New dashboards highlight landmarks, census data in Norwalk neighborhoods
NORWALK — Want to know how many bus stops or grocery stores are in your neighborhood? Norwalk ACTS has that info and more.
The Norwalk-based group unveiled two new “data dashboards” at its quarterly convening of members on Tuesday. The Kindergarten Readiness Dashboard looks at Norwalk’s incoming kindergartners by high school graduation year, whether they attended preschool and their early academic performance. Meanwhile, the Census Dashboard looks at Norwalk’s 22 neighborhoods, offering granular insight into demographics across the city.
Jesse Buccolo, manager of policy, strategy and continuous improvement at Norwalk ACTS said this new data can be used by anyone, from teachers trying to better understand their students to nonprofits looking for the best spots to set up programs in the area.
It also helps Norwalk ACTS when it facilitates initiatives with community partners. The group’s mission is to help children from cradle to career by giving them a look at their lives outside school, particularly when it comes to the census dashboard which paints a picture of what life is like throughout Norwalk.
“It’s about the whole ecosystem and looking at the child as a whole,” Buccolo said. “It’s the whole direction we’re moving in . ... We want everyone to use these dashboards to have access to this information. It can used in so many ways. There’s a lot of potential in it.”
Thee data is already revealing new things: It shows almost 90 percent of Norwalk’s 3- and 4year-olds attended a preschool in each of the past three years. It also shows an increase in the number of children who were developmentally ready for the transition to kindergarten. That percentage climbed from 67 percent in 2018 to 74 percent in 2021, based on data from a questionnaire filled out by parents and caregivers. The percentages of those who possessed the literacy skills required for kindergarten increased by 6 percent over the past three years as well.
“The Kindergarten Readiness Dashboard is a powerful tool for Norwalk on a number of levels,” said Mary Kate Locke, the director of Child and Family Development at the Family and Children’s Agency in a statement. “It shows the incredible strides we have made in identifying who our incoming kindergartners are, and illustrates the trends emerging from our work at the community level to ensure children entering our school system are ready to learn.”
Locke added the data helps show where the community needs to focus more resources going forward.
Meanwhile, the census dashboard reveals the Hospital Hills area of the city is the neighborhood with the lowest income level, as well as the most densely populated part of the city.
“A lot of people have this kind of assumption about South Norwalk being a high area of need, and a lot of people group a lot of parts of Norwalk into South Norwalk,” Buccolo said. “But when you look at a map and Hospital Hill, it’s a super dense area with a lot of needs. It’s a young population and it’s diverse. That kind of changes the narrative a little bit. There are other areas with median income wages and there’s other areas of need in Norwalk beyond South Norwalk.”
An earlier version of the census dashboard aided in helping set up food distribution sites earlier in the pandemic. Buccolo added Norwalk ACTs has been looking at the census dashboard to gather data on transportation options and faithbased communities in different neighborhoods to help find future partnership opportunities.
“What we really want to do is focus on neighborhoods,” said Paula Palermo, data director of Norwalk ACTS. “We have 22 neighborhoods in Norwalk and each has a different profile. I’m trying to get people to understand neighborhoods and understand Norwalk versus South Norwalk. Hopefully it’ll help people concentrate on their neighborhood differently and realize there's opportunities in some neighborhoods that surpass others. Geography is meaningful and neighborhoods matter. We want people to understand that and Norwalk a little better.”
The dashboards can be viewed on Norwalk ACTS website.