Urban data storytelling is the process and practice of using data to craft compelling narratives about cities, in order to communicate key insights, inform policy-making, build public-will, or advocate for change. Urban data storytelling combines data analysis, data visualization, and narrative techniques to make complex urban trends understandable and engaging for specific audiences, such as policymakers, funders, or community members.

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Equitable development is defined as policies, programs, or infrastructure investments that provide opportunities for all by reducing wealth and health disparities, with an intentional focus on disinvested places and communities of color.Areas of equitable development may include: economic opportunity, housing affordability, transportation accessibility, food security, environmental justice, community wealth-building, and more.

The EDDIT Coaching Program is a 7-9 month in-depth, personalized training program for local government and nonprofit organizations in small and mid-sized cities in the U.S. and Canada working to advance an equitable development project in their communities.

The purpose of this training program is to help you more effectively leverage data and narratives to communicate the impacts of your equitable development project and ultimately build more buy-in for equitable development in your community.

In this program, organizations learn data storytelling skills and Strategic CaseMaking™. The training and coaching provided are highly personalized to each organization's specific equitable development project to meet their data and narrative needs.

After an initial phase of scoping and a 2-day in-person site visit, the curriculum includes 12-week online synchronous training program (weekly workshops, pre-recorded lectures, and office hours.) The program concludes with a final showcase, during which each participating organization puts into the practice the skills they have learned.

The EDDIT Coaching Program is open to teams. Eligible organizations include local governments, nonprofits, and coalitions that are based in, or work in, small and mid-sized cities in the U.S. or Canada (defined as approximately 50,000 to 500,000 in population).

Teams should have a desire to integrate, and work with, data related to their equitable development project.

Preference is given to teams of 3-6 people that include a mix of junior and senior staff.

Teams should have a specific equitable development project that they wish to focus on as part of the EDDIT Coaching Program. By focusing on one project, teams will be able to develop transferable skills to implement organization-wide across other projects.

The project should have a clear focus on advancing equity in your community. Ideally, this is a project that is already underway, and which your team has specific goals for moving forward.

The EDDIT team will work with your team to find relevant publicly available data related to your equitable development project. Depending on interest, the EDDIT team also has access to certain proprietary datasets that may be used as part of the training.

Preference will be given to teams who have specific ideas about datasets or data sources they would like to work with, or that have internal datasets they would like to leverage.

When needed, the EDDIT team will enter into a data use agreement with your organization, which can be tailored to your organization’s needs. This DUA will specify data sharing and storage requirements in order to ensure data privacy and confidentiality. If and as appropriate, the EDDIT team may share results of the data analysis more broadly, but the extent of any public data sharing will be up to the discretion of each organization.

Application details for the EDDIT Coaching Program will be announced soon. Please reach out to info@equitabledev.org with any questions in the meantime.

Registration fees for the EDDIT Coaching Program will be announced soon. Please reach out to info@equitabledev.org with any questions in the meantime.

The site visit is an important part of the EDDIT Coaching Program, since this program is geared towards organizations involved in place-based equitable development work. This site visit will allow our team to meet your organization, learn more about your project, see the neighborhood(s) where your work is taking place, and listen to your stakeholders. The site visit will help us better tailor the training to your specific context and project.

StrategicCaseMaking™ is a set of research and practice-based skills and strategies that leaders can learn in order to persuade their stakeholders, and the public, to throw their support behind deeply transformational systems change. Check out TheCaseMade's website to learn more: https://www.thecasemade.com/

Given that the EDDIT Coaching Program includes both Strategic CaseMaking and data storytelling, an interest in data is required (e.g., learning about different data sources, expanding your data literacy, learning how to use data to build public will, understanding the principles of effective data visualization, etc.) Teams that have one or more team members who are experienced with data analysis (more technical skills, such as using spreadsheet software or mapping software) is a plus, but is not a requirement.

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