RATIONALE:

The Black Equity Coalition (BEC) is excited to announce a transformational opportunity for someone to serve as a Data Justice Project Director in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The person hired will help to build an infrastructure enabling Pittsburgh residents to gain power in the decisions the City of Pittsburgh makes about data. They will also work with residents at a neighborhood level to help them use civic data to improve their communities. This opportunity will provide you with experience in establishing one of the first participatory data governance practices in an American city, and advance the mission of the BEC’s Data Justice Working Group.

This initiative will establish a “mini-public” deliberative body to engage in decisions that the City of Pittsburgh makes about data and technology, and co-design databases, data systems, data standards, processes, and policies that will serve as the foundation of the City’s emerging data governance process. In addition to building inclusive data governance practices in the early stages of the data life cycle, our initiative will also work in the later stages of the data life cycle. We’ll use data with neighborhood residents to develop and implement a plan for improving community health that incorporates data literacy opportunities and personal expression.

UrbanKind Institute (UKI) has become one of the most in-demand social science and community-engagement consulting firms in the Pittsburgh region. Our partners and clients recognize the value of our critical, people-centered racial justice perspective and the effectiveness of our community interaction and engagement strategies. In all our work, we work to eliminate barriers to families thriving in over-burdened and under-resourced communities. 

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION:

This person hired for this position will be employed by UrbanKind Institute, to conduct work exclusively for the Black Equity Coalition (BEC). This role will support the BEC Data Justice Working Group to advance its mission of providing, analyzing, and advocating for data to improve health outcomes and reduce inequities experienced by Black residents in Allegheny County.

The Working Group members envision a public health and civic data ecosystem where systems, institutions, and individuals use data to improve the quality of life and well-being of Black communities. Data systems should be designed on anti-racist principles and be equitable and just. We value transparency, holding people, institutions, and systems accountable, taking action, acting with integrity, and encouraging public participation in data system design and data use.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:
Reasonable accommodations will be made for individuals with disabilities to perform essential duties.

• Coordinating project activities.

• Supporting communication among partners.

• Facilitating a process to select members of the mini-public deliberative body, and collaboratively design engaging activities to help City staff and members of the mini-public to work toward consensus in making decisions about data and technology.

• Planning and hosting public meetings and engagements when opportunities for broader input to the deliberative process arise.

• Telling the story about how residents have meaningfully influenced City decisions through blog posts, week-notes, social media, and other communications channels.

• Monitoring the growing number of reports, efforts and initiatives devoted to participatory data governance, and ensure that the work in Pittsburgh is visible to national and international audiences.

• Defining, tracking, and finding meaning in performance measures related to this initiative.

• Organizing neighborhood-level data literacy and planning activities to help residents collect and use data in their neighborhood.

• Handling the administrative tasks that enable all of this work to happen, including providing stipends for community participants.

• Contributing to proposals and other fundraising initiatives that will sustain and extend this effort.

• Related tasks as assigned.