Lessons Learned from Funded Partners of Boston Children's Collaboration for Community Health on Collecting and Using Demographic Data
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Associated Project
Addressing Social Determinants of Children’s Health in Boston: Evaluation of Boston Children’s Collaboration for Community Health Grant Program
Prepared for:
Boston Children’s Hospital’s Office of Community Health
Key Findings
- Before programming begins, organizations should establish and dedicate resources to a data collection strategy. Partners in this effort should receive clear, specific expectations.
- Organizations should tailor a program’s demographic data collection approach to its goals and participants. For best results, data collection and management should be integrated into day-to-day program operations.
- Organizations can use demographic data for identifying program reach, adapting program activities to meet participants’ preferences or needs, and advocating for funding or other resources. Demographic data should only be collected if specific uses have been identified.
Boston Children’s Collaboration for Community Health collects information from funded partners on the demographics of community members reached by Collaboration-funded programs. Over the past five years, more than 60 Collaboration-funded partners have shared challenges, learnings, and experiences with demographic data collection and use. Integrating these findings with best practices in the field, this brief provides strategies and effective practices for designing a data collection approach, gathering data in a sensitive manner, and using these data to improve programs.
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Boston Children's Collaboration for Community Health: 2022 Annual Report
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