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When you're planning a trip, you get out a map. The same kind of tool is needed when trying to solve tough public problems. Compass is a tool is designed to give communities facts that matter in their planning and decision-making process. The data available through Compass can help a community gain a more in-depth understanding of an issue and lead to an improved quality of life.
Minnesota Compass is a social indicators project that measures progress in the seven regions, 87 counties and larger cities that make up Minnesota. Compass tracks trends in topic areas such as education, economy and workforce, health, housing, public safety, and a host of others. Compass provides everyone in Minnesota – policymakers, business and community leaders, and concerned individuals who live and work here – with a common foundation to identify, understand and act on community issues that affect communities. Originally a tool that provided data only about the Twin Cities metro area, in 2010 the Foundation supported the expansion of Compass to cover the state.
Development of North Dakota Compass is continuing throughout 2012. North Dakota State University is partnering with the St. Paul, MN-based Wilder Foundation (which developed Minnesota Compass) to gather the data and make it accessible. Read the recent press release about how the work is progressing.
In South Dakota, a partnership of the Black Hills Community Foundation and public libraries is working with South Dakota State University to expand the scope of the Black Hills Knowledge Network to provide local data for South Dakota communities. Read the press release about how the work is progressing.
Start your exploration at MNCompass.org or watch the development of similar sites in North Dakota and South Dakota...