NET x DataKind UK pop up: How to use the data you have to increase your impact (July 2022)

July 2022’s North East Together pop up event How to use the data you have to increase your impact was a collaboration with DataKind UK. DataKind UK helps social change organisations use data science.

Giselle Cory, DataKind UK’s CEO, joined us to share how other organisations have used their existing resources and information to reach new insights such as who you are and aren’t reaching, where to target services, and what further information to collect from service users. We also heard about some of the tools that you can use to frame your challenges, support your team to understand and embrace new approaches, and build responsible processes.

We’re all doing work that matters. And to keep doing this well and to do even better, we learnt using our own data — supercharging our own data — along with open data can help us do this.

We learnt making better use of our own data can help us

• answer the questions we have about our services and who we work with to understand and plan
• learn about what works and what doesn’t work
• make the best use of our resources
• tell the story of our work
• share our learning and data to help others

We know the event just gave us a flavour of using data to help get us started. We hope this inspired you to do and learn more. DataKind UK can help you get started and to supercharge your data.

Our event recording and slides

You can re-watch the event and see Giselle’s slides.

Setting the scene

Giselle shared some of the early uses of data science showing data science is nothing new however the tools we use have changed. Giselle shared Charles Booth’s London mapping poverty in the 19th century, which used colour on physical maps to show information about poverty.

Plus described the four ways organisations use data science

• descriptive — what happened
• diagnostic — why did this happen
• predictive — what might happen in the future
• prescriptive — what should we do next

Learn more about these at Four types of data analytics to improve decision-making.

How data can improve our impact

The main part of the event included

• sharing stories of using data for social change using examples of DataKind UK’s work
• splitting us into breakout rooms to learn from each other — our prompts were to share our current data challenges and examples of what has worked for us already
• feeding back from the group conversations
• short Q&A with Giselle

Giselle’s top tips are

• It’s not really about data — it’s about your question and putting people first
• Understand your barriers — including where you in working with data (the Data Maturity Framework might help you understand where you are)
• Invest in people — help your staff learn and develop skills
• Start from where you are — pick the right tools for you
• Consider ethics from the start — how you look after people and their data, and not just what you legally need to do

So start by starting, start small in a way that fits your organisation and you team, and use this as a building block to do more.

Thank you

Thanks again to Giselle and the DataKind UK team for their time, and for the work they do to support the social sector supercharge their data.

About NET pop up events

NET pop up events are events and gatherings hosted by the NET team or by NET members to share content to inspire us. We’ll offer support and the NET infrastructure to help you run the event or gathering you want to. This might be

• a book, toolkit, resource, research launch or exploration (like the Human Learning Systems event series in June and July 2022 and Tactics for the Tightrope in October 2021)
• showcasing a new service (like the Qwell information event in July 2021)
• updates about collaborative activity (it’d be particularly great to hear about collaborations seeded at NET events or from NET relationships)
• something you want to test with or get input from fellow members
• sharing something interesting or useful to other members

We’re actively inviting and encouraging NET members to do this, and to think of NET as a resource for you and for each other in this way.

About North East Together

Our collective mission here at NET is to create the conditions, and platform for, collaboration to become the norm in the north east and to nurture a healthier social change system. Together we can do this.

We believe bringing leaders together to tackle social injustice will create positive change — in our communities, organisations and the social systems we live and work within. Our network offers mutual support, enables collaboration and inspires social leaders. It’s for leaders from the voluntary, charity, social enterprise, education, public and private sectors. It’s for experienced, new and future leaders of organisations, work, and ideas.

North East Together is hosted by Yes We Can and is a collaboration between Yes We Can and Newcastle University Business School.

Future North East Together events

• NET Connect: [we’re still waiting on a ABBA-themed title from Marie], 14 September, 16:00–17:15, online
• Leader and manager as coach, a training programme for leaders and managers to develop coaching skills, hosted by us at Yes We Can on Wednesday 19 October, 9:30–16:30
• Coaching for social change, 26 October, 15:30–17:30, Newcastle
• North East Together 23: Collaborate for social change whole network event, 30 November, 16:15–20:00, Newcastle