Citizens’ Committee for Children Launches Keeping Track Online

Released April 17, 2013

Contact: Stephanie Gendell, sgendell@cccnewyork.org, 212-673-1800 ext. 17

           Phoebe Plagens, pplagens@cccnewyork.org, 212-673-1800 ext. 19

Citizens’ Committee for Children Launches Keeping Track Online

Enhanced online tool helps New Yorkers stay up-to-date on the most comprehensive central resource of data available on the well-being of children

April 17, 2013 – Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC) launched today a new, enhanced online platform for the organization’s Keeping Track of New York City’s Children database. The web tool allows users to create customized maps and tables using more than 100 measures of child well-being in New York City. The new Keeping Track Online was designed to provide user-friendly tools to help identify the needs of New York City’s nearly 2 million children and advocate on their behalf.

“Keeping Track Online provides us with the facts needed to champion solutions to the challenges faced by New York City’s children and families,” said Jennifer March-Joly, CCC’s Executive Director. “Our new online tool helps us make sure that we are all making well-informed budget and policy decisions on behalf of our city’s youngest and most vulnerable.“

Keeping Track Online is designed to be a resource for all New Yorkers – elected officials, academics, policy makers, foundations, advocates and media – to influence budget advocacy, inform policy positions, and raise the public dialogue around the needs of the city’s children. As New York City prepares for the upcoming Mayoral election and other races across the city Keeping Track Online is the go-to resource for information on where priorities must be set to ensure that all children have access to the supports and services needed to thrive.

“In Keeping Track, we compile data from a variety of government sources into one place,” said Courtney Wolf, CCC’s Senior Policy Associate for Research and Data Analysis. “With this new online tool, we’re making our data even more accessible; users can easily explore the status of children in New York City through interactive maps and tables, to make geographic comparisons, view rankings and trends, and save and share information.”

In February, CCC released the tenth print edition of Keeping Track of New York City’s Children, which highlighted the significant impact that the economic downturn has had on New York City’s children and families, as well as the great disparities that exist across the city, particularly in communities where children’s needs are the greatest.  Keeping Track 2013 data also illustrated improvements in child well-being across numerous areas such as child health, child welfare and juvenile justice.  With the new Keeping Track Online, users can access the Keeping Track 2013 data in a variety of different formats, such as maps, tables, and charts.

“CCC has been collecting and compiling data on the well-being of New York City’s children in our Keeping Track publication for 20 years,” said Chris Stern Hyman, CCC’s board chairman. “We all have a role to play in speaking out on behalf of our city’s children. Keeping Track Online takes advantage of the best technology available to help us do so.”

Visit http://data.cccnewyork.org/ to begin using Keeping Track Online today.

To receive a copy of the Keeping Track 2013 databook, please contact Phoebe Plagens at pplagens@cccnewyork.org with address information.

About CCC

Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York educates and mobilizes New Yorkers to make the city a better place for children. Since 1944, our advocacy has combined public policy research and data analysis with citizen action. We cast light on the issues, educate the public, engage allies, and identify and promote practical solutions to ensure that every New York City child is healthy, housed, educated and safe. For more information on CCC, visit our web site at www.cccnewyork.org. Stay up to date on the latest news and information regarding the well-being of New York City’s children by following us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/cccnewyork) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/CCCNewYork).

About Keeping Track

Keeping Track brings together hundreds of indicators from a variety of sources into the most comprehensive centralized database tracking the well-being of New York City’s children. By documenting changes over time, across race and ethnic communities and across ages, the database creates a picture of how children, from infancy to adolescence, are faring citywide, in each borough, and in each of the city’s 59 community districts. Keeping Track includes community risk rankings, which help to identify neighborhoods in which children are likely to face multiple risks to their well-being. Keeping Track also compares child well-being in New York City to other large cities, to New York State, and to the nation as a whole.