Community Data Support

In June 2017, The Kresge Foundation awarded Data Driven Detroit a grant to bolster its efforts as Detroit’s community data intermediary and support several existing initiatives. We continue to show thanks to our funders and partners by showcasing the important work we’re doing together.

Project Goals

  • Augment community data infrastructure
  • Support community development systems
  • Support city-wide early childhood planning

Data Driven Detroit’s mission is to provide accessible, high-quality information and analysis to drive informed decision-making. This aligns with Kresge’s Detroit Program, which seeks to advance tangible, sustainable, near- and long-term progress in Detroit. In particular, this project supports the Detroit Program’s Enhanced Civic Capacity focus area, which provides resources for effective and coordinated systems of community support in partnership with government, businesses, and other philanthropic and nonprofit organizations.

Augmenting Community Infrastructure

Beginning in June 2017, D3’s IT Director began modernizing and expanding D3’s technical infrastructure. The aim is to improve the reliability and performance of current and future data products, and to provide for future scalability. Work completed at the close of 2017, included an enterprise-level upgrade of our servers, server configuration, and the transfer of D3’s data warehouse to the new server.

As many already know, D3 offers a program to the community called AskD3 that allows people from any sector to submit data requests and questions. If the request can be fulfilled in two hours or less, D3 will do the work for free. With Kresge’s support, D3 can now cover those two hours of staff time as well as offer modest gap funding for small projects that fall beyond the two-hour limit.

D3 is undertaking a long-term planning process to advance its sustainability as a community asset. From long-term governance structures to innovative funding models, the goal is to ensure D3 is well-positioned to serve as Southeast Michigan’s local data intermediary well into the future.

Supporting Community Development Systems

D3 has worked with the Building the Engine of Community Development in Detroit (BECDD) initiative since its inception in early 2017. Our Senior Analyst and Project Lead, Noah Urban, is a member of the Data, Research, and Evaluation Planning Team, and our Executive Director, Erica Raleigh, sits on the initiative’s Advisory Council. While we bring a focus on data to the BECDD table, BECDD is helping us understand the community’s need for a regional data collaborative and what one might look like in the future.

Early Childhood Data Support

D3 provided extensive support to the Hope Starts Here initiative. The partnership between Kresge and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation led a yearlong, cross-sector process to create a community driven framework for a coordinated, high-quality early childhood system for the city. Through this project grant, D3 continues to provide data and analysis to inform decisions to advance the Hope Starts Here framework. . This support also allowed D3 to complete the Early Childhood Data Portal which provides access to quick statistics, a comprehensive early childhood ecosystem map, as well as downloadable data and maps, news articles, and blog posts. A link to the portal is available on both the Hope Start Here and D3 websites.

We’re excited to continue our partnership with The Kresge Foundation in the coming year and look forward to the opportunity to expand the D3 as a community utility.