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The Local Data Project

Improving Me is delighted to be working in partnership with the Women’s Budget Group (WBG) to give women and girls in Cheshire and Merseyside a voice and the tools to make it heard. The WBG has been working in collaboration with Improving Me for over 5 years to highlight the impact of economic inequality on women and children’s health and the WBG have regularly contributed to Baby Week and #IWD activity to shine a light on the impact of the wider determinants of health on women and girl’s lives. This initiative allows us to provide women with the tools to use data to advocate for themselves and their communities.

 

The UK Women's Budget Group (WBG) is the UK's leading feminist economics think tank, providing evidence and analysis on women's economic position and proposing policy alternatives for a gender-equal economy. WBG put feminism into economics and economics into feminism. The WBG are clear about the role of the data course,

 

‘We need women to be able to read and analyse data and talk to each other about what needs to be done to support their lives. Women at the grassroots level have invaluable insights, and they need to have the tools to turn these into evidence based policy ideas so that they can advocate for themselves.”

Dr Liz Hind, Senior Partnerships and Training Officer at the Women’s Budget Group

 

The release of the England and Wales census 2021 provides a once-in-a-decade opportunity to dive into population data, combine statistics with lived experience and bring raw data to life – moving one step closer to bridging the gender data gap.

 

Who is it for ?

 

Feminist Initiatives Need Data (FIND) – using data in your reports and press releases is an important way to show evidence and strengthen your case. Data is produced and published all the time, but the hard part is to know where to find the data that you want and how to use it to achieve your research, campaigning and advocacy goals.

 

  • This training is an introduction to how to access and use data to become an equalities data champion.
  • This training is for anyone with an interest in using data for their campaign work. We don’t presume any prior knowledge or experience in data handling or analysis. This is not a course on the maths of data analysis and no mathematical skills are required.

 

The courses will be initially delivered online. It is split into three two-hour sessions that are usually delivered over three consecutive weeks . The plan is to ultimately deliver face to face activity where possible.

 

Delivery and session outlines

 

FIND 1- Discovering Data

At the end of this session participants will access a public data source and evaluate its use for equalities work. The session will cover:

  • Introduction to data.
  • The data cycle.
  • What data can (and can’t) do.
  • Evaluating a data source.

 

FIND 2- Delving Into Data

 

At the end of this session participants will be able to access official statistics from the ONS and use them to comment on women’s economic experiences. The session will cover:

  • Who collects data?
  • What is inflation and how is it measured?
  • How to access ONS statistics?
  • Using data to tell a story.

 

FIND 3- Using Nomis

 

At the end of this session participants will be create a custom query in Official census and labour market statistics -Nomis- to download data that is relevant to their area. The session will cover:

  • What is NOMIS?
  • Simple filers and reformatting
  • Custom queries
  • Using local reports

At the end of this session participants will access a public data source and evaluate its use for equalities work Evaluating a data source.

 

Want to get involved to amplify women’s voices and promote a more equitable world for everyone?

 

If you would like to work with Improving Me to bring this work to women in your organisation or women in the community please get in touch with Jo Ward

E:jo@jowardchangemaker.org.uk or M:07708 428096

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