Stepping into 2024 with a Commitment to Informed Action Buoyed by Hope
Musings of the Month
Taking Informed Action Buoyed by Hope to Co-Create a Future We Want
“Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there's a big disappointment, we don't know if that's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don't know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know.”
- Pema Chödrön,
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been”
Team data2insight is excited to be sharing our newsletter with you for the second year! We hope you found some delight and rest in the last week of 2023 and are ready to transition to the new beginning that is 2024. Last year we were heartened by our strong readership and what we heard from our readers. Keeping you all in mind and what is coming up in the year ahead, this is our plan for 2024:
Focus on taking informed action buoyed by hope to co-create a future we want
Provide resources for you to ensure that you are receiving credible, reliable and timely information
Share the newsletter every other month (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov)
Stay connected with and support each other to act out of hope and love (not fear)
We hope our newsletter will connect you with useful resources, support, and encouragement to advance equity and democracy, reduce disparities, and say no to fascism in your corner of the world. We always love hearing from you, so if you see stories of people taking morally courageous action or resources which will help us do the same, please share!
Know that behind this newsletter is a multicultural, multiracial, multidisciplinary team of five big-hearted people - the data2insight team - who are grateful for the opportunity to connect with you in this way!
January Resource Highlight
SIFTing Through Information
One key to sanity in 2024 is being able to effectively sift through all the information at your fingertips to get answers to the questions you care about. Then you can make decisions and take action that align with your values. Thankfully, there is a simple set of skills and habits that you can develop to dramatically reduce the misinformation you spread or act upon.
Dr. Michael Caulfield, The Center for an Informed Public research scientist and co-author of Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online has organized them into a model called SIFT: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.
Data2insight founder, Veronica S. Smith, recently used SIFT to discover a website called preservedemocracy.com was not what she thought it was.
So, Veronica was talking with the team about this newsletter and what we wanted to focus on for 2024. She mentioned that acting in ways that would preserve democracy was on the top of her new year to-do list. As she shared this with the team, she typed “preserve democracy” into the DuckDuckGo search engine. Then she clicked on the first item at the top of the list, which was the preservedemocracy.com link. The home page read “In order to preserve our democracy, elections must be easy to understand and accessible to all Americans.” She was thinking, “Wow, another group is thinking along the same lines as I am.This will be so great to share in the newsletter.” Then, she …
…STOPPED: Saved the tab and later clicked around to learn more.
INVESTIGATED THE SOURCE: She went to the “about” page and this is what she found:
No names or pictures of individuals
No origin story
The address of the organization is in Anchorage, Alaska
This claim: “Promote Election Integrity. We are mobilizing and empowering voters and policy-makers to support election integrity by educating and equipping them with real data, case studies, and voter perspectives.”
On other tabs she saw that the group was working against rank choice voting across the United States and that supporters were only mentioned by first name and initial of their last name.
FIND BETTER COVERAGE: Veronica was not able to find any other coverage about this effort. Nothing on Wikipedia.
TRACE CLAIMS, QUOTES, and MEDIA TO THE ORIGINAL CONTEXT: There were no links on the website that could be traced back. Only the email address of a contact person. Without any information about the person behind that email, that seemed like a dead end.
So Veronica added an additional step to the SIFT process:
PERSONAL FACT CHECKING: Since she is from Alaska, she texted a friend and colleague who happens to serve in the Alaska legislature and asked what they knew about this group. This is what she got back: “This is led by an alt-right woman who was a failed US Senate candidate who is seeking to overturn ranked choice voting in our state. You can learn more here.”
This practice resulted in us featuring this SIFT + P story instead of the website that started this discussion.
Our team hopes you have many similar experiences over the coming weeks as you SIFT through all the information coming your way. For more quick tips and tricks, check out the recent NPR Soundside podcast How to sort fact from fiction which features Dr. Caulfield sharing other helpful tips and tricks from his book about how to transform data into knowledge, rather than noise.
Book Spotlight
Brandon Stanton's new book, Humans, shows us the world one intimate personal story at a time, which also illustrates the universal themes of being human.
Brandon Stanton created Humans of New York (HONY) in 2010. What began as a photographic census of life in New York City, soon evolved into a storytelling phenomenon. A global audience of millions began following HONY daily. Over the next several years, Stanton broadened his lens to include people from across the world.
Traveling to more than forty countries, he conducted interviews across continents, borders, and language barriers. Humans is the definitive catalog of these travels. The faces and locations will vary from page to page, but the stories will feel deeply familiar. Told with candor and intimacy, Humans will resonate with readers across the globe - providing a portrait of our shared experience.
#SelfCareCorner
Blessing the Threshold
As you prepare yourself for the strange shift that begins as we step out onto the threshold of a new year, may you receive this blessing of love, of hope, of goodness, of welcome written by Jan Richardson.
While you have been
making your way here,
this blessing has been
gathering itself,
making ready,
biding its time,
praying.
This blessing has been
polishing the door,
oiling the hinges,
sweeping the steps,
lighting candles
in the windows.
This blessing has been
setting the table
as it hums a tune
from an old song
it knows,
something about
a spiraling road
and bread
and grace.
All this time
it has kept an eye
on the horizon,
watching,
keeping vigil,
hardly aware of how
it was leaning itself
in your direction.
And now that
you are here,
this blessing
can hardly believe
its good fortune
that you have finally arrived,
that it can drop everything
at last
to fling its arms wide
to you, crying
welcome,
welcome,
welcome.
This blessing
has been waiting for you
for a long time.
What’s new @data2insight?
Finishing Strong
In partnership with Makari Consulting, our team just completed a 14-month DEI Strategic Planning engagement with King County Superior Court. We were inspired by how the administrative leadership and cross-departmental DEI Strategy Team came together to co-create a plan that has trust building at its core.
In partnership with Ascending Edge Evaluation, our team is in the final year of a 5-year developmental evaluation study for a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) program called Future Rivers, focused on multicultural team science and transdisciplinary freshwater science.
New Beginnings
Our team is starting a 2-year developmental evaluation study with a diverse group of women scientists and engineers from Rochester Institute of Technology, Washington State University, Gonzaga University, University of Montana, and University of Idaho to co-create a robust, supportive Women in Science and Engineering Network (WiSEN) with marginalized women in science and engineering undergraduate students across the universities that will be a foundation for expanding co-mentoring, education, and career advancement support for women in STEM across the United States.
Jimena Castria is on the verge of completing her certification in Data Visualization from NYU School of Continuing Education. She is excited to be a member of the Data Visualization Society, where collaboration between industry leaders drives efforts to foster a more inclusive field. As a reporting lead and editorial designer for technical projects, Jimena remains a dedicated advocate for the equitable and meaningful use of data. With dynamic opportunities on the horizon, she eagerly anticipates the impactful journey that 2024 has ahead.
Jennifer Rosales completed the Project Management Institute Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Course last and is sitting for the PMP exam this quarter. Shine Jenn!
Frieda Smith began serving on the Doorways Board of Directors in October 2023. Doorways is an agency in St. Louis, MO that serves individuals and families who are impacted by HIV/AIDS. Their Mission reads: Founded in 1988, DOORWAYS is an interfaith non-profit organization, which provides housing and related supportive services to improve the quality of life and health outcomes for people affected by HIV/AIDS.
Veronica Smith is continuing equity leadership coaching with King County Metro and is thrilled to be working on the 2024 Washington State LGBTQ+ survey study sponsored by the state's LGBTQ Commission with equitable evaluation firm Sankofa Consulting and Washington State University. Stay tuned for more on this energizing and uplifting work.
