Building a successful data team is a critical step in moving the work of the ACI forward in your communities. Data work in the communities begins with achieving real-time, quality data. But it doesn’t stop there! The work of your data team is threaded throughout the process of reaching functional zero. This page provides guidance when building your data team.
The foundation: ACI COORDINATOR + DATA LEAD
The foundation of a data team starts with the ACI Coordinator and a Data Lead. Coordinators work with Data leads to maintain quality data and use that data to reduce and end youth and young adult homelessness. Data Leads are critical in providing in-depth data expertise to supplement Coordinators’.
Data Roles and Responsibilities
how do aci coordinators and data leads work together?
The work of this data team partnership happens outside of the core improvement team meetings. The focus of the data team is to ensure that quality data is being submitted each month, data reliability issues are being resolved, and data literacy is continuously being built upon to understand the impact of the community’s data in reaching functional zero.
Although the data work happens outside of the core improvement team, a key responsibility of the data team is to implement a feedback loop. Incorporating data learnings is crucial to inform the core improvement team’s work. The data team is doing a lot of backend work to translate data knowledge to the community in a digestible way!
ACI Coordinator and Data Lead partnership in data work
Once the foundation for the data team has been established, you may find that your community would benefit from bringing in additional members. What value can other data team members bring to the table? Here is a look at two communities and what made the structure of their data team so impactful:
Walla Walla Data Workgroup Bright Spot
Walla Walla Data Workgroup Structure
Why this structure works:
The ACI Coordinator/Data Lead has full HMIS access to pull looker reports
A direct relationship with Commerce to address issues with HMIS reports and to access HMIS TA
Members of the data workgroup have intimate knowledge of multiple programs contributing to the BNL
Housing Navigators’ Expertise:
Input most of YYA into HMIS and can flag issues with BNL
Client-level knowledge and HMIS access to look up YYA during workgroup meetings to identify data quality issues (exits not happening timely, filters not working correctly, data entry issues)
Conduct outreach to agencies and have a direct line to service providers entering data in HMIS to address problems with data entry
Data literacy/Logic flow:
Workgroup members understand how data collection translates into reports, how data is transformed in Tableau, and can identify data reliability issues based on this knowledge
Spokane Tripod Model Bright Spot
Spokane "Tripod” Model
Why this structure works:
Clear delineation of roles among members created capacity across the team:
The Data Lead was in charge of the data and BNL. This allowed the ACI Coordinator to focus on facilitating data meetings while the ACI Lead tackled system and provider barriers
Strong working relationships:
Clear communication and reaching out for support from the team was crucial. When the work became difficult, they could lean on the other members to see it through!
Multiple full HMIS access points:
Two people on the team could pull raw data to be filtered through the Python tool. This meant that data submissions didn’t fall on the shoulders of one person.
Data literacy/Logic flow:
A detailed document that outlined every scenario of YYA that enters onto the BNL which has been translated into an automated data transformation tool in Python. Data team members understand the inner workings of the BNL and have documentation to ensure sustainability.
Check out other Cohort 1 data team structures!