SMART Tool: Systematic Measurement, Analysis, Reporting, and Tracking of the Social Determinants of Health in NYC Neighborhoods
January 2021
As part of the management and evaluation of the NYC Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) asked JohnJayREC and other contractors to propose a data tool that would allow City officials to monitor neighborhood safety and resident well-being across New York City. The SMART Tool was never implemented by the City, but it would have provided a mechanism to monitor social conditions in neighborhoods as small as three to six U.S. Census block groups. (Block groups are the second smallest U.S. Census geographic units in terms of size and population.) Using block group boundaries, the SMART Tool would have incorporated varying metrics routinely used by federal agencies while keeping a focus on small, intuitive neighborhood boundaries.
While SMART included measures of public safety, it did not focus exclusively on crime and public safety. It was designed to assemble an assortment of indicators about neighborhood well-being and the social determinants of health. SMART would have included citizen perceptions of social cohesion, public health, resident willingness to engage with local government, collective efficacy (resident actions to support communities), and resident awareness and use of social services and supports.
Development of the SMART Tool involved four components: 1) survey data; 2) administrative data; 3) social data; and 4) measures of citizen voice, participation, and action. Indicators would be disseminated through a data visualization platform as designed by an external vendor.
SMART Tool: Proposed Concept
Survey Component
The best way to measure community health and safety, of course, is to ask people directly using robust survey methods. As part of SMART, researchers designed a survey to measure various indicators among panels of New York City residents. JohnJayREC received permission from MOCJ to negotiate a subcontract with NORC at the University of Chicago to administer surveys to 15 neighborhood panels. Residents were surveyed three times during the SMART pilot. Surveys, of course, can be expensive. The survey design balanced cost with the representativeness of the samples and the statistical validity of the findings expected to result.
Administrative Data
Administrative data from a wide range of sources were assembled to assess their utility and possible association with survey measures. Administrative data included information from organizations in the law enforcement sector, healthcare, education, social services, and relevant databases from businesses and commercial entities. The goal of SMART was to create stand-alone measures of community well-being and to draw on readily available administrative data whenever possible. Researchers needed to maximize the use of administrative data for generating relevant measures to anticipate some future time when the collection of survey data would be interrupted.
Social Data
Data from various social platforms (Twitter, Google, etc.) were explored for their potential to fashion rigorous estimates of resident perceptions and experiences across New York City. Researchers from Columbia University’s SAFELab examined precursors and predictors of community well-being and safety as they appear in social media data from the City at large.
Community Perception and Values
Researchers from the National Innovation Service were invited to collaborate in the SMART project to engage with community residents using a participatory action research framework. Through guided discussion and group process, researchers would be amplifying the voices of community residents to identify community priorities regarding public health, public safety, and resident well-being as well as recommended plans for measuring those priorities.
Community and Expert Consultation
All researchers and partners involved in SMART were expected to consult with public officials and leading community members during the design and development of the pilot project. The effort began by assembling an expert advisory group in public policy, computational science, urban design, and social planning. At each stage of the project, researchers would have reviewed strategies and preliminary findings with leaders from city agencies, the nonprofit sector, and residents of the communities where the SMART Tool would be piloted.