Entities such as nonprofits, government services, health care organizations and school districts function within the same ecosystem and might even perform related services, but often lack ways to effectively communicate or interact.
Excel by Eight is a nonprofit dedicated to “[helping] all children, starting from birth, meet their full educational and health potential.” The organization was originally called Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, but underwent a name change as its scope broadened.
On Monday, Excel by Eight community consultant Reggie Ballard met with a range of leaders and representatives of Union County nonprofits, health care providers and community outreach organizations and gave a “Data Walk” presentation meant to foster communication and reveal gaps in services for local children.
The meeting, which Ballard said would be the first of several, was step one of finding solutions to address such service gaps.
Local organizations represented at the Data Walk included the Boys and Girls Club, SHARE Foundation, Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, Young Artists Studio, The CALL, Head Start, South Arkansas Adult Education program, HOPE Landing, United Way and Salvation Army.
Ballard began the presentation by explaining Excel by Eight’s mission to coordinate resources and formulate action plans to address service gaps.
He first passed out a worksheet consisting of a series of topics - family, community, health and education- above columns of grids detailing each topic. Attendees then introduced themselves and explained which grids their organizations mostly act within.
Ballard explained that this exercise helps to broaden his organization’s view of the communities it looks at.
“We want to do a holistic approach, so what we try to do is if someone doesn’t see their organization in the [grid], we try to take that information back and [discover] why we aren’t including everyone in that process,” he said.
For the bulk of the presentation, Ballard led attendees through various statistics, comparing Union County to Arkansas and the United States on a range of health, education , family and community indicators.
Ballard then asked attendees their thoughts on each statistic, with a particular focus on whether they conform to realities observed by individuals on the ground in their respective roles.
Attendees discussed the statistics with Ballard to both weigh in on whether they match their own observations and to contextualize.
Several attendees, in one example, found the statistic that four child maltreatment investigations are found to be true each year to be low. This particular statistic was taken from a 2017 survey.
Multiple people in the meeting pointed out that issues such as hesitance to report maltreatment incidents could cause this number to be lower than the reality.
Other statistics presented included that 1-in-4 children (25%) in Union County live in poverty compared to 24% in Arkansas and 18% in the U.S.; and that 16% of adults in Union County had adverse childhood experiences (ACES).
Ballard led discussions on several statistics, including that more than one in four children (26%) in Union County experience food insecurity compared to 23% in Arkansas and 15% in the United States. Ballard said Excel by Eight has supported measures such as universal free lunches for school children to help combat food insecurity.
Health care-adjacent representatives weighed in with expertise on Medicaid and insurance issues, while community-facing organization reps were able to discuss the challenges of, for one example, reaching out to the local Hispanic community.
Young Artists Studio’s Stephanie Owens said she found the presentation informative and useful.
“It was informative and definitely needed for the community so that we can be more knowledgeable in helping to assist students and direct them to where resources are available to them,” Owens said.
Ballard said Excel by Eight plans to hold more Union County Data Walk presentations in the future.
To close the meeting, Ballard asked each person at the meeting to write on an index card the statistics they felt most need a solution and to, if they had some in mind, write possible answers to the problems the statistics indicated.
Those responses will then form the foundation for future Union County Excel by Eight meetings, he said.
Excel by Eight, which is based in Little Rock, works in communities across the state including Conway County, Independence County, Pulaski County and several others.