2025 Schul Forum Community Data Day: So What?!

March 7, 2025
Categories: General News

We swim now in rivers of data – more than we can comprehend, much less use.

We are often swimming upstream, contending not only with the inherent complexity of the challenges we face, but increasingly with the force of misinformation and disinformation on the topics that matter most to our communities. Much of the data and information flowing around us isn’t immediately applicable to our organizational or community contexts. The raw data needs interpretation and application; the information needs fact-checked. Despite being immersed, we often ask so what?! or seek a guide as we navigate crowded and unfamiliar waterways.

This year’s Schul Forum, on Thursday, April 3 at the Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City, will be a day of local data, with a so what?! focus that explores how data and research can be used to make a difference in our lives and our communities. Pre-forum Lunch & Learn sessions will begin at 11:30 a.m. and the Forum begins at 1 p.m. Here’s what attendees can expect: 

  • Use Our Tools –These pre-forum Lunch & Learns sessions will provide participants an opportunity to create logic models that connect their organization’s work to a measurable so what?! Participants will also learn to use the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer for a local organization or neighborhood data walk, to use the data in the Charlotte Regional Data Trust or become a data partner, or to weigh in on the development of the Carolinas Regional Explorer.
  • Posters at the opening and closing receptions – The posters will highlight local research and evaluation completed by Gambrell Faculty Fellows, Institute researchers, and our community partners.
  • So what?! Sessions – These quick presentations will provide an application-oriented overview of local data tools and types of data resources.
  • Keynote speakers & a panel that will dig into a potential local measure of wealth, which, as our speaker notes, “should be reframed as a measure of one’s ability to thrive.”

Participants in this year’s Schul Forum will have an opportunity to learn, to provide feedback, and to connect local data to why it matters for Charlotte and our region.  Whether you are a strong swimmer or you prefer a motorized ride up the ever swelling river of information, join us and ask so what?! [REGISTER NOW]

2025 Schul Forum Schedule

11:30 Use Our Tools: Pre-Forum Lunch & Learns (lunch provided for pre-forum attendees)
1:00 Poster Session & Opening Snack Reception
2:00 Welcome & So What?! Sessions

  • Charlotte Heat Mappers – Joe Wiswell, graduate research assistant; Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, UNC Charlotte
  • City of Charlotte Open Data Portal – Andrew Bowen, innovation & data officer, City of Charlotte
  • Opportunity Compass – AJ Calhoun, director of research & impact, Leading On Opportunity
  • Benefits Cliff Calculator – Justin Taylor, stakeholder engagement manager, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont 
  • Q&A

3:00 Keynote & Panel Discussion – Reframing Wealth:

Panelists:

5:00 Closing & Gambrell Fellows Recognition
Reception honoring Gambrell Faculty Fellows

REGISTER NOW

So what?! Sessions

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer

Facilitator: Katie Zager, research associate, Charlotte Urban Institute

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer is a free tool that provides data to community members, researchers and policymakers across the Charlotte region. The Explorer is a partnership between the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and the Charlotte Urban Institute. The resource provides timely data on more than 80 variables along nine different Quality of Life-related dimensions.

Why it matters
Public data is important for community members, researchers, and policymakers.  Community members can use data to advocate for services, researchers can easily unlock insights, and policymakers can ensure resources are distributed according to need across geographic areas.  

The Explorer combines data from more than 30 sources into one user-friendly interface to ensure that anyone who is interested in unlocking the power of data is able to do so.

What you’ll learn
The session will include a walkthrough of the tool as well as several examples of how community members have used the data over its 14-year history.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in local data.  We welcome new and long-term users of the tool!

The Charlotte Regional Data Trust 

Facilitators: Sydney Idzikowski, associate director, Charlotte Regional Data Trust; Nick Occhipinti, data scientist, Charlotte Urban Institute; Angelique Gaines, senior research associate, Charlotte Urban Institute

The Charlotte Regional Data Trust, a unique and powerful data repository that houses data from key community services such as schools, housing organizations, law enforcement, social service agencies and others. The Data Trust links data together to provide robust datasets that can be used for research, planning, and evaluation in our community. 

Why it matters
The challenges our region faces, as well as solutions, span a multitude of organizations and systems. Our data don’t. The data we collect gets trapped and the reality is, it’s difficult to address what is before us with fragmented information.

What you’ll learn
Explore the ways in which organizations and systems in our community are connected by the people they serve, learn who is represented in the data at the Data Trust, and how we are expanding our data governance processes. We will also dive deep into the data that are available to use and the process for requesting data.  Want to get a jump start? Review available data here. 

Who should attend: Anyone who is curious if they are part of Data Trust data, interested in how linked data can inform decision making, would like to brainstorm project ideas or seek connections with other people interested in linked data. Come with project ideas, questions about what’s possible, and healthy enthusiasm for the nerdy parts that make the Data Trust successful. 

Impact, Data & Evaluation Academy (IDEA): Logic Models 101

Facilitators: Bridget Anderson, senior research associate, Charlotte Urban Institute; Rosalyn Allison-Jacobs, IDEA facilitator, ROI Impact Consulting

IDEA’s mission is to provide low-cost, community-centered data and evaluation training that is designed for, and with, Charlotte-area nonprofits. IDEA offers a number of training opportunities, including Evaluation Explorations- a collaborative and interactive three-day data and evaluation course. 

Why it matters
“How do I know I am collecting the right data? What does the data say about my program’s impact?”

Nonprofits recognize their need to manage and understand data. However, lack of time and know-how are barriers to answering questions like those above, and hiring a third-party consultant is often out of reach. IDEA is designed to bridge this gap. 

What you’ll learn
In this session, you will be transported to the Evaluation Explorations classroom, where facilitators will guide you through the process of creating a logic model. A logic model is a visual roadmap that connects an organization’s resources, activities, and outcomes. During this interactive session, you will learn why logic models matter for nonprofits and how to create one using data from the “Youth Sports League” case study. You will walk away with tools to create a logic model for your own organization.

Who should attend: Nonprofits, grant-makers, students and researchers will benefit from this interactive workshop.  

Carolinas Regional Explorer Listening Session

Facilitators: Liz Morrell, Ph.D., director of public policy research, Charlotte Urban Institute; Kailas Venkitasubramanian, Ph.D., director of research analytics, Charlotte Urban Institute

The Carolinas Regional Explorer is a dynamic web application designed to illuminate the vitality and diversity of the Institute’s 14-county region. Modeled after the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer, this innovative tool expands its scope, spanning counties in North and South Carolina that collectively shape our vibrant metropolitan area. From bustling urban centers to tranquil rural communities, the Carolinas Regional Explorer offers a comprehensive, census tract-level view of the people, places, and patterns driving growth and change across this dynamic landscape.

Why it matters 
The Regional Explorer empowers users with cutting-edge analytic features tailored to uncover meaningful insights. Residents, policymakers, researchers, and community advocates can dive into the data to explore and highlight spatial patterns and hotspots, allowing them to pinpoint areas of opportunity or concern in outcomes—such as education, economy, health, and housing and other quality-of-life related factors. The tool also allows exploring correlations between these outcomes.

What you’ll learn
The session will focus on demonstrating the Regional Explorer and its features (current and planned), a development roadmap, and discussing strategies to partner and build an application that serves broader needs of the communities in this region.  We will also invite feedback to inform future development of the tool.

Who should attend: Community members, City and County officials, and researchers from across the Institute’s 14-County region are all welcome.

Keynote Speakers & Panel

“Wealth is…a measure of one’s ability to thrive – to weather emergencies and health shocks, to give families the means to succeed through stable housing and educational opportunities, to pursue investment and business opportunities as they arise, then to pass down resources and assets to future generations so that they, too, begin life with enough financial stability to thrive.”
– Lamar Gardere

The Schul Forum’s 2025 keynote session features Lamar Gardere, executive director of The Data Center in New Orleans and Victor Amaya, Ph.D., executive director of Data You Can Use in Milwaukee. Mr. Gardere will present his organization’s development of a local wealth measure and discuss how it is being used in the New Orleans region to focus on quality of life and thriving. Gardere and his team don’t ignore the racial wealth gap – and indeed they are committed to closing it – but they also recognize that the immediate function of wealth for everyone is often lost in ideological disagreements about gaps and how to solve them. Understanding wealth as the capacity to thrive both individually and collectively and having local data on that actual capacity are key to moving tailored solutions forward toward communities that work for everyone.

Dr. Victor Amaya and his team at Data You Can Use recently worked with The Data Center and applied the local wealth measurement methodology in Milwaukee. Dr. Amaya will present some of their initial findings, discuss how the measure worked  in a different local context, and discuss how they are putting the measure to use, particularly in their youth engagement efforts. 

Following their presentations, Mr. Gardere and Dr. Amaya will be joined by Laura Yates Clark, president of the Foundation of the Carolinas and Christina Danis, Ph.D., director of Community Economic Development at Centralinas Regional Council for a panel discussion moderated by Ely Portillo, executive editor at WFAE. The local panelists will bring perspectives on the importance of wealth for quality of life in our city and region. 

About the Schul Forum 
The Schul Forum is an annual event named for Norm Schul, the first director of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and funded in part by Norm and Marianne Schul. When possible, the Schul Forum features the work of the Charlotte Urban Institute’s Gambrell Faculty Fellowship, a program funded by The Gambrell Foundation that now includes 49 Gambrell Fellows whose research focuses on economic mobility and quality of life in the Charlotte region.

About the Charlotte Urban Institute
For 55 years, the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute has been our region’s applied research center, and for 20 years, the Charlotte Regional Data Trust has integrated fragmented data our community can use for research that matters. 

Together the Institute + Data Trust support knowing for doing