Community Issues Management (CIM): A Web-based System for Community Health

Many organizations make data accessible and downloadable through web-based warehouses. Paradoxically, these conventionally compiled and accessed data management systems constrain most organizations' capacity to make decisions and analyze policy. Whereas organizations increasingly rely on data and geographic information technologies to examine the place-based impacts of public policies, they lack the time, expertise or technological infrastructure to make the best use of these often poorly designed resources for decision-making. Community Issues Management (CIM) is a national web-based system designed for organizations to frame, manage and take action on complex issues. CIM is employed as a tool for community engagement to foster participation in transparent, data-informed and collaborative decision making. CIM provides a process for framing issues, dynamic integration of community-level GIS data with a wealth of GIS layers already in CIM, and mapping and reporting tools specially focused for organizations to better understand how issues impact people and place. Data and related content (e.g., files, images, and videos) are organized around specific issues that organizations have identified for their communities. CIM makes public data publically accessible in a meaningful context for decision support. Informed community decision-making is realized through efforts to go beyond the data and tell better stories with CIM's unique tools and facilitation support. Stories include identifying gaps and overlap in service provision, health inequities, and emergency preparedness. Two CIM Partner Organizations are highlighted in this presentation to illustrate community health-related issues in their regions. Stories derived using CIM's tools enable policy makers to better align resources with needs.