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3C Data Alliance OVERVIEW

The 3C Data Alliance seeks to revolutionize data management in Creative Youth Development (CYD) organizations.

3C Summary GOALS:

Design a powerful, user-friendly data management system that provides essential evidence for the positive impact of investing in young people through Creative Youth Development programming.

Deliver a system for Creative Youth Development organizations that improves contact and program management while streamlining systems and reducing administrative time.

Engage young people in the design, use, and ownership of data to elevate youth voice in advocacy, storytelling, and cross-sector impact reporting.

Provide an equitable model for collecting and analyzing data that alleviates costs and equalizes benefits for a diverse community of organizations, based on the insights of young people and staff engaged in Creative Youth Development programs.

Build a national network of Creative Youth Development organizations to foster a youth-centered data learning community.

Our Work to Date: 2016-2024

Since 2016 we have engaged in ongoing conversations with interested national groups of CYD organizations seeking effective data systems, this has been essential to field building.

In Fall of 2022 embarked in a rigorous discovery process with 7 Subject Matter Experts CYD organization to inform the priorities for the platform.

In November 2023, the 3C Data Alliance received a start-up grant of $250,000 from the Wallace Foundation to support the first pilot year of the project. The project is led by a collaborative steering group and managed at DreamYard, a creative youth development organization in the Bronx.

The 3C Data Alliance engaged with five Creative Youth Development organizations from across the country to work in close partnership with North Peak Solutions, a highly successful and experienced database developer who has been part of this effort for over eight years. North Peak began to prototype and pilot the beginnings of the database.

Our Current Work: 2024-2025

  • NorthPeak focuses on data migration and the complete development of a streamlined system.
  • The five pilot organizations (listed below) will beta test the system and through further refining with NorthPeak, develop a field-tested version available nationally as an affordable subscription service for the field. DreamYard, Bronx, NY; RAW Artworks, Lynn, MA,; Imagination Stage, Bethesda, MD.; Milwaukee Rep Theater, Milwaukee, WI.; A Reason to Survive, San Diego, CA.
  • The pilot will also result in the development of a comprehensive training and support process for youth and adult users of the database to ensure that the system’s human infrastructure is inclusive, generative, and effective.
  • A crucial aspect this year will be the learning done as a community around the architecture of databases, the human infrastructure, and the capacity of the system to deliver compelling and useful information for individuals, organizations, funders, and the wider public. These learnings will be valuable for future cooperative projects in youth development and other sectors. The 3C pilot project will culminate, using extensive feedback, with a version 2.0 of the database to be used by all 3C organizations starting in Fall 2025. The work of the 3C organizations as a learning community will lead to continual refinements and development. This will be an evolving database.

3C Pilot Organizations

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Steering Committee

  • Musa Jamshed, 3C Data Alliance – Project Manager
  • Arleth Andino, 3C Data Alliance – Youth Project Leader
  • Tim Lord, DreamYard
  • Ruth Mercado-Zizzo, EdVestors
  • Dennie Palmer Wolf, WolfBrown
  • Käthe Swaback, Mass Cultural Council
  • Julia Gittleman, Mendelsohn, Gittleman & Associates

National Advisory Group

  • Camille Delaney-McNeil, Los Angeles Philharmonic
  • Denise Montgomery, CultureThrive
  • Erik Holmgren, Mass Cultural Council
  • Evelyn Francis, FIG Creative Consulting
  • Guelmi Espinal, Raw Art Works
  • Phil Bravo, TwoFiveOne Consulting
  • Steve Backman, Database Designs Associates, Inc.
  • Shari Carlson and Brian Pickett, North Peak Solutions
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NEXT STEPS:
How to be Involved

The 3C Data Alliance continues to seek Creative Youth Development organizations across the country who want to join our equity-focused, youth-centered community of data users.

We are interested in organizations that want to become part of the next cohorts to be onboarded, trained, and supported to migrate relevant data to the new cloud-based Salesforce platform being built. In addition, we hope to find supporters and funders who may wish to involve their communities in this work or in sharing like-minded research/projects (such as those that highlight youth voice, collective action, and/or shared data systems). Please click here to let us know of your interest.