Best Practices in Community Research Techniques

This session reviews the importance of collecting and analyzing data about communities. This is a critical component in developing polices that increase affordable housing access. 

Speaker

Octavia Howell, Manager, Philadelphia Research and Policy Initiative, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Octavia Howell leads the initiative’s housing research portfolio, which explores how poverty and local economic trends affect the availability, affordability, and quality of housing in the city. She is an expert and primary author on Pew reports addressing poverty and safe, affordable housing in Philadelphia. Prior to her time at Pew, Howell worked for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, where she focused on geospatial analysis, community engagement, and housing. She is a native of Philadelphia. An HBCU alum, Howell holds a bachelor’s degree in family and consumer sciences from Oakwood University and a master’s in urban and regional planning from Alabama A&M University.

Key Takeaways:

• Start with general questions and identify relevant issues when you are getting to know your community

• Familiarize yourself with issues of state or national interest and make appropriate comparisons to benchmark against 

• Explore your institutions data, choose reliable data, choose simple tools and simple methods, and use existing resources

Reading material & resources

• Brookings Institution Building neighborhood data to inform policy https://www.brookings.edu/articles/building-neighborhood-data-to-inform-policy-a-qa-with-kathryn-pettit-director-of-the-national-neighborhood-indicators-partnership-nnip/
• Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University Thoughtful Design Can Create High Quality Affordable Housing https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/affordable-housing-doesnt-have-to-look-cheap-inside-or-out