Coaching

Wrap-around support helps build a roadmap for local action.

As part of our commitment to building community capacity, Data Informed Futures provides wrap-around support to help ensure our suite of measures can help communities be effective in improving outcomes. Our highly accessible team of experts has extensive experience in helping translate data into knowledge and action. With our local one-on-one coaching and our hosted national learning network, communities can build a roadmap for local action, and support local leaders engaged in collective and data-informed decision-making.

Coaching

We provide coaching to help turn the data you have from knowledge into action.

Our goals are to help you:

1. Deepen your understanding of the information provided by the measurement tools, and
2. Understand how to use the information to inform decision making.

What to Expect from Coaching

1. At times, you will be asked more questions rather than given answers. Be prepared for conversations that ask you to reflect upon what you know and what you don’t know. We provide guidance through reflection, helping you discover where and how to find the answers to your own questions.
2. We will deepen your knowledge around data. We will build your content knowledge around the  power of spatial data –understand how information provided by geography can help inform your mental model and practice. We will build your awareness of other sources of additional population level data that may be useful for your inquiry and decision making toward action
3. We can provide you with tools to assist you with presenting and sharing the information, along with tips for engaging your various stakeholders with the data. In some cases, you may already have a set of stakeholders who can take the information and readily turn it into action for your community. In this case, you are another partner at the table. You may not always have to lead the conversation; you may simply wish to be another partner at the table who can contribute to the existing efforts or help inform new efforts that stakeholders in the community can take on. You might also have a designated individual support your local efforts to engage various audiences. We can assist you with:
   • Developing your dissemination plan and help you with identifying the key stakeholders or people who should have the data to inform their actions (e.g. state, county and municipal officials or staff, community coalitions or organizations, service and support organizations, resident groups, parent groups, schools, etc.)
   • Developing a community engagement plan for understanding the data: suggestions for how to talk about the data so that the community can develop its story about the data (telling the story of the community’s history, strengths, and goals and aspirations around children)
4. We will provide you with some sample tools to facilitate conversations within your system and across systems/organizations. This could include tools such as Sample Meeting Agendas, PowerPoint templates, community systems mapping tools, etc.
5. We want to build your skills as learners. Underpinning our coaching approach is embracing strategies for collaborative learning and improvement. To facilitate your learning, we will also connect you to others so you can learn from other’s practices.
   • We will support you using methods from innovation, improvement, and human centered design, which can help accelerate your learning.