National Equity Atlas: April Update

Dear Atlas users:

Happy Spring from the National Equity Atlas team! We are feeling refreshed and inspired by Equity Summit 2018 and were happy to see some of you there. For those who could not join us in Chicago, Atlas team member Ángel Ross of PolicyLink has written a recap of our equity data-related sessions and you can find our livestream archive of the plenaries and more here.

  • New Bay Area Housing and Economic Insecurity Report and Local Analyses
    At the Summit, our team released Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area. This report, produced in partnership with The San Francisco Foundation, presents new data and analyses that illustrate how rising rents and stagnant incomes are straining household budgets and stifling opportunity in the Bay Area, jeopardizing the region's diversity, growth, and prosperity. To show how these dynamics are playing out in two Bay Area cities, we teamed up with Working Partnerships USA in San Jose and the Raise the Roof coalition in Concord to produce localized analyses. Read more about those analyses and how these groups are taking action to address the crisis and protect tenants from displacement here.

 

  • Partnership Opportunity for Equity Data Projects in Select Communities
    The National Equity Atlas team is accepting proposals from community organizations or collaboratives in the 10 priority communities of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Albuquerque, NM; Farmington, NM; Las Cruces, NM; Detroit, MI; Battle Creek, MI; Grand Rapids, MI; Jackson, MS; Sunflower County, MS; Biloxi, MS; and New Orleans, LA) to co-develop equity data projects that advance inclusive prosperity. We will work with five community partners on community-owned data projects that empower collective action, undergird advocacy, and inform policy. Applications are due by May 25. Learn more during our informational webinars on May 3 at 12 p.m. PT/ 3 p.m. ET and May 4 at 12 p.m. PT/ 3 p.m. ET.

 

  • Chart of the Week: Alabama Transit Justice
    In this week's Chart of the Week, James Crowder of PolicyLink highlights one of the major barriers to employment identified in our recent report Advancing Employment Equity in Alabama. In cities and regions across the country, low-income residents and residents of color face limited public transit options as dwindling public transportation resources leads to reduced schedules and fewer service access points. For example, in Alabama the average commute time for Black workers on public transit (47 minutes) is almost 20 minutes longer than it is for White workers (28 minutes).

 

  • In the News…
    A reporter for the Winston-Salem Chronicle highlights a new analysis from the North Carolina Justice Center that uses Atlas data on school poverty to show the correlation between the expanding achievement gap between Black and White students in North Carolina and the increasing segregation in local public schools. Similarly, an op-ed that was published in the Atlanta Daily World and the Dallas Examiner uses the school poverty indicator to advocate for investments in majority Black schools and new curriculum models. Finally, "Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area" was featured in Philanthropy News Digest and Planetizen, and World Journal, the largest Chinese newspaper in America.

 

Thank you!

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