2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

New Insights on Neighborhood Change
from Making Connections
Using Data for Neighborhood Improvement 169
Making Connections was a major community-building initiative sponsored
by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the 2000s. Its central goal was
to improve outcomes for vulnerable children living in tough neighborhoods.
Its strategy was based on the belief that the best way to achieve that
goal was to strengthen their families’ connections to economic opportunity,
positive social networks, and effective services and supports.
As of 2002, the initiative covered ten cities: Denver, Colorado; Des
Moines, Iowa; Hartford, Connecticut; Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville,
Kentucky; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Oakland, California; Providence,
Rhode Island; San Antonio, Texas; and White Center (a community
south of Seattle, Washington). One or more low-income neighborhoods
were selected as the focus of activity in each site (average population of
40,000 per site). Program activities were directed by Casey site managers
for most of the period, but responsibility was shifted to local management
entities in the later years. 17
The most noteworthy contribution of Making Connections related
to advancing the use of neighborhood data was its program of crosssite
surveys. 18 Three waves of surveys were conducted, with in-person
interviews of sizable samples of resident households in the Casey neighborhoods.
Depending on the city, the first wave was conducted between
2002 and 2004, the second between 2005 and 2007, and the third between
2008 and 2009. 19 In all waves, the surveys covered a wide range of topics
including demographics, child well-being, household finances, neighborhood
attachment, and perceptions of local services and neighborhood
conditions.
The wave 1 survey entailed interviews with samples of around
800 households per city. In wave 2, the interviews were conducted with
the residents of the same sample of housing units involved in the earlier
wave but, in addition, with families with children who were interviewed
in wave 1 that had moved to another housing unit. The method was
repeated in wave 3. This feature is unique among neighborhood-focused
surveys. For the first time, analysts were able to describe not only the
net change that occurred in the neighborhood (e.g., the change in the
employment rate), but also the degree to which the trend was caused by
changes in the circumstances of residents who stayed in the neighborhood
versus the differential characteristics of in-movers and out-movers.