Stay up-to-date with the ISC December 2014 newsletter
ISC out and about
UNC Charlotte Urban Institute / Institute for Social Capital graduate assistants Charles Warner-Hillard and Alyssa Brown present a poster about ISC at the UNC Charlotte fall 2014 University Business Partner and Faculty reception co-hosted by CRI and the Charlotte Regional Partnership.
Amy Hawn Nelson, director of ISC and director of research at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, was the recipient of the YWCA Women of Achievement award. Click here to read more.
ISC data and research coordinator Ashley Williams Clark presents on ISC at the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership meeting in Denver, CO along with Laura Simmons from UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, Rebecca Hefner with the City of Charlotte, and Timothy Tibbs with Mecklenburg County. Charlotte recently became the newest NNIP partner.
ISC Faculty Research Grant
Dr. Mason Haber, assistant professor in the UNC Charlotte Department of Psychology, is the recipient of the first ISC Faculty Research Grant. Haber will use the funds from the grant to assist with his project Adult Outcomes of Youth Formerly in Public Behavioral Health Programs: The Role of Transition Services, which will utilize linked data from the ISC Community Database.
New data deposits
ISC continues to grow its data deposits and sign new data sharing agreements with community partners. Over the next few months these data will be deposited into the ISC Database and added to the ISC Codebook.
| Awaiting Deposit | Current Data Deposits |
|---|---|
| Charlotte Housing Authority | Central Piedmont Community College (project specific deposits) |
| Mecklenburg Partnership for Children (SmartStart) | Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools |
| The Relatives | Homeless Management Information Systems |
| Crisis Assistance Ministry | Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services– Youth and Family Services, Economic Services, and Services for Adults. |
| Cabarrus County Schools | Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office |
| Kannapolis City Schools | A Child’s Place |
| Communities in Schools | |
| Mecklenburg County Support Services, Veteran’s Services | |
| Charlotte Family Housing | |
| Communities in Schools |
ISC data dictionary
The ISC Database Information Portal is being remodeled! The new website will be a secure site where properly credentialed researchers can search an online version of our database codebook and learn more about how to access data from the ISC Community Database. If you are interested in finding out more about what is currently in the database, please contact Ashley.Clark@charlotte.edu.
Meet our new staff
Alyssa Brown, UNC Charlotte graduate student
Alyssa joined the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and Institute for Social Capital in August 2014. As a graduate assistant, she assists the ISC team on program functions and also works on research projects and program evaluations regarding education and homelessness. Alyssa received her B.A. in Political Science at Virginia Tech and is now pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Administration at UNC Charlotte. Upon graduating from the program, she hopes to continue to work in social science research.
Mick Smythwood, UNC Charlotte PhD student
Mick, a UNC Charlotte Computing and Informatics doctoral student, joined the Institute for Social Capital to assist with the technical aspects of the ISC Community Database as well as with the development of data dictionaries for our deposits. Having worked for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and consulting locally for Duke Energy, is a jack-of-all-trades and brings a variety of skills to the institute. A graduate from Johns Hopkins University, Mick values being a part of research efforts that benefit the community.
Highlighted project using ISC community database
Title: United Way of Central Carolinas Collective Impact for Children and Youth Year 2 Report
Author: UNC Charlotte Urban Institute
Study description: United Way of Central Carolinas launched a Collective Impact initiative in the fall of 2011. The 10-year initiative brings together 16 agencies in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina that provide services to children from pre-kindergarten through high school. The common goal is to increase the cohort graduation rate for the at-risk, low-performing students served by these agencies.
United Way commissioned the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute to coordinate and maintain a shared measurement system for the Collective Impact initiative. This includes assisting partner agencies in a long-term outcome evaluation and housing selected shared data in the Institute for Social Capital community database. Year 2 of the study provides a snapshot of the children and youth being served by this group of agencies. Click here for the full report.
IDS research spotlight
Launched in 1992,The Providence Plan (ProvPlan)’s data initiative maintains an integrated community data warehouse called the Rhode Island DataHUB. As part of their data initiative, the RI DataHUB develops data stories to help citizens access and make sense of the data provided. Using this integrated database, policymakers are better able to come up with comprehensive solutions to social and economic problems facing the state. For example, using de-identified data, ProvPlan designed an interactive tool that helps agencies utilize large amounts of linked data to better understand various risk factors in a child’s life. By using data aggregated from the linked individual-level data, agencies can better address these risk factors by targeting schools with the most at-risk students to invest in social-service resources, build internal capacity to evaluate on-going programs, and increase grant-writing capabilities with clearer and more engaging evidence regarding their challenges and successes. Click here to learn more about ProvPlan.
Grants opportunities
ISC has compiled a list of grant opportunities that could be used to conduct research using the ISC community database.
| Grantor/Granting Agency | Type of Grant (RFP, Application Letter, LOI, etc.) | Due Date | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|
| US DOJ | Application | TBD | Criminal and juvenile justice policy and practice. |
Community feedback
ISC wants to hear from you! What research do you think our community needs more of? What data would you like to see integrated into ISC?
Click here to provide your feedback
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Alyssa Brown wrote this article while interning at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute in 2014-2015.
Alyssa Brown