Examples from the Field: Sparking Mayoral Commitment to Children’s Well-Being

Pomona, CA: Pomona’s Promise has been utilizing Early Development Instrument (EDI) data as their early childhood indicator to guide their collective impact efforts to improve the health and well-being of the Pomona community since February 2014. They engaged residents in World Café style discussions during two Pomona Community Summits on Early Childhood Well - being to reflect on the underlying drivers of the EDI results and how these could inform their five priority areas of health, education, public safety, economic development, and community engagement. The city leadership, especially Mayor Tim Sandoval and Pomona Unified School District Superintendent Darren Knowles, have been inspired to use the data to inform their efforts in transforming the city.

As a champion of the data, they have embraced the role that city government can play in designing a city ecosystem that enables children and families to thrive. The City of Pomona is now a member of the All Children Thrive - California initiative, aimed at preventing and healing adverse childhood experiences and promoting child and family well-being.

“Our city is a network of interconnected resources – our homes where we live, places of work, our schools, parks, streets, and community services, that work together to support daily life. Strong ecosystems protect the web of critical relationships and add new ones where support is weak or vulnerable to disruption.”

- Mayor Tim Sandoval, City of Pomona, CA

Pomona also invested in surveying the emotional well-being of their early adolescent students using the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI). Students expressed a desire to engage in more outdoor play and social experiences, which was surprising to many of the community-based partners working with youth, who had assumed video games and screen time were more important to them. This finding motivated the partners in Pomona’s Promise to utilize support from their participation in All Children Thrive-California to gather youth and family’s voice on how the parks could be improved in the city.

In addition, the mayor hosted a Youth Provider’s Summit to discuss youth services in Pomona, identify the assets that exist in the community to support youth, and highlight gaps. As a result, the city is building a “Community Dashboard” to facilitate community-based organizations, health care providers, school personnel, and others to work better together in providing comprehensive supports to children, youth and families.

About Examples from the Field

Examples from the Field is a series of stories and case studies from communities that partner with the Data Informed Futures team that explores how communities use population-level measures on children’s well-being throughout the life course. This series of case studies is featured in our brief, Equity from the Start.

Explore the full Equity from the Start Brief

About Data Informed Futures

An initiative of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities, Data Informed Futures (previously TECCS) offers unique, neighborhood-level data and mapping – throughout the course of a child’s life – that reveal geographic patterns of disparity and resilience. Since 2012, Data Informed Futures has helped over 90 different local communities in more than 18 states.

Our new, integrated suite of linked data tools provides a comprehensive picture and understanding of children’s development and well-being from pre-K through middle school. This data, along with our support and coaching, enable community leaders and partners to conceive, “sell” and implement meaningful changes that improve children’s health and well-being. To learn more about our work and impact, please visit healthychild.ucla.edu/datainformedfutures.

Learn more about Data Informed Futures