ACF Releases Inaugural Data Strategy to Improve Services for Children and Families

What if ACF grant recipients could pre-enroll people for any eligible service even if they were applying for something else? What if parents could quickly and simply find nearby, high-quality child care?

ACF's inaugural data strategy provides a north star to ensure that data delivers for the people ACF serves. At ACF, we recognize that better data capacity internally and throughout the human services ecosystem can lead to improved operations, more informed policy, and faster, more proactive, and safer delivery of public benefits and services. This data strategy builds on our existing progress to better use, share, and analyze data at ACF. It includes a dozen individual initiatives that fall into four categories: sustaining initiatives; one-stop shop initiatives; delivery initiatives; and technology initiatives. These include building foundational infrastructure such as hiring ACF's first ever Chief Data Officer and establishing a Data Governance Council; supporting program offices such as by creating a Data Talent Center to provide expertise in hiring and retaining data talent; and sharing data regularly through community-centered data tools and stories.

Our data strategy is a public commitment to do the necessary work within ACF and in partnership with our grant recipients and other implementation partners to turn "what if?" scenarios like these into reality.

The investments in our data strategy initiatives are being made so that we can better prepare for and respond to disasters through a shared situational awareness tool that identifies human service facilities exposed to ongoing natural disasters. They are being made because reducing structural barriers to advancing equity depends on having high quality data about people and places, which is the focus of our first analytics campaign. They are being made because the effective use of predictive analytics and artificial intelligence tools to support our expert staff catalyzes our ability to be proactive, preventative and holistic in supporting grant recipients and ultimately, America's children and families. You can read more about the 12 strategies in the plan on theOffice of Planning, Research & Evaluation Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation blog. Throughout the strategy, you'll see that ACF's perspective on data is rooted in mission impact.

This ambitious strategy requires investment in data talent, governance, and infrastructure to make it a reality. It also requires partnership and engagement with ACF grantees, communities, and individuals with lived experience with ACF programs. Visit ACF's AI, Data, & Researchsite for more information and reports from across our programs. We welcome your feedback and partnership and encourage you to reach out to us at [email protected].

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This blog post is part of a series called "Investing in Operational Excellence," which highlights how ACF is enhancing our day-to-day business practices to better empower the children, families, and communities we serve.

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