Project 1: The “all-important parent support analysis” project

Unlike other services like transport, we don’t track every single time somebody starts a parenting support program or when a program ends.

No single number will give a complete picture of the situation. But, by gathering information from multiple data sources and tracking them over time, you should get an idea of parent supports in your community. Here’s your list:

• School districts: They may have data on student need and access of various forms of parent support.
• Domestic violence programs: Some may keep data on residents seeking parent supports. Unlike the government, they’re not necessarily obligated to give you the data, but they probably will.
• Child welfare data: While not easy to acquire, there may be a way to assess data on parents needing support. Maybe.
• American Community Survey: The ACS is an ongoing survey that provides vital information on a yearly basis about the United States and its people. Information from the survey generates data that help determine how more than $675 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year.

As mentioned, this won’t be as simple an assessment as that of transportation, but if you get these numbers, you should be able to tell if your community is going in a positive or negative direction. In this project, you will be gathering as much data as you can to paint a picture of local parent support. A first step is identifying challenges. Imagine, in some sci-fi future, if all caregivers had a parenting pass — a plastic card or mobile app with a barcode — that was used to access parent support programs. Now imagine that an AI program analyzes all this data from all county residents to identify high and low use, and where gaps in services exist, offering recommendations for fixes.