Incorporating Racial Equity in Data Sharing in Broward County, Florida

Florida’s Broward Coun­ty is devel­op­ing an approach to data that seeks to cor­rect the unin­tend­ed con­se­quences of exist­ing data-shar­ing sys­tems. The key dif­fer­ence? Incor­po­rat­ing equi­ty prin­ci­ples in sys­tem design to ensure that the peo­ple with the great­est stake are full part­ners in the process.

While the quest for good data has led to the devel­op­ment of increas­ing­ly robust sys­tems to facil­i­tate the secure flow of infor­ma­tion and gen­er­ate a clear­er pic­ture of how to help chil­dren, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties, these sys­tems often fail to achieve progress for the kids and fam­i­lies whose data are being col­lect­ed, stored and shared — espe­cial­ly kids and fam­i­lies of col­or. Even more wor­ri­some, the data sys­tems can gen­er­ate effects that under­mine their good inten­tions, help­ing to repli­cate dis­par­i­ties rather than elim­i­nate them.

“The expan­sion of data inte­gra­tion at the coun­ty and state lev­els has been pret­ty dra­mat­ic — about half of kids in the Unit­ed States now live in a juris­dic­tion with access to some kind of data-shar­ing sys­tem, and that’s like­ly to be clos­er to two-thirds in a few years,” says Chris Kings­ley, a senior asso­ciate who works on data strate­gies at the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, which is pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal sup­port for the Broward Coun­ty effort. ​“It mat­ters a lot that we get this right.”

The Children’s Ser­vices Coun­cil (CSC) of Broward Coun­ty — the local fund­ing author­i­ty that con­tracts with non­prof­its to pro­vide pre­ven­tion ser­vices for the county’s chil­dren and fam­i­lies — is spear­head­ing the county’s effort, which con­cen­trates on pro­mot­ing equi­ty by cre­at­ing a new struc­ture for data col­lec­tion, inter­pre­ta­tion and use.

Accord­ing to Sue Gal­lagher, chief inno­va­tion offi­cer at CSC, racism and racial bias have his­tor­i­cal­ly influ­enced fun­da­men­tal deci­sions in data exchange, from what ques­tions are asked to how answers are inter­pret­ed. The result­ing top-down dynam­ic sep­a­rates researchers and pro­fes­sion­al helpers from peo­ple receiv­ing ser­vices, large­ly along a racial divide.

To counter the effects of struc­tur­al racism in data shar­ing, CSC devel­oped the Build­ing Pow­er and Equi­ty Togeth­er (BPET) project. The ini­tia­tive is designed to equi­tably inte­grate infor­ma­tion among the child wel­fare, behav­ioral health and juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems, the school dis­trict, CSC, youth and the community.

The BPET approach start­ed with edu­ca­tion. Since 2016, more than 3,000 non­prof­it staffers and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners have been trained with a cur­ricu­lum on struc­tur­al racism, the local his­to­ry of racism and implic­it racial bias. A 2018 pilot brought togeth­er 15 young peo­ple involved in sys­tems with 25 agency staff to joint­ly pro­duce data process­es and tools that led to pol­i­cy and sys­tem reform recommendations.

CSC’s next step is to build the data sys­tem struc­ture, using three key equi­ty components:

1. a gov­er­nance struc­ture that includes youth and com­mu­ni­ty advi­sors, built through par­tic­i­pa­to­ry action research and com­mu­ni­ty organizing;
2. a new mes­sage that shar­ing data is also about shar­ing pow­er and see­ing each oth­er as part­ners with assets and exper­tise, with gov­ern­ment work­ers and the peo­ple they serve cre­at­ing poli­cies and prac­tices togeth­er; and
3. inclu­sive legal agree­ments and busi­ness rules, allow­ing every­one involved to under­stand the stakes and their role in the process.

In fine-tun­ing the project details, CSC has received assis­tance from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pennsylvania’s Action­able Intel­li­gence for Social Pol­i­cy (AISP), a Casey grantee and nation­al ini­tia­tive that sup­ports the devel­op­ment of data-shar­ing sys­tems to guide pol­i­cy and plan­ning. Amy Hawn Nel­son, AISP’s direc­tor of train­ing and tech­ni­cal assis­tance, has been watch­ing the progress in Broward Coun­ty with a close eye — and con­sid­er­able enthusiasm.

“Data shar­ing is, above all, a rela­tion­al activ­i­ty, rather than tech­ni­cal,” says Nel­son, ​“and rela­tion­ships are at the heart of what CSC is doing. From soup to nuts, their work is infused with equi­ty, inclu­sion and acces­si­bil­i­ty. They’re build­ing a data-shar­ing sys­tem that we expect will be a mod­el for juris­dic­tions all over the nation.”

Learn more about how data sys­tems can pro­vide insights to help chil­dren and families