by Saba Waheed

Last month, DataCenter trained 40 people in San Francisco and Los Angeles.  The participants came from various fields including public health, organizing, academia, social services and policy advocacy.  In Los Angeles, we partnered with Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) at the The California Wellness Foundation convening of their work and health grantees and guided participants through the research planning and strategizing process.  The audience was especially energized by MUA staff Claudia Reyes and Juana Flores who laid out in detail how they were able to design the survey instruments, train members, implement the survey and conduct analysis and then transfer that data into an effective organizing strategy.  Similarly, in San Francisco, we provided a half day training on research and planning through CompassPoint.  We had good discussions on ways that data could tell a community’s story.   These trainings have emerged out of years of creating and improving curricula that can simply outline the basics in research planning but more importantly, guide in picking methods strategically so that the information is being leveraged in the most powerful way.