Manage by Data

What I was lacking and have now learned greatly is: how to ANALYZE data; how to make sense of all the information available; and how to pull apart that which is meaningful and sound versus plentiful and junk. --New Jersey Department of Children and Families Manage by Data Fellow

Child welfare agencies are overflowing with data, but often struggle to use those data to improve outcomes for children and families. Manage by Data, an initiative of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (NJDCF) funded by the Northeast and Caribbean Implementation Center (NCIC), sought to address this gap as part of NJDCF’s efforts to infuse data-driven decision making throughout the organization. Manage by Data aimed to build the capacity of mid-level staff to use data analysis to manage toward improved outcomes: to diagnose practice issues, to develop solutions, and to track and adjust those solutions as they are implemented.  

In New Jersey, child welfare staff used the Manage by Data approach to improve family visitation, to reduce anonymous reports of child maltreatment, and to increase investigation timeliness.  Since the pilot project, Manage by Data initiatives have been implemented in Beaver County and Washington County PA, Fairfax County VA, Suffolk County NY, and New York City. 

Though published in 2013, this report is still one of Action Research’s most popular downloads.   

Action Research report: Building Data Driven Child Welfare Practice An Evaluation of the Manage by Data Initiative 

IBM Center for the Business of Government report: New Jersey’s Manage by Data Program Changing Culture and Capacity to Improve Outcomes