Turning Data into Insight: Breaking down the MN Monthly Dashboard
In this installment of Turning HMIS Data Into Insight, we’ll use two ICA resources – the new MN Monthly Dashboard and the Breaking Down a Dataset Guide – to ask and answer some questions about how our communities are making progress toward ending homelessness.
The Breaking Down a Dataset Guide applies the six steps of learning to interpreting a dataset. Below, we go further to apply the steps specifically to the new MN Monthly Dashboard, which shows monthly snapshots of four system performance measures: Measure 3 (total clients served), Measure 2 (returns to homelessness from exits to permanent housing), Measure 5 (persons newly experiencing homelessness), and Measure 7 (exits to permanent housing).
Recall: Can you find, or make good guesses about, the source of the information that appears? Can you tell how the calculations work? Hint – check the fine print!
Understand: What kind of information might be useful to see here that’s missing? Is your favorite System Performance Measure included? Is there anything that stands out to you – perhaps when looking at trends over time?
Apply: Compare the persons newly homeless, persons returning to homeless, and persons exiting to permanent housing. Compare those numbers for your CoC to the state as a whole. What kind of questions do those comparison bring up for you?
Analyze: What statements can you make with the available data on the dashboard? Can you make a statement about your CoC’s month-to-month trends?
Evaluate: Can you connect that statement to an opinion or hypothesis about what your CoC needs? About what it’s doing well, or might need to change? How does HMIS data quality affect the statements or hypotheses you can make?
Create: Think about the other data you might need to see to test your hypothesis, or the action steps it would take to try something new in your community. Could you explore the dashboard further in your Data committee?
Contact the Helpdesk to let us know your feedback about the new dashboard, or to tell us what you came up with in this exercise! You can use these steps to explore all the great resources on the Minnesota Dashboards page of the HMIS MN website.