The CRN Data Center is a new component of an existing organization, the Community Resource Network, an eleven year old consortium of non-profits and government agencies which catalogs and maintains a database and directory of social services available in the community primarily used by social services providers for Information and Referral purposes. The Metro United Way is the fiscal agent for the CRN. Initially, the Operating Committee of the CRN, and the Leadership Committee of the Data Center were two separate bodies, with many shared members. In December 2001, the two governing committees decided to merge, to provide the Community Resource Network, encompassing both the I&R and Data Center functions, with a single governing body.

The CRN Data Center is a new entity, with the full complement of staff in beginning work in April 2002. Data Center staff will be working during the balance of 2002 to implement the four major components of the organization’s business and operations plan, described briefly below. We will be expanding the resources and services available to the community throughout the first year of operations.

1. A Data Library for raw, quantitative data to make geocoded and other data available to any interested party through interfaces for varying levels of technical expertise, from statistical analysis tools for experienced data handlers to a community-friendly, point and click software for less technically experienced users. This component will support searches by user-defined parameters. Development will take place in cooperation with Casey and other Making Connections sites.
2. A Document Center for qualitative data, to provide prepared data and analyses on neighborhood conditions to any interested party, to house information on project progress, and to document progress towards Neighborhood Transition and Family Development (NTFD) and increased capacity. This component also permits the distribution of data sets during the development of the data library.
3. Community Capacity Building support to provide educational opportunities, assistance, policy evaluation, and coordination of data use with an emphasis on improving the quality of life of individuals and families in neighborhoods.
4. A Contract Services component that permits the project to offer services for a fee in order to help offset operating expenses and to make the resources of the project available to business, industry and other non-participating entities.

While we hope to become a recognized resource for stakeholders across the community working on making conditions in Louisville better, including government policy makers, service providers, non-profits, and university researchers, much of our time and energy will be devoted to actively engaging non-professionals working in their neighborhoods acting toward change on issues of importance to them. CRN believes that both access to information, and the tools to use and understand it are fundamental components of a community change agenda, and recognizes that many groups have traditionally been excluded from such access and tools.

To achieve the objectives described above, CRN hopes to combine a high level of technical sophistication regarding the collection, storage, manipulation, and presentation of data, with substantial capacity building work, founded on a deep respect for the experience, skills, knowledge, and agency of people living in tough neighborhoods.

• Principle 1  - The primary purpose of the CRN Data Center is to assist distressed communities. It will strive to work at all levels (e.g. city, county, agency, and state).

• Principle 2  - The value of information is as a tool for positive change- not as an end unto itself. The CRN Data Center must be seen as a reliable, responsible, and fair data source.

• Principle 3 - The CRN Data Center should promote a continuous learning process and maintain an ongoing dialogue with data users and holders. Building neighborhood capacity to obtain and use data is critical to this vision.

• Principle 4 - Credibility is critical to the success of the CRN Data Center.

• Principle 5 - Every effort should be made to ensure that both data and the uses to which it is applied are honest, open, and reliable. The focus should be on information, not on policy.

• Principle 6 - Holders of public data should share the data they have.

• Principle 7 - The CRN Data Center will work to include community members in all levels of planning, review, and implementation of its work, reflective of the racial, class, cultural and gender diversity of our City.

• Principle 8 - The CRN Data Center will work in a manner that encourages collaboration, and strengthens existing and new efforts by other entities and organizations to improve the lives of people in meaningful ways.

The Community Data Partnership (CDP), as the group named itself, was awarded a planning grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation in January 2001, and began an intensive, facilitated planning process, which included regular meetings of the expanding group of partners, a planning sessions with an expert from the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership/Urban Institute, and bi-weekly meetings of the volunteer Development Team, which worked through some of the more difficult aspects of the planning process.

Based on that work, the CDP developed a Business and Operational Plan for a Community Data Center that set forth a mission, program components, and principles, identified stakeholders and resources, determined the geographic and organizational location for the Data Center, set a budget, and addressed other key issues. The business plan became the basis of an application to Annie E. Casey Foundation for an implementation grant, which was approved in September 2001.

The CDP determined to place the Data Center within an existing organization, the Community Resource Network (CRN), an eleven year old consortium of non-profits and government agencies which catalogs and maintains a database and directory of social services available in the community primarily used by social services providers for Information and Referral purposes. The Metro United Way is the fiscal agent for the CRN. Initially, the Operating Committee of the CRN, and the Leadership Committee of the Data Center were two separate bodies, with many shared members. In December 2001, the two governing committees decided to merge, to provide the Community Resource Network, encompassing both the I&R and Data Center functions, with a single governing body.