Lessons learned from an internal database built through a CRE lens in the Latine neighborhood of Little Village in Chicago

Abstract

AbstractEnlace Chicago, a nonprofit organization located in the heart of the Little Village community, is a community‐based organization that convenes, organizes, provides programs and services, and builds individual and community capacity to address systemic inequities in the areas of immigration, health, education, and violence prevention. In 2018, Enlace Chicago began to expand its capacity, building an internal evaluation and data team to support organizational data tracking, evaluation, and learning. As Enlace expanded its staff and grant reporting, the organization decided to launch an internal database build to better track data across teams and initiatives. While embarking on this journey, the organization also responded to the COVID‐19 pandemic with shifts in outreach and services. This article is a reflective case example from the perspective of the internal evaluation and data team at Enlace, which includes best practices and lessons learned for building a database within a predominantly Mexican‐American community. Key takeaways include: the evaluation and data team were a critical support for implementing necessary culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) structures and approaches during the database build; CRE considerations for a database and partnership were necessary to uphold culturally relevant data and allow for flexibility with stakeholders; and clear and specific feedback and utilization of information were critical during the database build to support Latine staff and community.