Young children at Waite House Community Center
Data help
provide facts to amplify policy recommendations

Waite House/Pillsbury United Communities

"With...basic data in mind, we are drafting recommendations to increase the well-being of the Phillips residents through accessing healthy food, growing their own food, and physical activity."

Rosa Tock
project coordinator

Submitted by Rosa Tock, project coordinator, Waite House/Pillsbury United Communities

What were you aiming to do?

I conducted research to prepare policy recommendations in the Phillips community as part of my work on policy and systems change at Waite House community center. I prepared a fact sheet with specific demographics to set the context of the neighborhood as an introduction to the policy recommendations. The fact sheet was presented and handed to elected officials in a Latino community forum with two council members of the City of Minneapolis and a Park Board Commissioner representing that district.

Which information did you draw on?

I used total population, population by race/ethnicity, poverty rates, median household income, and data on households by tenure.

What happened?

Besides using it for our community forum last summer, the fact sheet has been used to initiate conversations within our organization to have an informed perspective of the community's makeup, and with our partner organizations to evaluate the situation of the neighborhood. With that basic data in mind, we are drafting recommendations to increase the well-being of the Phillips residents through accessing healthy food, growing their own food, and physical activity.

What advice would you share?

I would suggest translating the information into infographics. I would also advise other users to review data updates on Minnesota Compass. For instance, I wrote my fact sheet in June 2015 with the 2008-2012 ACS 5-year estimates. I have updated my information since then as the neighborhood profiles have the new 2009-2013 ACS estimates.