Partnering to Advance Knight’s State of Communities Initiative

HIGHLIGHTS

Abt has the communications muscle you need to sustain and activate this initiative.

  • Abt translates complex research into actionable information for the public
  • Abt uses multiple public-facing formats to share data, research, and insights
  • Abt understands and assesses community well-being from multiple angles

The Approach

Abt conducts rigorous research on all the varied domains of a thriving community: civic health and engagement, economic mobility, housing, trust, social connection, health and wellbeing, and arts and culture. But we don’t stop with the research, we translate our complex findings into actionable information by developing engaging communications available to the public. Our story maps and project pages guide users through multiple related research reports and data visualizations; research briefs highlight key findings; and maps, dashboards, and short videos engage users.

Results: Showing Abt's Capacity to Amplify and Activate

Visualizations, Benchmarks, and Indices

These examples demonstrate Abt's ability to engage audiences through interactive data visualizations and creative presentation of data.

Career Trajectories and Occupational Transitions Dashboard

Abt created the Career Trajectories and Occupational Transitions (CTOT) dashboard for DOL. This interactive tool allows users to view data from four nationally representative longitudinal surveys and online career profiles that capture workers’ career trajectories and transitions as they occur in the labor market.

Dashboard: Career Trajectories and Occupational Transitions

ROSS-SC Data Dashboard

Abt created the ROSS-SC Data Dashboard for HUD and its grantees. This interactive tool allows HUD and ROSS grantees to explore metrics about grantees, the services they provide, and participant outcomes.

Dashboard: ROSS-SC

Survey of Home and Field Contact Policies in Community Supervision

Abt created the Survey of Home and Field Contact Policies in Community Supervision dashboard for the National Institute of Justice. The dashboard shares information collected through a survey of more than 300 local and state law enforcement agencies.

Dashboard & Infographics: Survey of Home and Field Contact Policies in Community Supervision

Effective Data Storytelling

These examples demonstrate Abt's ability to weave together narrative, images, and data by creating interactive web content to increase audience engagement.

Embracing Telemedicine in Ukraine

Abt created this StoryMap to share information about the use of telehealth in Ukraine. The website embeds infographics, interactive maps, and videos to explain how USAID’s Local Health System Sustainability Project helped the country expand the use of telemedicine to meet its citizen’s wartime health needs.

StoryMap: Embracing Telemedicine in Ukraine

California Homelessness Landscape Assessment Study

Abt and its partner, the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California Berkeley completed a Landscape Assessment Study for Cal ICH to identify how state funding is used, to examine strategies supported by the state and other funders, and to assess how organizations collaborate within and between jurisdictions and how the homeless service system is linked to other systems including income and employment supports. The team developed a public-facing website that highlights key findings and links to the research products.

Website: California Homelessness Landscape Assessment Study

EPA Community Connections: Community Connections StoryMap and Climate Indicators Explorer

Abt assisted EPA in converting visual components of the Agency's Climate Change Indicators report webpage into interactive online versions. Abt created the Community Connections StoryMap which presents a series of indicators related to specific community impacts in a narrative-driven format. Abt also developed the Climate Indicators Explorer webpage that provides interactive versions of a subset of all climate change indicators.

Making Research Accessible and Usable

These examples demonstrate Abt's ability to make complex data accessible to broad audiences.

Evaluating JPMorgan Chase’s Challenge and PRO Neighborhoods Competition

Abt led a multi-year evaluation of two JPMorgan Chase initiatives designed to leverage a spectrum of solutions to foster equitable economic growth through neighborhood-level interventions and city-wide systems changes. The team developed a public-facing project page which links to multi-mode communication products including reports, briefs, and short videos. Abt also developed trainings and hosted peer learning opportunities for grantees.

Project Description: Evaluating JPMorgan Chase’s Challenge and PRO Neighborhoods Competition

Local Housing Solutions

Abt and its partner, the NYU Furman Center, developed Local Housing Solutions as an online public-facing hub of information about assessing and designing solutions to local housing challenges. The public-facing website communicates information through short videos, policy briefs, and case studies. Abt also developed training and peer learning opportunities for housing professionals.

Website: Local Housing Solutions

Evaluating Summer Nutrition Assistance for Children

Abt conducted a decade-long evaluation of USDA's Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) pilots that provided grocery assistance to households with children during the summer months. In addition to conducting the evaluations, Abt developed communications materials to share the findings that included infographics, fact sheets, blogs, a podcast, webinars, videos, and an interactive data dashboard. Abt also developed branding materials for the program.

Infographics & More: Evaluating Summer Nutrition Assistance for Children

Financial Wellbeing

After the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau developed the Financial Wellbeing Scale, they engaged Abt in an ambitious, multi-year agenda to understand, and inform policymakers, practitioners, scholars, and the public about financial wellbeing in the U.S. Abt conducted the National Financial Wellbeing Survey, wrote several public-facing reports, and created a practitioner toolkit with two types of benchmarks to provide context and meaning to the scores and developed a toolkit for financial educators to help them use the scale. Abt also managed CFPB's Financial Wellbeing Conference, which supported new research using the scale.

Website: Financial Wellbeing