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Delaware Community Foundation launches website to help identify state's needs

The Delaware Community Foundation’s new interactive online database focusing on First State issues is up and running.

The Delaware Focus website offers statistics and analysis on 71 selected data points spread across seven topic areas: Children and Youth, Education, Health, Demographics,  Economy and Workforce, Financial Self-sufficiency and Quality of Life.

While the same data is available elsewhere, DCF president and CEO Fred Sears says having it in one readily accessible spot is a step forward.

“I think there’s going to be information on there that jumps out at some people and they’re not going to call us say ‘What are we going to do about this?’ I think it’s going to give them the impetus to go in a direction and get partners to go in that direction.  And hopefully it will be able to give them a stronger case when they go out to get some financing from funders and businesses in the community," said Sears.

The data points selected for the website are ones that can be tracked over time to unearth trends and they can compared to similar regions and cities elsewhere.  The Rochester-based non-profit Center for Governmental Research helped created the site – which is similar to ones the group has done around New York state, Tennessee and Florida.

Sears says determining what data points to use was a difficult process, one that started when the project was announced back in February.

Credit Tom Byrne/Delaware Public Media
Delaware Community Foundation President and CEO Fred Sears launches Delaware Focus website in Wilmington

"I was hoping to have a few more, but its not only the ones you want to do, that you feel are important [that get selected].  You have to see is there enough information available to make it a valuable indicator and make it worth looking at," said Sears. "I think there are more out there and hope we get input from others to look at [other areas].

Now that the initial goal of gathering the data and making its and analysis of it available to the public is complete Sears says the next step is to use the information to identify areas of need and address them.

He says his organization is creating the Delaware Community Focus Council - made up of about 12 people from across the state and from various areas of interest and expertise - to settle on what needs immediate attention based on the data.

“We definitely want to focus on one or two issues. Once they decide to focus on it, we would facilitate bringing all the stakeholders related to that issue together and ask how are we going to work on this?  This is a problem, how do we resolve it? " said Sears.  "We may very well pay for a few of them to go to other communities and see how somebody has done it right.  And we may also underwrite panel discussions and things like that.”

DCF also plans to add staff to work on the project and announced it is partnering with the University of Delaware to seek the best ways to engage the community with the information found at the website.

DCF launched the site with events in Wilmington and Georgetown Monday.  At the Monday morning event in Wilmington, Gov. Jack Markell offered his support.

"This is really important work.  The benefits are going to last for generations," said Markell.  "It's up to all of us to dig into the data, to figure out what it means, to figure out how we use it and to remember we make these changes one person at a time."

DCF and a group of donors are handling project’s $800,000 start-up cost, and DCF is seeking more support to maintain and update the site, add additional data and fund community engagement plans.

Tom Byrne has been a fixture covering news in Delaware for three decades. He joined Delaware Public Media in 2010 as our first news director and has guided the news team ever since. When he's not covering the news, he can be found reading history or pursuing his love of all things athletic.
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