Democratizing data pathways through partnerships to enhance well-being

Public data can be a critical tool enabling communities to improve transparency and hold local governments accountable. However, many local communities lack both the practical tools and the policy environment needed for real change. In this article, the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative’s Equitable Community Data Pathways team draws on discussions with subject matter experts to unpack the mechanisms necessary to create and sustain a more equitable data ecosystem that can improve the well-being of local communities.

Our project defines community well-being as a state in which a community is resilient, thriving, and self-governing. Well-being can further be characterized by the capacity, ability, and resources to assess and solve daily problems. It also suggests residents feel safe and a sense of belonging, provide support to others, and engage in strategies to meet collective needs. Healthy communities often engage in collective political action to influence decisionmakers and focus municipal agendas on policies the community believes will improve health and social outcomes.

Many communities carry a legacy of broken promises from research institutions that conducted unethical social science and medical research. This resulted in opaque decisionmaking and historical harm, making present-day engagement more fragile.   

Over the past year, our team sought to better understand three fundamental questions that our landscape analysis identified as important drivers of equity:   

1. Can we enhance community well-being through data collected in partnership with communities?  
2. How can we make data more accessible and relevant to communities?  
3. What is needed to promote and sustain a policy environment that centers data equity and data governance?  

Our team spoke to stakeholders such as community and data experts, national and local organizations, and city government officials across five roundtables focused on these three questions. These open discussions were informed by participants’ perspectives and aimed at identifying best practices, resources, and structures that support community-engaged, evidence-based policymaking for well-being.  

This work culminated in a convening in October 2025 to advance the conversation between communities and funders, creating new opportunities for open dialogue and shared learning. Although the research is ongoing, a key lesson we’ve learned is that sustainable data governance requires intentionally centering community well-being as the guiding outcome of this work. 

In our first iteration of this project, we laid the groundwork for understanding a grand vision of community-led research and evidence-based policymaking. We identified important elements to achieve this vision, as well as what remains for comprehensive community-partnership research. One of the gaps in this phase of our work was understanding how to best leverage data collected by local government agencies. Another important consideration was understanding how communities want to access and utilize these data. These findings led us to narrow our scope to focus on midsize municipalities and their data governance capacities to learn how data is being utilized, shared, and leveraged for policymaking. 

Enhancing community well-being and policymaking through data 

There are several strategies to democratize data pathways. One strategy is to establish clear processes that enhance data literacy and data rights for community residents. Our work has identified many elements of a community-led data justice approach that supports data literacy and data rights. Communities are empowered not only by access to data but also by opportunities to learn how to use it.

Democratizing data pathways through community-engagement  

Although the rise in community-focused data efforts across the country is notable, we have learned that many of these projects may be missing the mark.  

Poor communication, dense reports, technical dashboards, or abstract metrics were repeatedly cited as reasons why technically sound data fails to shape decisions. In contrast, human-centered, plain-language storytelling and decision-focused tools were viewed as essential for the adoption of data-collection tools by communities. Participants stressed the need for governments to be transparent. Transparency should not be seen as a weakness or limitation to government operations; it reflects an earnest attempt to be efficient and responsive with existing resources.  

By actively showcasing data to communities, governments can more clearly explain constraints, timelines, tradeoffs, and mistakes, especially in a fragmented era when trust in institutions and government is low. Trust and transparency are foundational themes, but trust is not built simply by sharing data on a webpage; it requires honesty, accountability, and presence.   

There is a well-established set of principles, practices, and elements that define community engagement. Many of our stakeholders discussed how their community engagement has improved their ability to democratize data pathways. Their reflections about data as a tool for communication and building relationships have been central to their commitment to engaging communities.

The common language for meaningful change 

Throughout our conversations, participants stated that data alone is never enough to effectively connect with communities. We learned that cultivating trust requires alignment in communication. By combining the need to use data as evidence for change and communication as the vehicle to do so, a compelling way to truly reach people is to utilize data as a common language. Communication strategies must translate across multiple stakeholders and audiences to set the stage for productive relationships. It is important to invest in concise and consistent messaging that is delivered regularly and accurately.   

When data is used appropriately as a common language between communities, government, and institutions, it strengthens arguments and provides evidence for how to amplify community well-being. Data can serve as a catalyst to mobilize government resources and develop meaningful partnerships with the communities and residents they serve. This has led to data infrastructures that become part of a broader feedback loop among government, communities, research institutions, and funders. Cities can provide this infrastructure through data dashboards, which are portals that house city information often collected from communities and surveys. Residents then have access to a wealth of information that they can interpret, helping to ensure a culture of transparency. Participants noted that for community engagement to deepen, there is a need for leadership, data champions, and the codification of data rights and data literacy. These elements help create conditions for a more equitable data ecosystem that is self-monitoring and responsive to the evolving needs of communities.  

If well-being is an end goal for communities, it can be achieved with a commitment to democratizing data pathways. Multisector partnerships can be complicated to manage, but they are not impossible. The benefit of these partnerships relies on the experience and influence of various stakeholders to promote policy, environmental, and systems change. Over time, this supports leadership development, data literacy at a community level, data sovereignty, and collective problem-solving. When there is a shared understanding and baseline for productive communication, trust can truly thrive. As discussed in a previous post, without trust, the feedback loop between researchers, government, and community is broken, creating roadblocks to getting any pertinent information to or from affected communities and limiting opportunities to advance outcomes related to well-being.  

Results of data enhancing community well-being 

Data is highly valuable for community accountability over local governments. Below are several examples from our research that showcase how data can be used to assess and advance community well-being. 

• Data creates a direct line to important information about impacted populations, offering access to baseline demographic data and key metrics. These metrics can then be used as evidence to support policies that would benefit the communities most in need.

• Highlighting lived experiences through data enables communities to connect with important actors by humanizing issues that have a significant impact throughout local areas. 

• Tactfully utilizing data elevates community representation and amplifies voices on issues, no matter how small or large. It enables communities to tell their own story, because if they don’t, someone else will. 

• Through data, targeted and structural change can occur by mapping needs and strengthening the ability to counter harmful practices and enhance community-centered policymaking.

Next phase of work 

These examples highlight the potential of community-engaged data collection to yield positive outcomes for communities empowered to utilize these tools. The next phase of our work will focus on identifying resources to replicate and expand the use of these tools in more locations through conversations with funders. This work will help us assess the feasibility and sustainability of our data governance model and better understand what funders need from this partnership. As the project progresses, we will continue refining our data governance model so it can be implemented for the betterment of communities nationwide.