Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) released two workbooks to help communities recognize data as an important asset in improving health equity.

Focusing too much on the problems of a community makes it seem like residents are helpless victims who can’t take charge of their own lives. It implies that help can only come from the outside, which then prevents community members from defining their own future. Asset-based community development (ABCD) stands this narrative on its head.

We love expertise. It entertains us. It gives us hope. We trust it. We love expertise so much, we even quantified it: 10,000 hours of practice. That’s what it takes to become an expert. Strangely enough, there’s an important part of life where we don’t trust the experts to make decisions for us. But that might be changing in the State of Washington.

A paper co-authored by our DASH colleagues argues that public health, healthcare, and social service sectors simply need to work with communities to democratize decisions about how their data is used.

This guide is designed for those who want to share health-related data but don’t know how or where to begin the process; as well as for those that have run into obstacles in their data-sharing planning.

This practice report examines the nature and extent to which public health entities are sharing data across sectors in ways that are innovative and supportive of their organizational missions to promote community health equity and well-being.

RECoDE was launched in partnership with data.org, Data Across Sectors for Health, Health Leads, and the National Alliance against Disparities in Patient Health. The project aimed to better understand how to undo antiquated and dangerous data systems and build in their place an ecosystem that provides all communities power over where, when, and how their data is used to improve individual and community outcomes.