How Community-Based Organizations View and Use Data: Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Community Health
• Data Science in Social Services

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical role of community-based organizations (CBOs) in delivering social services.
• Understanding the evolving data needs of CBOs is essential for effective post-pandemic support and service delivery.
• Previous research has not fully captured the persistent data challenges faced by CBOs serving diverse and low-income populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define the specific data requirements of community-based organizations (CBOs) in the post-COVID-19 era.
• To identify barriers hindering the expansion of data utilization among CBOs.
• To assess the adequacy of existing population-level data for CBOs' hyper-local and culturally specific needs.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods explanatory sequential design was employed during summer/fall 2023.
• Quantitative data were collected via surveys from 51 CBOs serving diverse communities in the Chicago region.
• Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews with 24 of these CBOs to explore survey findings.

Main Results:

• All surveyed CBOs utilized data, with 82.4% employing population-level data.
• Significant limitations to data use expansion included funding, staffing, data management systems, and requisite skills.
• Existing population-level data was frequently found to be insufficiently hyper-local, updated, or culturally appropriate for CBOs' target communities.

Conclusions:

• Community-based organization data needs and challenges remain largely unchanged post-COVID-19, despite increased data availability.
• There is a critical need for sustained infrastructure funding and external agency partnerships to support CBOs.
• Flexible, tailored approaches are essential to build social trust in data and ensure CBOs remain community-driven.