Mayor Johnson, use data analysis to solve Chicago’s social problems

Mayor Brandon Johnson joins a long line of Chicago mayors who’ve begun their new job facing seemingly intractable problems. Only this time, there’s an opportunity to put a powerful tool front and center that is capable of pinpointing and dealing with the thorniest of big-city issues. It’s called data.

As talented Chicagoans roll up their sleeves on issues like public safety, transportation, workers’ rights, housing and more, it’s a perfect opportunity to ask a question that applies to all of their work: How can we leverage the fast-developing power of data and analysis to improve the lives of Chicagoans?

The administration would not be breaking new ground, but systematically applying it to a segment of society where its enormous potential is just starting to be felt. Private sector corporations have made huge strides putting data to work, using it to shape everything from supply chains to production lines. Yet despite some highly promising local action, broad-scale adoption of data analytics lags well behind in the social sector, where problems are identified, policies are set and programs are implemented.

That lag is exacting a cost. For all the billions of dollars and hours of hard work that philanthropists, taxpayers and social service professionals expend on social problems, moving the needle has been maddeningly hard. Progress is excruciatingly slow.  

The needle is starting to twitch, however, and Chicago is a place where it’s happening. The UChicago Urban Labs at the University of Chicago, for example, bring data to bear in their work on crime, education, health, and economic opportunity. The local nonprofit Ingenuity found data collection and analysis was an essential first step in its work to bring arts education to every public school in Chicago. The interactive tools developed by the non-profit Center for Neighborhood Technology are shedding new light on the relationship between public transportation and the location of affordable housing.

Skeptical? Chicago just received a What Works Cities certification from Bloomberg Philanthropies for “excellence in using data to improve people’s lives.”    

This new focus on data collection and analysis in the social sector is attracting increasing national attention. The Stanford Social Innovation Review recently published “Seize the Future by Harnessing the Power of Data,” calling on the social sector to embrace the power of data analytics. The Brookings Institution just published an intriguing approach to protecting individual privacy when gathering data on people’s lives.

Getting data from many sources

Using data to improve the lives of Chicagoans begins by building a process for obtaining the data needed to fully understand each issue being addressed, not just those in which the data sources are obvious. Chicago’s large and well-organized nonprofit sector, supported by a robust philanthropic community, is the ideal place to accomplish this.

Consider the example of Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Center for Childhood Resilience. The center has teamed up with the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health on a statewide, data-driven mental health project called the Resilient Schools Initiative, led by the state’s Whole Child Task Force. Its goal is to ensure that every school in the state will provide students with post-trauma and mental health support. That’s a tall order, given the huge number of schools and the vast differences among them, not just from community to community, but school to school.

The project team is gathering state, community and school-level education data to better understand existing mental health and trauma resilience resources and, importantly, to pinpoint where gaps exist. Combined with publicly available census, public health and community economic data, a deeper understanding comes into view.  

Each of the stakeholders will be in a position to make better decisions. Schools will create road maps to better target supports for their students. Policymakers can use the data to allocate resources and establish programs. Private philanthropies can target funding to communities of greatest need, in real time. Follow-up studies will track progress and impact.

In the corporate sector, the use of data analytics to drive strategy is an accepted fact. It’s time now to vastly expand its use to meet the challenge of social change. In their work with the social sector, Johnson and his team have an opportunity to not just grapple with our most pressing issues, but to solve them. 

Our city will be better for the effort, and the rest of the nation will learn from our example.

Paul Sznewajs is founder and CEO of Parliament Collective Intelligence, a Chicago-based data and strategy consultancy for funders, social entrepreneurs, nonprofits, public officials, and advocates.