ELEVATE Data

ELEVATE Data (formerly called the Edmonton Community Data Warehouse Project) is aimed at improving the delivery of social services using data. 

The project incorporates social service agencies on a transformative project that integrates key population data from various client management tools and makes it easily accessible for agencies to collaborate, understand and shape the services they provide to clients. The social service agencies in the project working group included:

• Bissell Centre 
• Boyle Street Community Services 
• Canadian Mental Health Association – Edmonton Region
• Islamic Family and Social Services
• Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS)
• Skills Society
• Mustard Seed 
• Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton (SAGE) 

ELEVATE Data can improve the capacity for social service organizations to collect, organize and analyze data – a critical first step to better serving client populations in Edmonton and across Alberta. The collective power of the information allows agencies to better understand the populations they serve, assess changes in those populations over time and advocate, as one, for policy outcomes to address shortcomings.

In the first phase of the project, we partnered with PolicyWise for Children & Families, an Edmonton-based organization with industry-leading expertise in evaluating policies and programs, and creating processes to analyze data for organizations serving children, youth, and families. PolicyWise’s experience and knowledge was instrumental in assisting the working group to assess their current data environment, and establish effective pathways for collecting and managing safe, meaningful and useful data.

ELEVATE Data has already moved into its next phase involving building the architecture, governance, and privacy protocols for the warehouse. We plan to scale the pilot project province-wide with participation from other social services agencies  looking to collaborate, understand and shape the services they provide to Albertans.