

Happy October! We’ve had a busy month finishing up several reports, sharing the Atlas with the Urban Sustainability Director’s Network, and supporting the data capacity of the PolicyLink All-In Cities initiative local partners. We are also searching for a new team member and gearing up for several upcoming webinars and events (hope to see you there!) Also, please note that scholarship applications for the PolicyLink Equity Summit 2018 are due November 3.

TODAY: Equitable Economic Development as a Health Equity Strategy
Interested in the intersection between economic inclusion and health equity? Join today’s County Health Rankings & Roadmaps webinar, “Improving Health through Equitable Economic Development and Strategic Partnerships” from 12-1 Pacific/3-4 Eastern. Equity Atlas team member Ángel Ross will share a framework for equitable economic development and the Atlas tool, and the Urban Health Plan located in the Bronx will describe their community-based strategies to improve health by improving livelihoods. Register here.

Webinar: Using Data to Support Organizing and Policy Advocacy
Join the National Equity Atlas team, Right to the City, and CarsonWatch on November 7 at 12pm P.T. / 3pm E.T. for a webinar about how data supported this year’s #RenterWeekofAction efforts. Equity Atlas team members Pamela Stephens and Ángel Ross will describe our analysis, Right to the City Communications Strategist Malcolm Torrejón Chu will discuss messaging strategy, and local community organizers will describe how they used the data in their campaigns. Register here.

Join Our Team: PolicyLink is Hiring a Program Associate
Love the Atlas? Come work with us! PolicyLink is looking for a full-time program associate in our Oakland office to join the National Equity Atlas partnership and Equitable Economy team. The associate will work with community partners in the Bay Area and elsewhere to develop local equity atlases and analyses to inform policy campaigns; produce innovative research on issues of race, place, and economic equity; and further develop the National Equity Atlas. Find the job description and instructions on how to apply here.

Community Indicators Consortium 2017 Summit: November 15-17 St. Petersberg
Gather with other community leaders using data for community action at the annual Community Indicators Consortium conference. The theme of this year’s even is “Information is Power.” Equity Atlas team member Sarah Treuhaft will lead a pre-conference workshop on November 15th on Data Tools for Equity Action. Register here.

In the News…
National Equity Atlas data was used to …


Thank you!
The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas users:

It has been an incredible month for getting equity data in the hands of advocates working to build inclusive cities! We were thrilled to provide powerful data to support the #RenterWeekofAction and hope that you find these fact sheets useful as well. We also released two new reports, including a set of design principles for online data tools advancing health equity, and an analysis of how changing demographics by age and race affects education spending. Enjoy!

When Renters Rise, Cities Thrive: National and Local Fact Sheets
Last week, dozens of cities participated in the #RenterWeekofAction to demand solutions to the renter affordability crisis. Our team partnered with Right to the City, Homes for All, and CarsonWatch to support these actions by producing fact sheets for the nation and 38 cities.* While renters are now the majority in the largest 100 cities, they are burdened by rising rents and low wages. If they paid only what they could afford on rent, they would have an extra $124 billion in their pockets each year, or $6,200 per rent-burdened household. View the fact sheets here and check out media coverage in Next City, CityLab, Truthout, and LA Weekly.

Register Now: Webinar on Improving Health through Equitable Economic Development
On October 24, Angel Ross will share the National Equity Atlas and discuss why equitable economic development is critical to advancing health equity on a webinar hosted by the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps project. Join the webinar from 3-4 p.m. Eastern/12-1 p.m. Pacific to learn more about this important intersection between racial economic inclusion and health, and hear about how Urban Health Plan in the Bronx is using economic development as a strategy to improve community health. Register here.

Powering Health Equity Action with Online Data Tools: 10 Design Principles
This month we released a new report in partnership with EcoTrust, Powering Health Equity Action with Online Data Tools. We offer 10 design principles for creating online data tools that can drive community action for health equity, such as: address the root causes of health inequities, disaggregate data to the maximum extent possible, and honor indigenous data sovereignty. The report also shares examples of tools that embody these principles, and tips for applying these principles. As part of the release, we hosted a Twitter chat about the principles, which you can check out (and add to!) here.

New Report: Bridging the Racial Generation Gap Is Key to America's Economic Future
On September 6, we released new analysis examining how the “racial generation gap” between a growing senior population that is predominantly White and a rapidly diversifying youth population affects spending on public education in counties and states. We find that every percentage-point increase in the racial generation gap is associated with a decrease in state and local per-child education spending of around 1.5 percent. Angela Glover Blackwell and Manuel Pastor describe how this relationship increases the urgency of investing in youth in an op-ed in The Hill and journalist Ron Brownstein wrote about our findings in The Atlantic.


Thank you!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)
 

*City fact sheets are available for: Alameda; Atlanta; Baltimore; Birmingham; Boston; Bowling Green, KY; Brooklyn; Charlotte; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Durham; El Paso; Jackson; Long Beach; Los Angeles; Lynn, MA; Miami; Minneapolis; Nashville; Newark; Oakland; Philadelphia; Portland; Providence; Reno; Rochester; San Diego; Santa Ana; Santa Barbara; Santa Rosa; Seattle; Spokane; Springfield; St. Paul; Washington, DC.

National Equity Atlas Updates

Dear Equity Atlas Users,

From Detroit to Raleigh, we are thrilled to be working with so many incredible community leaders and advocates who are innovating new, data-driven approaches to equitable growth. We are also excited about the analyses we are working on to support the upcoming #RentersWeekofAction, and that registration is now open for Equity Summit 2018.

Detroit Equity Profile Powers FoodLab Detroit’s Good Food, Good Jobs Strategy
FoodLab Detroit recently released a photo essay series about its “Good Food, Good Jobs” strategy, which highlights how Detroit food entrepreneurs are using the data in the recent National Equity Atlas Detroit equity profile to inform their definition of success: “We’ve been focused on working with disconnected youth, and we have grown in part specifically because of that,” said Shannon Byrne from Slow Jams at a recent FoodLab Network Gathering. The PolicyLink team is working with FoodLab to support and amplify their triple-bottom-line business model in communities of color. Learn more and see the photo essays here.

Register Now for Equity Summit 2018: Our Power. Our Future. Our Nation
Join PolicyLink and the National Equity Atlas team in Chicago April 11-13, 2018 to envision with 2,000+ other equity advocates, policymakers, and community leaders how to advance transformative change this moment of backlash and regression at the national level. Using data to bolster the case for equity as a moral and economic imperative and advance equitable growth strategies at scale will be a theme throughout the conference. The Equity Atlas team is developing a hands-on Equity Institute training for the Summit and other relevant content which we will share in the coming months. Read the Summit Vision today and register here.

Data for Action: Designing Employment Equity Strategies in the South
The Atlas team has been continuing our research to inform employment equity strategies in five Southern states. This month, we launched our partnership with Rural Forward and the North Carolina Justice Center to develop an agenda for North Carolina. And with our partners the Alabama Asset-Building Coalition and the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Coalition, we held focus groups in Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama, and Atlanta and Douglas County, Georgia to hear directly from residents facing barriers to employment. This qualitative research will complement rigorous data analysis PERE is completing on the potential economic and social benefits of full employment.

Get Ready for #RenterWeekofAction
During the week of September 18-24, members of the Homes for All campaign are calling for renters and all people who believe that housing is a human right to stand up for our communities, defend our homes, and fight for a world where all people have dignified and affordable homes. In preparation for the Renter Week of Action and Education, the National Equity Atlas team is crunching the numbers to include in fact sheets on the importance of renters in 38 cities where actions will be taking place. Click here to learn more about how you can participate.

Online Data Tools Twitter Chat
On September 13, the Atlas team and Ecotrust will be releasing Powering Health Equity Action through Online Data Tools. Authored by Ángel Ross, the report offers up a set of 10 design principles for online data tools intended to advance health equity. It was developed for researchers, advocates, community members, planners, funders, and others interested in building, improving, or investing in such data tools. On September 14 at 2pm E.T. / 11am P.T., join @PolicyLink and @Ecotrust for a Twitter chat with national leaders who are using and designing data tools to drive health equity and community action by following #equitydata.

In the News…
National Equity Atlas data was used to make the case for fair housing policy change, close racial economic gaps, and more this month:


Thank you!
The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

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