Resource Library
Aligning Community Assessments with Your Mission and Goals
Watch to examine how Community Action Agencies can transform Community Assessments from a requirement to a strategic leadership tool. We explore how integrating qualitative and quantitative data with customer input can strengthen alignment of the Agency’s mission, strategic goals, and outcomes.
Peer Data Webinar Series: The ROAD to Continuous Quality Improvement
Learn how Community Action Program of Ramsey and Washington Counties (CAPRW) used a systematic, data-informed approach to Redefine, Optimize, Assess, and Demonstrate quality to pave the way to sustained improvements in their Head Start program. Hear lessons learned, continued efforts, and how you can deploy similar approaches in various programs at your agency.
Peer Data Webinar Series: Automating What Matters
Manual, repetitive tasks slow down service delivery and drain staff time. In this interactive session, learn how Wayne Metro uses low-code platforms like Tray.io and Power Automate, along with custom scripts, to automate the work that matters most. We walk through real examples—from pulling data across siloed systems to creating automated notifications and workflows—and share lessons learned along the way. Gain practical steps for identifying automation opportunities in your own agency and tools to get started, no matter your technical background.
NCAP Data Hub: Deep Dive into the NCAP Data Hub Community Assessment Tool
Watch to learn how to build secondary data reports for custom locations in the NCAP Data Hub’s Needs Assessment tool. Perfect for both beginners and those familiar with the tool, this webinar teaches how to create custom report locations, identify data release dates and update schedules, and customize report results.
Best Practices Using Secondary Data to Support Grant Writing and Stakeholder Engagement
In this webinar, attendees will learn best practices for using secondary data to support grant writing and stakeholder engagement. Specifically, attendees will learn to find and interpret secondary data in the NCAP Data Hub to demonstrate their agency region’s needs, strengths, and shifting capacities for poverty fighting.
Attendees should leave the webinar with the following skills:
• Ability to find and interpret secondary data in the NCAP Data Hub’s Needs Assessment tool and Map Room
• Ability to create simple, easy-to-interpret visualizations, maps, and one-pagers to help introduce decision makers to your agency region’s unique issues
• Strategies for using data to craft needs statements for grant writing, elevator pitches, and other proposals
A Web of Data Management Systems: What if Your Spreadsheets Talked to Each Other?
In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, the interconnectedness of data management systems stands as a pivotal strategy with multifaceted benefits. Linking these systems seamlessly enhances efficiency by facilitating streamlined access and retrieval of information, fostering collaboration across departments or functions. This interconnected approach mitigates redundancy and promotes data accuracy, as updates made in one system are instantly reflected in others. Furthermore, it provides a holistic view of organizational data, enabling informed decision-making and strategic planning. The synergy achieved through linked data management systems empowers businesses to adapt agilely to changing requirements, ultimately driving innovation in an interconnected world. This presentation demonstrates the relationship between multiple data systems nested in the Microsoft 365 cloud-based SharePoint system.
Peer Data Webinar Series: Centering Customer Voice in Your Agency’s Data Practices
Watch for an insightful webinar designed exclusively for Community Action Agencies (CAAs) aiming to enhance their impact through customer-centric data practices. In this peer-led session, we explore strategies and best practices for centering customer voice in every stage of data collection, usage, and analysis.
Rapid Cycle Learning
One of the top staff training needs that have been identified over the past 4 years is the topic of data analysis. In this session we look at a special kind of evaluation process that has been used to test effectiveness and efficiency (outcome and process) of an intervention (service). This type of learning used in industry and is now being applied to human services.
NCAP Data Hub: Overview of Improved Map Room Design and Enhanced Functionality
Join us for a demonstration of the newly updated Map Room in the NCAP Data Hub. The demonstration will walk through the steps of finding data, making a map, layering, exporting data, and downloading map images. The Map Room in the NCAP Data Hub hosts more than 30,000 mappable layers spanning topics like poverty, education, housing, weather, health, and workforce. Maps from the Data Hub can be used to support community needs assessments, grant applications, infographics, annual reports, strategic plans, and advocacy efforts.
Your Community by the Numbers
This workshop is designed to give data users an overview of the power of census data. Watch to learn about how the Census Bureau collects and publishes data on these topics, as well how to access and download tables and create maps. Learn about the topics and geographic level of data that can be used for planning and serving community development. This training shows data users how to find topics about the demographics, such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, housing, poverty, disability, veteran status, employment, and more. Learn how to navigate data products such as Quick Facts, data.census.gov, and tools in the Data Equity product suite.
Analysis of Data? Some Examples to Explore
Community Action staff from around the network have indicated that they want to know more about how to analyze the data they are collecting and reporting. While we’ve facilitated countless sessions focusing on data analysis overviews and basic analysis techniques, we rarely get to dive into real-world examples. In this session, the Association of Nationally Certified ROMA Trainers (ANCRT) reviewed several examples of data, tackled the kinds of information we might be able to extract from them, and discussed how we can turn the information into accountability, accessibility, and knowledge.
Build Your Data Muscles
The COVID -19 Pandemic and many CAAs responses demonstrated CAAs use of technology and just how critical data capacity is to our work, while at the same time CARES Act funding provided a means of improving the use of technology to help with data collection and data management. In this webinar, we review conclusions presented in a paper, “Data Informed Community Action Agencies,” including critical elements to build your agency’s ability to use data and information. We also present a second short paper outline competencies for Community Action Data Professionals.
Discover Innovative Community Action Initiatives at Community Action Showcase!
The Center of Excellence is a national training hub, engaging Community Action Agencies coast-to-coast to share innovative, high impact strategies. This platform shines a light on Community Action success stories to inspire. Here you can access resources to strengthen services, build community outcomes, and create family and community change in your local area.
Measuring Family Centered Community Change: A Fireside Chat
This webinar features a discussion of the experiences and lessons learned in the performance measurement efforts of Family-Centered Community Change (FCCC), a community change strategy, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation from 2012 to 2019, to improve outcomes for children and parents living in high-poverty communities through two-generation approaches. Topics covered in the webinar include an overview of the performance measures selected for FCCC and how they changed over time, who was involved in deciding what to measure and how, ways that the partners balanced using performance measurement to inform practice and track collective impact, and how the data were analyzed and used to improve implementation.