After a summer that has seen devastating violence and expressions of xenophobia and hate across the country – as well as outpourings of generosity and stories of strength – we see more than ever the need to address racial and structural inequities head-on in order to create meaningful systems change.
A few years ago, Spark developed our commitment:
Spark Policy Institute believes diverse perspectives are key to achieving meaningful change. We are committed to fostering an organizational culture where all people are treated fairly; supporting communities with tailored approaches that lead to a successful future; and ensuring all voices are heard, particularly those most affected by the change.
Since then, we have been working to actualize this commitment, ensuring it is not just words; that it is embedded in our actions, deeds, and culture. You can read our full statement here.
We also believe that to take action on inequities and achieve new and meaningful change, we need new ways of doing our work to complement the collaborations of diverse voices. In this newsletter, we’re highlighting a number of actionable and accessible tools to help support that work.
Spark Policy Institute develops innovative, research-based approaches to help clients solve complex societal problems that defy easy solutions.
Tools for Social Innovators
Although we haven’t solved all of society’s complex issues, we are working toward this goal by supporting incremental change. Recognizing that we are all in this together, we’ve collected a lot of lessons and developed a lot of tools over the years, which we have compiled in our Tools for Social Innovators series. We’re highlighting a few here that are designed to drive systemic change while keeping a focus on equity and inclusion of those most affected by the change.
Tools for Integrating an Equity Lens looks at choice points – those places where decisions made will either increase or decrease equity – and how groups can increase equity through their planning processes by focusing on decisions made at those choice points. The toolkit does not look at the hows and whys, those are well-covered elsewhere; rather, it provides actionable tools, tip sheets, and resources that can help groups turn an equity value into action.
Data as a Tool for Change looks at how social innovators can use data to bring a new perspective to the decision-making process, supplementing our intuitive understanding of an issue to help validate the existence of a problem, discover new aspects of the problem, advocate for the problem to be solved, and surface and vet potential solutions. The toolkit walks through the basics of asking the right questions and finding answers, interpreting and presenting data, and applying what was learned.
Tools for Complex Decision-Making provides information on how to structure a multi-stakeholder decision-making process amid complexity and in high stakes environments. The toolkit can help you think about when to use facilitated processes vs. negotiation or mediation, how to select the right decision rules and participants, and even when and how to bring new information into the dialogue to get to better quality decisions.
Along these lines, we recognize the great work you as our partners are doing and contributing to these fields and encourage you to contribute a tool, resource, or case study.
Whether or not we use the term “place-based initiative”, it describes a lot of the work we are doing right now and GIS is one tool we can use to help wrap our arms around some of the complexity in this work. This blog unpacks why using a data mapping tool such as GIS can add another dimension to place-based work, along with providing some examples of what it looks like in action. It also kicks off a series of blogs on data tools and resources Spark has used to support place-based efforts, including Google Fusion Tables, Kumu, and Q-methodology.
We want to hear from you! Is there a tool to support place-based change you’d like to see highlighted in an upcoming blog? Do you have a great resource or tip you’d like to share as a guest blogger? Let us know – send an email to ashley@sparkpolicy.com
What do you do when you need a tool that is easy for your partners to use and apply on their own? Enter Google Fusion Tables. As the name implies, this web-based application makes it easy to merge (“fuse”) and analyze data with charts, graphs, and maps. In both projects, Fusion Tables allowed us and our partners to combine our existing information to produce actionable insights for the populations we serve. This blog, the second in our series, looks at lessons learned from using Google Fusion Tables in two very different social impact projects – the Colorado Farm to School Task Force and the Denver Foundation’s Community Navigator initiative.
Making a Meaningful Difference
One of our values and priorities at Spark is working closely with our partners, learning every step of the way, and achieving outcomes that make a meaningful difference. We believe in going beyond project by project work and applying the lessons we’ve learned that can help the field and others learn and grow.
As part of our commitment to organizational inclusiveness, and in keeping with our philosophy that small actions can lead to big changes, we are making changes around our office to create a more welcoming space for all persons. One of these changes is creating an all-gender restroom, supporting one of the most basic rights of everybody along the gender spectrum, and addressing one of the biggest challenges faced by our partners in the transgender community. The effort was led by Alison McCarthy, MSW, a project manager here at Spark, who is also highly involved in Spark's diversity and inclusiveness efforts.
Although we haven’t solved all of society’s complex issues, we are working toward this goal by supporting incremental change. Recognizing that we are all in this together, we’ve collected a lot of lessons and developed a lot of tools over the years, which we have compiled in our 
Blog: 
What do you do when you need a tool that is easy for your partners to use and apply on their own? Enter Google Fusion Tables. As the name implies, this web-based application makes it easy to merge (“fuse”) and analyze data with charts, graphs, and maps. In both projects, Fusion Tables allowed us and our partners to combine our existing information to produce actionable insights for the populations we serve. This blog, the second in our series, looks at lessons learned from using Google Fusion Tables in two very different social impact projects – the Colorado Farm to School Task Force and the Denver Foundation’s Community Navigator initiative.
