data CoLab: 75210 update

Along with our project partners, we are making progress in our data coLAB: 75210 project! 

This project, funded by the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Fund, uses data to build collaboration between three organizations working in the area with different missions. ACT for Justice, Frazier Revitalization, and SPCA of Texas, along with [bc] are at the mid-way point of this two year effort. 

A big part of the project is creating a dashboard that the nonprofit organizations and residents can use to measure change in their neighborhoods. At first we had budgeted for an outside consultant to build the dashboard, but in an effort to save a little money, we partnered with a class at the University of Texas at Dallas to perform this technical work. Partnering with the students proved to be a mutually beneficial learning experience. Rather than have an outside consultant build the dashboard and then present it to the partners, the three organizations were able to actually work with students to build it how they wanted it. 

By allowing the partners to go through each step and ask themselves detailed questions during the course of the semester, everyone took on a sort of student role. Partners began to take ownership of the outcome and the dashboard itself by attending meetings, being the primary voice in the critiques, and ultimately making the final decisions about what they liked and didn’t like about the dashboard -- like how it looked, worked, etc. We were also able to hire one of the students to continue work on the dashboard after the class was complete! 

Partnering with UTD begins a potential long-term partnership between these organizations and the University as they seek to use the dashboard as a long-term tool. 

Check out a view of the dashboard below! 

Funding provided by the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at Communities Foundation of Texas.

This dashboard image displays all vacant land in the 75210 zip code.