Since the start of the Opportunity Youth Forum (OYF) a decade ago, it has been committed to a culture of data-driven decision making throughout the OYF network, to better understand where and how systems are failing opportunity youth, to drive strategies for change, and to demonstrate impact. Over the last five years, OYF has made significant investments in building the capacity of OYF collaboratives to collect and use data to improve systems and outcomes for opportunity youth in their communities. Our new report, OYF: Using Data to Facilitate Systems Change, outlines how this network of over three dozen collaboratives has grown in its use of data, and how that data has changed the local systems serving opportunity youth.
Given the significant focus on data in the network, one area the OYF annual self-assessment examines is collaborative capacity for data and learning, as well as the collection and use of data to drive systems change. In 2021, the OYF network exhibited strengths in internal collaborative data capacity and in use of data for systems change. ‘Data and Learning’ was the highest rated collaborative capacity among the four capacities assessed. Furthermore, collaboratives have seen substantial growth in data capacity and data use for systems change over the last one to two years.
For more details on the OYF network’s data accomplishments, see the report: OYF: Using Data to Facilitate Systems Change.