DATA-DRIVEN VS. DATA JUSTIFIED

WJWI - EDREDESIGN SUMMER INSTITUTE BLOG

Midas Hampton, founding executive director of Strategic Spartanburg, SAM Executive Director Dr. Russell Booker, Spartanburg’s City Manager Chris Story and Michael Williamson, chief executive officer of the Northside Development Group, joined leaders from 16 other community-based organizations from across the country for a five-day summit called

TRANSFORMING PLACE THROUGH NEIGHBORHOOD LEADERSHIP

Co-sponsored by the EdRedesign Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), the summit delved into research and on-the-ground action around place-based, cradle-to-career efforts to close opportunity gaps and create pathways to educational achievement and economic mobility.

SAM asked Midas Hampton to share his thoughts, takeaways and his experiences to better understand place-based work and how data can be used to improve outcomes.

Long before you were born, many of your realities were already set in place. Your access to a quality K-12 education, healthy food options, post-secondary opportunities, and even how long you would live. This predictive indicator is your zip code. Where you are born has the power to shape so much of your lived experience. Like many of our community members, I was born to a struggle as old as time itself but draped in a fresh robe to cover the scars of inequity. The battle between the few at the top and the many who find themselves stuck at the bottom. The disinvested neighborhood where I lived was one of extreme poverty. The system seemed to condemn residents for its necessity but offered no meaningful alternative that would genuinely help them achieve upward economic mobility.

During the week in Boston, I was face-to face-with people engaged in what Michael McAfee called "soul work" (i.e., work that feeds the soul). Specifically, placed-based systems change work to address this disparity by zip code. A star-studded lineup curated by the William Julius Wilson Institute and Ed Redesign Lab included Raj Chetty, Michael McAfee, and Geoffrey Canada were central components of my week at Harvard during the "Transforming Place through Neighborhood Leadership" Summit. As I think about the space in the community that Strategic Spartanburg will inhabit, I am reminded of a quote by Alan Cohen, CEO of Child Poverty Action Lab. He said that we must be "data-driven, not data justified."

Spartanburg County has an opportunity to leverage what Raj Chetty calls "big data at the neighborhood level" to improve resource allocation, educational attainment, economic vitality, and overall quality-of-life. We can use the data to support our preconceived ideas and initiatives, or we can use the data as a guide toward impactful solutions that move the needle. One impactful organization is Spartanburg Academic Movement, which has been data-driven from its very beginning. Utilizing key academic indicator data, Dr. Russell Booker and his team are improving economic mobility across Spartanburg County by examining the root causes of educational disparities and their intersectional nature. This lens provides the space to innovate, implement, evaluate and improve programming. However, this is only possible when we are all invested in the process of being data-driven.

So how do we infuse a community with the resources, so they don't have to move to access opportunities? The one thing that I can come up with is simply place matters. The individuals that make the community vibrant, eclectic, nuanced, enveloping, and inspiring matter. Though we are not new to this work. In 1987, Strategic Spartanburg's forerunner, Community Indicators, was established under the leadership of the Spartanburg County Foundation's Board of Trustees, whose vision was to measure the quality of life in Spartanburg County. The board formed a team of volunteers to gather data and, in 1989, published the first Critical Indicators Report. Today, 35 years later, we are still committed to leveraging data to improve the lives of the residents in communities across the county.

Irrefutably, Strategic Spartanburg needs to be the kind of organization that learns as much as possible about the areas of opportunity through data and research and provides evidence-based alternatives to address them. Toni Morrison once said, "When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else." This moral imperative is what fuels my commitment and passion for public service and why I am excited to work with all stakeholders to improve the quality-of-life in Spartanburg County.

Meet Midas Hampton

Midas Hampton is the Founding Executive Director of the Strategic Spartanburg, Inc. Midas Hampton has a background in direct service, youth and community development, mixed methods research, state and local policy, and measurement & evaluation. He has a passion for participatory methodologies and centering equity in every aspect of the work. Midas received his BS in criminal justice from the University of South Carolina-Upstate and MPA from Seattle University. He is a doctoral candidate in the Urban Leadership and Entrepreneurship program at the University of the District of Columbia. His research focuses on the process of neighborhood change, community indicators, collaborative governance, data equity, community development, gentrification, and stakeholder engagement. Midas lives in Spartanburg with his partner, two daughters, cat and dog.