On Friday November 14, the KM Unit at York University co-hosted a York Community Data Sharing Symposium, with the objective of supporting community capacity-building in utilizing data. The Symposium also introduced the York Children’s Services Data Station, a web-based portal which houses child-relevant data to help inform service-based decision-making.
75 attendees participated in the day-long event that was broadcast live across three separate sites (Georgina Trade Training Inc., Bill Crothers S.S. in Markham and York University). Diane Patychuk from Ottawa shared her experiences using data in program development in a spirited keynote opening. There were two panels in the morning, with practitioners and researchers sharing their experiences using data to inform their practice. In the afternoon there was an opportunity for participants to demo the Children’s Data Station. And the day closed with a plenary session that paved the way for subsequent symposia to support the ongoing challenges of capacity building in data utilization.
The success of this event was the strong leadership demonstrated by several community agencies in York Region in conceptualizing and delivering on this initiative. The complete symposium will be made available for viewing on the ResearchImpact website early in 2009.