Collaborative Analytics was initiated by the BASSC Research, Planning, and Evaluation (RPE) policy group in 2022 with the intent of bringing together the practice expertise of county human service agencies and the facilitation and research resources of BASSC and the Mack Center to:
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Work together on important issues to improve agency practice
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Support counties in their own analytic and data use capacity to inform practice
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Use research expertise to understand cross-agency systemic issues
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Share findings among counties and with a wider audience
How It Works:
Agency staff members identify projects for which a collaborative analytic approach would be beneficial for participating counties. Projects may be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods depending on the research questions.
For any given project, counties can choose to participate by sharing data with UC Berkeley for cross-site analyses and/or by conducting internal analyses with support from all Collaborative Analytics participants. Each county brings its own expertise, ranging from deep data system knowledge, analytical methods, or program implementation. Counties that choose not to participate in any given project are still invited to join project meetings and learn from project findings.
Current Project: “Trends in Public Benefits Caseloads, 2024-2027”
This project was initiated to better understand trends in enrollments and disenrollments for public benefits administered by county human service agencies (CalWorks, CalFresh, Medi-Cal) using a shared methodological approach.