Heidi Grunwald's blog | BeHeardPhilly

To Our BeHeardPhilly Community

Recall for a moment that BeHeardPhilly is owned and operated by the Institute for Survey Research (ISR), at Temple University. ISR is 53 years old and was started in 1967 during times of social and political unrest in US history. The Vietnam War and the protests that followed, a Segregationist sworn in as Governor of Georgia, the Buffalo Race Riot, the Plainfield Riots in New Jersey, the 12st Street Riot, one of the worst riots in US history where 43 were killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned in Detroit. 1967 also saw Thurgood Marshall seated as the first African American Supreme Court Justice, and Loving v. Virginia where the US Supreme Court declares all US state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional. Our commitment then was in understanding US social systems and individual beliefs and behaviors and the scientific pursuit of all voices being represented.

So here we are 53 years later, much has changed, and much hasn't. Over the last week we've mourned with so many, the loss of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others at the hands of racial injustice. We remain steadfast in our commitment that Black Lives Matter every day. We are doubling down on our commitment to listen and to allow all voices to be heard. We will continue in our pursuit to engage communities of color and all Philadelphians to tackle difficult questions and dialogues that lead to a better understanding of systemic racism and its long-term effects on the health, justice, and the social capital of our communities. We thank you for being a member of BeHeardPhilly and hope you will continue to engage on issues that matter to you and can affect public policy right here at home in Philadelphia.

Stay safe, be vigilant, and be kind.

I am so excited about this invitation to speak in the great Rocky Mountain state at the end of June. Besides being a mountain biker I love that the Colorado Public Health community is so entrepreneurial. I’ve been invited to speak at the Culture of Data conference hosted by the Colorado Public Health Association. The theme of this year’s meeting is Engaging Communities to Drive Health Equity. The reason I think this opportunity is so cool is that this conference is about connecting community with data, particularly the underserved and racial ethnic/minority communities that experience inequities. I share below just ONE goal of the conference that so closely aligns with the mission of BeHeardPhilly – to develop and cultivate relationships and partnerships between communities and researchers –

To develop and cultivate relationships and partnerships between communities and researchers seeking to achieve health equity.

Philadelphia, like Denver has not achieved health equity for all of its residents, few US urban centers have. There are many reasons under the social determinants of health umbrella as to why we have not moved the health equity needle enough – but one very important reason that survey researchers know about but are at a loss to solve, is the mistrust of government and authority by under-resourced community members. They have been left behind for so long, why now? All survey researchers know that response rates across all communities have been plummeting. Some of the reasons we like to cite include disappearance of landlines, cell-phone portability, aggressive and invasive robo-dialers, and the diminishing sense of privacy in our lives. Top that with general mistrust and you have a recipe for disaster in terms of collecting data from and using data to improve under-resourced communities. Before we launched BeHeardPhilly a few of us sat around a table asking ourselves, why do we keep reinventing the wheel at the same price every time we collect data in our own city? What can we do to stop this from happening generally, but also, how do we connect with our Philadelphia residents in such a way that they see the value in taking surveys, in speaking up, in having their voices heard on important issues that matter to them? How do we begin to establish a level of trust and connection to our own communities?

In November of 2014 we set out to test the feasibility of building the country’s first municipal opt-in panel. We decided to build an opt-in panel because we wanted to start from a place of building trust and allowing all residents the opportunity to have their voices heard. How could we go to communities and say – only you, you, and you can be included in this effort, that feels EXclusive and not INclusive and feels as if you’ve just said, we only value a few of your voices.

To make a long story short, two and a half years later, we have over 8000 Philadelphia residents enrolled in our BeHeardPhilly panel representing every zip code in the city. Now we have a long way to go to reach a representative group that would include all valued residents of Philadelphia, that include our Spanish speaking, Asian, Immigrant and all communities of color. Philadelphia is a beautiful tapestry and those of us who live here value that vibrant diversity. At BeHeardPhilly, we want to encourage all communities to participate, to join, and to make their voices heard by taking surveys. Additionally we want to improve the science of using opt-in panels. We can collect a probability-based sample any old day at any old time -and don’t get me wrong, there continues to be a time and place for gold standard science. Yes, they are very expensive ($100K+ in a city like Philadelphia) which keeps .edu, .org and .gov institutions from affording them – which lessens the likelihood that municipal governments and social advocacy organizations can collect and use data to inform practice and policy. I heard a fellow entrepreneur use this phrase recently “Are we comfortable”? “No” – keep working. “Are we comfortable yet?” “Yes” – time to move on. At Temple’s Institute for Survey Research we value all aspects of the survey research industry, including the traditional probability-based samples and qualitative richness of focus groups and interviews that have historically driven our local, state and federal estimates about the population. But as they say, times are a changin’ – and if you don’t change with them, you get left behind.

You are here

Black Lives Matter Statement

June

April

March

May

March

January

June, 2020

Author: Heidi Grunwald

BeHeardPhilly to Attend Culture of Data Conference in Colorado

June

April

March

May

March

January

March, 2017

Author: Heidi Grunwald

BeHeardPhilly℠