Understanding why people struggle with poverty means understanding the many issues of poverty in our communities. It means seeking out the data, identifying trends and connecting the dots: poverty is a broad and pervasive issue. Data is powerful. It often tells us things we hadn’t even thought to ask and it serves as a red flag for areas of focus. Data is needed to write grants and to give validity for our neighbor’s hardships. Data storytelling helps us understand complexities from a fact-based perspective.
Every year, Community Action compiles data from a wide variety of sources to examine the complex and interrelated causes and conditions of poverty, including demographics of the quickly changing communities of Washington County. Issues include health, housing, education and employment and a range of circumstances throughout a lifetime. The report compiling this data, Issues of Poverty, includes a breakdown for each of the cities and communities within the county, with deep information and statistics.
LeAnn Locher & Associates worked with Community Action to design the report with an approach and format to give justice to this vitally important data, knowing that the charts and data included in this report are widely shared by other organizations and leaders, as well as by Community Action. This year’s report came in at over 48 pages, with 20 figures in just the main body of the report alone, and additional breakdown of data for each of the towns within the county. The report is designed to be clean, clear and to deliver data in branded and shareable elements, alongside narrative to dig deeper and give context.
The research and analysis in Issues of Poverty is phenomenal. This work deserves design justice to reach the people who need to read it.
—LeAnn Locher
In addition to the design of the report, we produced a series of short promotional videos as a way to distribute key findings, and to encourage downloading of the report from the Community Action website. These 40-60 second videos highlight different areas of the research, and invite participation in upcoming community conversation events—opportunities to discuss in-person with the researchers and fellow community members. The videos can be shared on all social media sites for cross promotional use.
About Community Action: Community Action comes out of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty and from the advocacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 created the Community Action Network of national and locally-focused organizations that connect millions of children and families to greater opportunity. Since this founding, Community Action of Washington County has continuously provided crucial services to help economically disadvantaged people achieve better lives, and increase opportunities for their children to thrive at home and in school.
