Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System

The Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System ascribes to the goals of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership:  (www.urban.org/nnip)   
“To further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems in local policymaking and community building.”

The approach to creating the Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System was based on building trust and creating relationships with key public sector partners in order to improve communities and people’s lives and create positive neighborhood change. To build trust, the project team attended dozens of meetings with representatives of many City and County departments, as well as several authorities and the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

The CIS project team strives to work side by side with these partners to understand and demonstrate the value of information in addressing critical issues throughout Pittsburgh. These relationships have led to new partnerships and the acquisition of additional datasets.

The process of developing such a system is incremental.  It involves multiple players and the development of new relationships.  The nature of these systems requires trust-building and networks, developed over time.  The process is developmental and cumulative. We expect the nature of these relationships to strengthen over time and expect new partners and new users to be added continuously.

Technology is an important component of CIS, but it is only a means to help community leaders to better address problems and act on opportunities. The CIS project team recognizes technology is not the end goal or automatic solution but is an enabler to effectively address community needs. 

© 2006 University of Pittsburgh - Center for Social and Urban Research