In December, a new export option for spatial datasets became available on the data portals for Cook
County, City of Chicago, and State of Illinois. Previously, datasets such as parcels, streets, address points, and boundaries could be downloaded as a KML, KMZ, or Shapefile. Now, GeoJSON has been added to the list of Download options.
GeoJSON data can be easily used with web mapping tools like Leaflet.
For more on the GeoJSON export option, see the Socrata documentation.
New Cook County salary data is now available that shows salary and position titles as of November 24, 2015. In order to maintain access to previous salary data updates this data has been posted in a new dataset available at https://datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov/Finance-Administration/Comptroller-Annual-Salaries-2015-November-24/9tzu-m4zi .
Previous Salary Datasets:
A related dataset is the Fiscal Year 2016 Executive Recommendation Budget Summary of Positions: https://datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov/Finance-Administration/Budget-Fiscal-Year-2016-Executive-Recommendation-B/3p3z-y5re
Over the past several weeks, the Cook County GIS Department has added updated taxing district boundary data to Cook County’s Open Data Portal. Datasets for the 2012 tax year versions of these boundaries were previously added to the portal. As part of this update, district boundaries for both tax years 2013 and 2014 have been added. In order to maintain the historical datasets, each year is uploaded as a new dataset.
The new datasets are:
| ccgisdata – Community College Tax Dist 2013 | ccgisdata – Community College Tax District 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Elementary School Tax District 2013 | ccgisdata – Elementary School Tax District 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Fire Protection Tax Dist 2013 | ccgisdata – Fire Protection Tax Dist 2014 |
| ccgisdata – High School Tax Dist 2013 | ccgisdata – High School Tax Dist 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Library Tax Dist 2013 | ccgisdata – Library Tax Dist 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Lot 2013 | ccgisdata – Lot 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Metropolitan Water Reclamation Tax Dist 2013 | ccgisdata – Metropolitan Water Reclamation Tax Dist 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Park Tax Dist 2013 | ccgisdata – Park Tax Dist 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Political Township 2013 | ccgisdata – Political Township 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Right-of-Way 2013 | ccgisdata – Right-of-Way 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Sanitary Tax Dist 2013 | ccgisdata – Sanitary Tax Dist 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts 2013 | ccgisdata – Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts 2014 |
| ccgisdata – Unit School Tax Dist 2013 | ccgisdata – Unit School Tax Districts 2014 |
Smart Chicago has thought about taxonomies before as they related to data ecosystems. We’ve found this exercise to be foundational to supporting complex, citywide work like the Chicago School of Data. Now, inspired by Connect Chicago, we’ve defined a taxonomy for our city’s digital access & skills ecosystem.
The taxonomy presented in this post inspired the structure of the Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey and the January 2016 Connect Chicago Meetup. Together, the data collection from the survey and the Meetup will form the necessary ingredients for something we believe both residents and individual programs will benefit from: a map of the digital learning pathways available to Chicagoans.
A digital access & skills ecosystem is a collection of people, places, and programs that
Below are just a few specific programing examples submitted by YWCA Chicago, the Safer Foundation, and Metropolitan Family Services of Chicago — three very different institutions doing great, complimentary work in our city:
Some great #Digitalskills training in Chicago! Contribute your info here: https://t.co/Lu364SyvUu #ConnectChicago pic.twitter.com/aVgKmZG4a7
— Denise Linn (@DKLinn) January 20, 2016
Like in many cities, Chicago’s digital access & skills ecosystem was bolstered by investments from the National Telecommunications & Information Association’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). That funding supported work at local public computing centers and created a loose network of learning sites across the city.
Now, after BTOP, Chicago’s challenge is to take that network, support it, and make it stronger.
The first step in making the network stronger is understanding what it looks like after BTOP.
Right now, Chicago’s digital access & skills ecosystem has several layers of communities, people, and places:
In short, this is complex, decentralized ecosystem with many actors and limited resources. Learners seek to master new skills across programs and places, but different programs and places don’t always communicate with one another.
Digital access & skills programing in Chicago (and any city) can be classified by mission and method:
In our work, we have found to that staying broad in our classification is best to ensure we do not miss valuable partners. There are hybrid programs that are not “tech” or “digital” intentionally, but have a computer learning components that make them important parts of this ecosystem. We’ve tried to strengthen our relationship with the literacy community in Chicago for this reason; often ESL, reading, or adult education programs introduce digital learning or technology to accomplish their goals. Sometimes digital skills are the “why” and sometimes they are the “how.”
Understanding the ecosystem is the prerequisite to mapping out the digital/tech learning pathways for Chicagoans. Where is a safe place for someone to start learning? Where can they go next given their goals? These are the questions we seek to answer.
Dozens of programs and training sites have already filled out the Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey. The questions are reminiscent of the framework above for a good reasons. We want to take inventory of the mission & method of the program and where that program sits across the different layers of our digital access & skills ecosystem.
Once this information is collected and shared with our collaborators, we can co-create a referral network. For the first time, we, as an ecosystem will have a formal map in place that tells us how one program relates to, partners with, can partner with, or can amplify the work of others. In reaction to each individual program’s survey, other programs will indicate:
“I would refer my patrons to this program”
– and / or –
“I would recruit patrons who completed this program”
We document this work and this taxonomy system not only in the hopes that it will benefit our partners in Chicago, but that it will benefit other cities who seek to define, coordinate, and evaluate work across their own ecosystems. We encourage all in Chicago’s digital access & skills ecosystem to fill out the survey and come to the Connect Chicago Meetup on January 29th to participate in this important undertaking.
H
ere’s a great post about OpenGrid in Wired Magazine today: Conquer Chicago’s Mountain of Data With This Powerful Tool. Here’s a snip about the vast amount of data in the City’s 311 system:
Berman explains that most of the data on OpenGrid is administrative data collected from city systems—like 311 City Services—that are already in place. In essence, these systems are pulling double duty as a civic service and a data funnel. Every time someone calls 311 to complain about noise level, that information is passed on to OpenGrid.
Smart Chicago funded and helped run the creation of the Open 311 system back in 2012.
In recognition of National Mentoring Month, we want to highlight the value of Arts Infusion teaching artists as role models and mentors for the 750+ teens (and a growing number of young adults) who overwhelmingly rated them 9 (on a 10-point scale) in the recent 5-year evaluation of the programs.
The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) identified the lack of positive adult mentors as a root cause of delinquency, dating back to research conducted in the 1980s and 90s, and routinely offers federal funding for mentoring programs that totaled $90 million in 2015.
Well-known providers, such as the century-old Big Brothers/Big Sisters and other national organizations receive most of this grant money, as reflected in the funding history. These programs are cited by OJJDP as best practices because the model is scalable, replicable, and evidenced-based; in other words, it works for large numbers of children across the country.
The standard model is often not effective for System-involved teens who vote with their feet. We designed the Arts Infusion Initiative for them. They are too old, too wary, and much more likely to have sought out the kind of validation and protection that gangs can provide.
It takes a special kind of mentor to reach this small, but highly-vulnerable and disruptive segment. They are less likely to be attending school regularly, and consequently, excluded from traditional after-school offerings. They are more likely to be incarcerated or transient; shifting from foster homes to group homes, couch-surfing, or homeless.
The kind of mentor who can reach these teens cannot be put in place through computer matching. Relationships must evolve out of common interests. Although athletic coaches are frequently cited as effective mentors, arts instructors are seldom acknowledged for the mentoring relationships that are a hallmark of their craft.
In their evaluation of Arts Infusion, the Urban Institute interviewed participants, both while incarcerated and in community-based arts programs, finding that the relationship with the specific teaching artist-instructor was rated as a top priority. The deep connection between the teaching artist and the students accounts for the proven gains in social and emotional learning, along with the artistic and technical skills.
The evaluators reviewed data about this elite group of arts educators, documenting that more than half (52%) have been teaching for over 10 years, while another 12% have taught for 6-10 years. Nearly half (46%) have a graduate degree while another 36% have graduated from college.
Further, nearly two thirds (64%) said they had been helping justice-involved or at-risk youth—either directly or indirectly—for more than 5 years; 36% had been doing so more than 10 years. The level of retention among Arts Infusion teaching artists across the five years of the initiative is impressive. Three quarters of the teaching artists responding to the stakeholder survey had been involved in the initiative for three (17%), four (25%), or five (33%) years.
This longevity, combined with the relevant cultural backgrounds of most of the arts instructors affords the consistency and familiarity teens need to form bonds and develop mentorships.
In addition to paying tribute to these extraordinary individuals, one final bit of data is worth sharing— they are woefully underpaid. The overwhelming majority are hourly employees, often teaching for more than one nonprofit or agency and/or in multiple locations. The median wage is less than $45 per hour with no benefits. Even more common is the commitment they demonstrate through countless unpaid hours preparing for teen shows, creating session guides or unit plans, and completing assessment rubrics. This is because they don’t fit the traditional funders’ definition of a mentor, so that $90 million from OJJDP is just one of many grant sources for which they are ineligible.
In my work at Smart Chicago, we are looking for new models for convening and supporting these essential professionals, both the veteran instructors and the next generation of apprentices who are following in their footsteps.
Arts Infusion teaching artist with a teen on the last day of a summer program.
