Beginning in 2001, three nonprofit community organizations started a long-term, joint project designed to highlight the biggest issues facing people in the Fox Cities. The Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce, Community Foundation of the Fox Valley Region, and United Way Fox Cities launched the LIFE (Leading Indicators for Excellence) Study. The data would be updated every five years and shared publicly, so local service agencies and other nonprofits could use the data to shape their work (and their funding applications) toward the issues deemed most important.
With advances in data collection and visualization technology, starting in 2016 the LIFE Study is continually updated as new data sets are available. More precise forms of surveying residents and aggregating data allow for deeper insights into the needs of the community. Seeking more opportunities to share the data with the community, they eventually created a website housing the data at FoxCitiesLIFEStudy.org where anyone can explore and interact with the information.
With new data coming in faster than ever, leaders of the effort asked WHBY to explore ways to promote and share information. These discussions led to the “LIFE in Motion” series. Throughout 2018, hosts Josh Dukelow and Hayley Tenpas welcomed local experts, service providers, and community leaders to discuss in-depth how the data from the study informed the work of nonprofits in the region. Interview topics included: healthy aging, poverty, mental health, obesity, child care, student safety and performance, LGBTQ issues, and child abuse.
These monthly interviews enhance the community impact of the LIFE Study in several ways:
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Residents are invited to understand the numbers behind the trends in our community, adding depth to the daily news coverage and highlighting what is being done to address these challenges,
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Agencies are provided a spotlight to showcase their work, invite people in need to utilize their services, and recruit volunteers to help them pursue their mission,
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Focusing on one or two indicators from the study allows a better understanding of the larger trends that are driving social service work in our area, and how we compare to the rest of the state and the nation.
Enormous effort goes into collecting, aggregating, analyzing, understanding, and presenting the vast data sets contained in the Fox Cities LIFE Study. If the power of that data only lives in a binder or on a website, the potential for community impact is limited. By bringing those data points to life, through interviews with real people working on those problems in our area, WHBY magnifies and amplifies the original intent of the project, and the larger work of the lead agencies. We are proud of this partnership, and it will continue in 2019.
