What is the Elkhart County Child Dashboard?

The Child Dashboard is a collaborative community dashboard that tracks publicly available and internal local datapoints that can serve as indicators for child wellbeing and safety in Elkhart County.

How is the data organized in the dashboard, and why?

The child dashboard looks at indicators for child wellbeing through two lenses with their own corresponding dashboard: risk factors and protective factors.

Each dashboard has 4 columns that represent a different step on the pathway from very upstream warning signs and social determinants all the way through to the direct outcomes that we are trying to avoid or encourage.

This allows the dashboard to visualize a progressive logical relationship between groups of datapoints, both positive and negative. The hope is that users will be able to see opportunities for interventions and collective community action at each step, avoiding further escalation of problem trends.

What is a dashboard indicator?

An indicator is a data point that provides quantitative information telling us something about child wellbeing and safety in the county.

How does the dashboard color coding system work?

The dashboard uses a 3-color stoplight system to give viewers a sense of whether the indicator is trending in a desirable or undesirable direction.

Green: Trend is moving in a desirable and good direction compared to the prior period.

Grey: Trend is neutral, no significant change or non-categorizable

Red: Trend is moving in an undesirable and bad direction compared to the prior period.

Who hosts and administers the dashboard?

The SOURCE, Elkhart County’s System of Care made up of a collaborative network of over 50 organizations serving child and youth in Elkhart County, hosts and administers the Dashboard.

Why a dashboard?

The dashboard allows Elkhart County decision makers and leaders to have regular access to important child wellbeing and safety indicator data. It can allow leaders to better understand real-time priority needs in the county, communicate effectively about the role their organization can play, strategically seek funds and fill gaps, and drive strategic change within their own organization and across the community.

How often is the dashboard updated?

The Child Dashboard will officially launch September 2021 and will be updated with available data every quarter.

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Download our full FAQ sheet PDF to learn more.