Brain Food
BRAIN FOOD
Statistics and community indicators are a starting point, only one component of the full story. The stories behind the numbers provide important context for our indicators, painting the more complex realities of society.
These discussion topics can help remind you of these larger narratives, shaping the way things are, the way things work, and the way things could be.
Consider this your BRAIN FOOD, nutrition for healthy thought!
Explore Topics
- Achievement Gap
- Arts and Culture
- Banking
- Belonging
- Bill Gates
- Catalyze
- Census
- Common Ground Health
- Communicate
- Community Vitality
- Connect
- Continuous Improvement
- Curate
- Data
- Demographics
- Early Childhood
- Education
- Environmental Justice & Sustainability
- Equity
- Gentrification
- Housing
- Impact
- Inclusion
- Inclusive Recovery
- K-12 Education
- Measurement
- Mental Health
- PDSA
- Poverty
- Public Safety
- Research Design
- Social Capital
- Transportation
- Upward Mobility
- Voter Participation
- Workforce
- Youth
- Zoning
Curated Report: The Children’s Agenda Rochester City Budget Highlights
Local advocacy organization The Children’s Agenda released a report highlighting the Rochester City’s Budget allocations, with a particular emphasis on how the budget affects children.
The report calls out policy efforts in the areas of poverty, support for the public library system, youth development and mental health, and youth violence prevention.
The report is very well-organized, providing readers a summary of budgeted items by category as well as commendations and recommendations. PLEASE READ!
The University of Chicago Crime Lab and RIT’s Center for Public Safety Initiatives
Public safety, incarceration, and the national gun violence crisis is top of mind, locally and across the US. The concern is clear, but the solutions are not. Enter: higher education-sponsored research and evaluation.
Prestigious universities are directing resources and human capital to learn more about how to increase safety in our communities. The University of Chicago’s Crime Lab is nationally renowned and oft-referenced for its work in this area, and we have a local center dedicated to public safety research at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Crime Lab at the University of Chicago’s stated mission is to design, test, and scale data-driven innovations to improve the public sector’s response to the dual challenges of America’s gun violence crisis and a criminal justice system that is not truly just. Their website is a valuable resource for research and findings based in Chicago, and the vision suggests that they plan to expand their work nationwide.
RIT’s College of Liberal Arts hosts a multi-disciplinary research center called the Center for Public Safety Initiatives that examines strategies to reduce crime and enhance the administration of justice. Services of the center include program evaluation, data analytics, and project management. Be sure to visit the website for research, staff and student information, and a story map collection that provides public-safety data for Monroe County.