Data Points - Winter 2007-2008
This edition of Data Points for Community Change focuses on Family Economic Success (FES) which is one of the three core result areas that Making Connections-Denver works on. The issue highlights data and stories that detail accomplishments and challenges in this key area.
Click here to download the entire issue.
Features include:
• The cover gives an overview of the issue with a photo of a parent group from Harrington Elementary School who created a directory of services to promote parent run businesses.
• Accomplishments of the FES Guidance Group, a resident group, who work on workforce and assets, focusing getting and keeping residents in college.
• Faces Behind the Facts tells the story of Ana Luisa, an MC-D resident who is now supplementing her family’s income by providing quality childcare in her home as part of the Family Friend and Neighbors (FFN) Network that provides training to these informal childcare providers.
• Cross Site Survey Data on pages 4 and 5 provide insight into employment status, job stability and financial health in the four Making Connections-Denver neighborhoods.
• Action Opportunities on page 6 provides an extensive list of ways that people can get involved to change things in their communities.
• Data at Work on page 7 summarized 1) Making the case for school nurses and 2) school based health clinics, two data projects that are managed by the MC-D Community Research Team.
• The back page of the issue tells the story of a successful MC-D resident who is bringing in income for her family as a community photographer.
Data Points - Winter 2006-2007
The first edition of Data Points describes several research projects by Making Connections-Denver. Summaries of the key stories are found below.
MC-D Community Leads Research
The Community Learning Network has formed a team of community researchers made of up residents, active leaders in the MC-D community and MC-D staff. The team has received training in research methods, social justice and community organizing. The goal is to conduct research and evaluation projects that address the needs of the community and to report the findings back to the MC-D neighborhoods.
Making Connections-Denver: Who do they think we are?
The Community Learning Network is conducting a survey to determine what people inside and outside of MC-D think the initiative is. Results are still coming in, but so far many people see MC-D more as a provider of programs than as a promoter of systems change through community organizing.
Residents Engaged and Connected
Surveys conducted in 2002 and 2005 in Making Connections-Denver neighborhoods provide valuable information about how residents have become more engaged in their communities. By 2005 more than a third of residents had volunteered, while two-thirds of the residents surveyed said they had acquired leadership skills. However, there remains a gap in the number of people acquiring the skills and those who have actually become leaders.
Health Insurance Coverage for Children
Surveys conducted by the Metro Organization for People (MOP) show that a third of children served by their member organizations are uninsured. The Community Learning Network is working with MOP to analyze data concerning health insurance. A 2005 cross-site survey found that 18 percent of children in MC-D communities are not insured, twice the national average.
Faces Behind the Facts
Single mother Susan Molina discusses how health insurance, or lack of it, has affected her family. She is also chair of Metro Organizations for People, a key MC-D partner working to expand access to health care.
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