# 55: SMART Maps for Grant Writers

OJJDP is the grant writer's new best friend when it comes to finding and mapping data about those socio-economic factors that place kids at-risk. The site builders are gathering information from a variety of sources and making it available down to the census tract level in maps, charts, text.

About SMART

The Socioeconomic Mapping and Resource Topography (SMART) System

"The SMART System for Kids"
What is it? The SMART System is a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based issues management system, developed to support the early identification of emerging local issues and provide resources to assist decision makers with implementing both rapid response and long-term plans.

The third phase of SMART has been completed. At this time, we have archival data mapped at the national, state, county, and census tract, and place/street levels. This data is coming from multiple sources, including: the United States Census Bureau, OJJDP’s Statistical Briefing Book, the Helping America’s Youth website, and the Office of Justice Programs’ Grants Management System.

This system will allow the users to locate resources and incidents of crime and delinquency and other social indicators, visualize the data, and perform complex location-based analysis that should lead to better decision making.

#49: KIDS COUNT-- data for grant writers from the Casey Foundation

As a grant writer you probably already have the Casey Foundation bookmarked. If you don't, do it now! This site is an invaluable resource for anyone who writes about need.

KIDS COUNT: "New! KIDS COUNT Data Center
The Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT online database has a whole new look and feel. Now featuring child well-being measures for the 50 largest U.S. cities, this powerful tool contains more than 100 indicators, including the most recent data available on education, employment and income, poverty, health, and youth risk factors for the United States as a whole, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands."

#47: The Mossberg Solution - the grant writers guide to school data

A month or so ago, Walter Mossberg, a Wall Street Journal technology columnist, published a column describing three sites where parents can research schools. I use SchoolMatters.com, but you may find one of the others more to your liking. Check them all out.

The Mossberg Solution - WSJ.com: "SchoolMatters.com, a service of Standard & Poor's, is more bare-bones, containing quick statistical comparisons of schools. (S&P is a unit of McGraw-Hill Cos.) This site gets its content from various sources, including state departments of education, private research firms, the Census and National Public Education Finance Survey. This is evidenced by lists, charts and pie graphs that would make Ross Perot proud."

I especially like the fact that SchoolMatters can generate one report that pulls together data from several schools. I'm currently writing a grant application for three after school programs -- an elementary school site and two very different high schools. One report gives me the data on all three.

Here are the three sites Mossberg reviews:

• Education.com
• GreatSchools.net
• SchoolMatters.com

Photo by Dean Terry

#46: Statistics Help for Grant Writers

Here's a site to help those of us who are statistically challenged.

Statistics Help for Journalists: "Statistics Every Writer Should Know
A simple guide to understanding basic statistics, for journalists and other writers who might not know math."

#44: U.S. Census Bureau Tool Kit for Grant Writers

Here's a handy guide to working with census data that you might want to bookmark.

I often forget just how much information is available and in how many different ways. And, strangely enough, it never occurred to me that they would have people available to help me find just the data I need. (Each regional office has Partnership and Data Services staff to answer our questions.) I always thought of them as the big data bank in the sky!

U.S. Census Bureau Faith Based Tool Kit: "Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Tool Kit

FINDING CENSUS DATA FOR GRANT WRITING AND COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT

The United States Census Bureau is the leading source of quality data about our nation's people and economy. While the Census Bureau is not a funding agency, it does provide information needed for grant proposals and Federal fund distributions. This tool kit is intended to provide a simple, easy approach to obtaining Census information for grant writing and community needs assessment.

Photo by Qaanaaq

# 38: CDC Stats for Grant Writers

The Center for Disease Control has introduced VitalStats, a site that will let you create your own tables from the information they collect. I haven't checked how local the reporting options are, but they offer a QuickGuide to walk you through the how-to.

Their description:

"Welcome to VitalStats, a collection of vital statistics products including tables, data files, and reports that allow users to access and examine vital statistics and population data interactively.

Use our prebuilt tables and reports for quick access to statistics. Or, you can use the data files to create your own tables--choosing from over 100 variables. Using the data files takes a little more time but gives you access to more data. You can customize the tables, and create charts, graphs, and maps. You can even export the data for use offline or in another format. Please see the Getting Started Quick Guide Graphic of P D F for more information. "

I find it interesting that they also provide a QuickGuide for calculating rates and percents. I could have used both the data and the guide when I wrote a grant last month that examined teen pregnancy figures from every conceivable direction.

Book mark this site for future use.

#24: DOJ Reports on Crime in Schools - Stats for Grant Writers

Another useful source for statistics - this time dealing with school violence. I'm glad to hear it's decreasing, but always amazed at how widespread it is.

Bureau of Justice Statistics Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2006

Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2006 Presents data on crime and safety at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the general population. A joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics, this annual report examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school. It also provides the most current detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools, school environments, and responses to violence and crime at school. Data are drawn from several federally funded collections including the National Crime Victimization Survey, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, School Survey on Crime and Safety, and School and Staffing Survey.

#22 - The FBI - a Grant Writer's Friend

Need local crime stats? Start by contacting your local police department. They may post stats on their website, or you may have to ask for them. But they'll give them to you, often by neighborhood.

But if time is short, or you want city-wide stats, the FBI is your best friend. Local law enforcement must report periodically, and all that data is available on line at the FBI Crime in the United States site.

Note the link to Table 8 - How many crimes were reported in my city in 2005? in the lower left corner next to Quick Finds. It takes you to a table where you can find the stats for your city.

Crime in the United States 2005: "About Crime In the United States"

Photo thanks to Malingering - Creative Commons, some rights reserved

#17: OJJDP Provides Updated Juvenile Statistics

Writing a grant that targets at-risk youth? Any youth, for that matter. Need statistics? This OJJDP report deserves your attention.

"Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report"

The report offers a wealth of statistics on juveniles. The first chapter sets the stage with a good overview of all children and adolescents including state comparisons.

You can use it to put together a good baseline to compare with your target population.

#13 Neighborhood level census data for grant applications

I love finding new, easier resources.  I'm always challenged when I have to locate census data that's not readily available on the Quick Facts Census reports.  Oh, I find it...eventually.  But I waste time going in circles.

This little census tutorial highlighted a great tool - enter the address, then choose the level report you want - census tract, city, county, etc.  You can map your choices, too.  Especially helpful when working at the census tract level.

FASTEN Network

Neighborhood Data

Want to explore some more? You can also retrieve a lot of information about your city or even your neighborhood from the Census web page. To do this go to http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html and find the picture of the street sign followed by the words "Enter a street address to find Census 2000 data." (It's in the section between the red lines near the top of the page.) Click on the highlighted words "street address."

#12 Grant Writers Need Fresh Statistics

I hate using old statistics when I'm making a case for funding.  Makes me feel like we haven't done our homework.  So, I'm always on the lookout for good sources.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation publishes an annual database - Kids Count.  This year they've added some great bells and whistles.  Take a look.  And order a hard copy of the book -- it's free.

KIDS COUNT State-Level Data Online

Data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2006 KIDS COUNT Data Book are now available in our easy-to-use, powerful online database, "State Level Data Online", that allows you to generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state-by-state profiles; or, download the entire data set as delimited text files.