ACT Rochester’s New Website Invites Fresh Thinking

This year marks the 15-year anniversary of ACT Rochester. That’s fifteen years since Rochester followed Boston, Toronto, and other cities in launching a data program meant to improve collaboration, enhance progress toward community goals, and help make better policy and financial decisions. As the Community Foundation’s data initiative, ACT Rochester maintains that mission and, this year, embraces new leadership and an updated website.

What should you know about the new website?

For the last decade and a half, ACT Rochester has been the home of our region’s community indicators program, monitoring community well-being over time. ACT’s indicators make publicly available data more accessible than it is on government websites by displaying information using intuitive and interactive visuals. These indicators are still the cornerstone of ACT Rochester. 

“People go to the ACT Rochester website because they are looking to highlight an important issue that plagues us or to connect an area of need to their organization’s program. I am struck by how often people note that relevant data is important to include in their stories about our community. That lack of fear around data is a tribute to our area, and to the work of ACT Rochester over the past 15 years,” says Dr. Meg Norris, ACT Rochester’s Executive Director as of August 2022.   

Today, we want to highlight an expansion. The updated website calls all of us to be intentional about our data use, to connect data and narrative, and to remember that this publicly available data is a spark or a benchmark, not an answer. We want to move away from using numbers to support a conclusion we have already made; instead, we want to point toward a finely-tuned question or problem statement. 

Connecting Data and Narrative: Fresh Perspectives 

To connect statistics to their context, www.actrochester.org has expanded to include a section for narrative on key topics. The Brain Food feed presents snack-sized, thoughtfully curated blog posts that are diverse in source and fresh in perspective. We are hoping that you bookmark this page, return to it often, and consider the posts nutrition for healthy thought. 

Here are some sample posts: 

• Working Backwards for Social Issue Problem-Solving – This post highlights an excerpt from the popular podcast “Armchair Expert” in which Bill Gates discusses his work in India through the Gates Foundation and shares his rigorous problem-solving approach. This podcast episode outlines a highly structured way of thinking that is crucial for social transformation: identify a goal, figure out root cases to identify interventions, rinse, and repeat.  

• Navigating Screen Time in Early Childhood – This guest post offers five tips for creating a healthy media diet for children that works for each child’s needs and each family’s values. This quick read was contributed by the Community Foundation’s Director of Early Childhood, Dr. Tyana Velazquez-Smith.  

• Rochester’s Comprehensive Plan: “Momentum toward 2034” – It’s hard to keep up with all the important developments in our community. This post curates an article from the Rochester Beacon reviewing Rochester’s comprehensive plan with insights and engaging graphics. While the linked article by the Beacon’s managing editor Smriti Jacobs is long and thorough, it is an excellent way to educate ourselves about the City of Rochester’s current state and a vision for the future. 

• The Children’s Agenda Rochester City Budget Highlights – This post lifts up a particularly salient report from a local advocacy organization on the Rochester City Budget. Selected for its clear organization and approachability, this report breaks down a technical but important topic.  

Data, in Context

The idea of the Brain Food posts is to help level up problem-solving and stretch our comfort with data and numbers. In support of leveling up, the ACT Rochester website offers more than statistics and challenges you to learn something new.  

Did you read something that made you think differently? Share the post on social, email a friend, or bring it up at your next cocktail party. Let’s move away from old stories and allow thoughtfully curated information to spark creative new ones.