Annie E. Casey Foundation Making Connections
The Making Connections Survey is a set of longitudinal data collection activities conducted over a ten year period, in ten US cities at two points in time, and in seven of the ten cities at three points in time. The Making Connections survey is designed to measure how neighborhood change affects the well-being of children and families. It is part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections initiative, which is a collaboration of local organizations and residents that seeks to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children by strengthening their families, improving their neighborhoods, and raising the quality of local services. This initiative includes a diverse set of places in terms of race, ethnicity, immigrant populations, physical and economic conditions, yet all are disadvantaged relative to their surrounding metropolitan areas.
The Making Connections Survey addresses topics of great interest to researchers in the fields of economics, psychology, public health, public policy, social work, and sociology. These topics include mobility, social capital and networks, neighborhood processes, resident perceptions and participation, economic hardship, and the availability and utilization of services and resources, and child and adolescent well-being.
The survey was conducted in Denver, Des Moines, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Seattle (White Center), Hartford, Milwaukee, Oakland, Providence, and Louisville. The baseline survey was fielded in each of the ten Making Connections neighborhoods, and in each county that contained each Making Connections neighborhood. The Wave 2 survey was fielded in the neighborhoods only. Baseline data were gathered between 2002 and 2004. Wave 2 was completed between 2005 and 2007 in the same ten sites. The Wave 3 cycle, scheduled between 2008 and 2011, is conducted in seven of the ten sites, five of the wave 3 sites have been completed, one is currently underway, and the last will be completed in the second quarter of 2011.
The research using the survey data should offer valuable guidance, not only for community development practitioners and neighborhood groups in the field, but also for state and federal officials whose job it is to define and develop guidelines about best practices for community policy.
Enclave Manager
Shaswat Sapkota (sapkota-shaswat@norc.org)
Contact Producer
Cindy Guy (cguy@aecf.org)