Local funders partnering with small cities to build data capacity in NJ
New JerseyChallenge
Many smaller cities and towns in New Jersey and throughout the U.S lack access to local data that shows how health is driven by factors like poverty, housing and educational attainment. New Jersey Health Initiatives (NJHI), a statewide grantmaking program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has found that opportunities for better health increase as communities become better informed. They sought to close this information gap and provide local data – down to the neighborhood level – to help community leaders and other stakeholders identify the root causes of diminished health and well-being and address issues of equity.
The Dashboard tool has brought together diverse sectors of the community—residents, school superintendents, elected officials, and nonprofit leaders—to think about the social and economic challenges to better health.
Impact
The City Health Dashboard team worked with NJHI to identify 10 small cities in New Jersey, each with total populations less than 30,000, and add them to the Dashboard. This collaborative process involved working closely with NJHI and the selected communities to leverage existing data resources to better inform action. However, this is only part of the story. The Dashboard tool has brought together diverse sectors of the community—residents, school superintendents, elected officials, and nonprofit leaders—to think about the social and economic challenges to better health.
Working in “Dream Teams”, these solution-seekers are now using the Dashboard and other sources of local data to make “invisible” health challenges visible. For example, the team in Pleasantville is focusing on efforts that prepare young people for the workforce and other opportunities post-high school. In Lawnside, the team has created an intergenerational project that enlists youth to improve health and reduce social isolation of older adults. And the team in Clayton is working to reduce heart disease and obesity by improving recreation access in local parks.
The Dashboard team is providing technical assistance and guidance to these cities, who now have new tools and capacity to create these types of initiatives and targeted health interventions that will have long-lasting impact on their communities.
For more, watch this video from NJHI on the local collaboratives who are moving from data to action.
