Who maintains this map tool?
Casey Family Programs maintains this tool, in partnership with Community Attributes, Inc. Casey Family Programs is the nation’s largest operating foundation focused on safely reducing the need for foster care in the United States. Community Attributes helps clients access, contextualize, and visualize data to create impactful community and economic development strategies.
How can I use the information in the Community Opportunity Map?
This information can be used for strategic planning around efforts to improve child and family well-being, for assessing the strengths and needs of communities, for organizing and calls to action, for grant writing, or for communicating with policymakers, funders, and others. You’ll find additional suggestions here. You may also review our resource library to find out how others have used the information from the Community Opportunity Map to influence change and support the well-being of children, families, and the communities where they live.
If you would like support from us in using the tool, we would love to hear from you. Please complete our feedback form under the Feedback option in this menu.
Who should I contact for support in using this tool?
Please check out the tutorial videos on the landing page. If you experience problems using the map or would like support in using the map, please reach out to us using our feedback form under the Feedback option in this menu.
How were the community indicators selected?
When the map was developed in 2018, a team of researchers and policy/practice experts reviewed the literature on child maltreatment, the child protection system, and child and family well-being. We selected indicators associated with safe children and strong families that were publicly available at the neighborhood-level across the U.S. The map was informed by the research evidence of the community factors correlated with child maltreatment and child protective services involvement, as well as a healthy community framework developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Every year since its development, our team reviews indicators and feedback to adjust the tool. Changes in indicators, navigation, and documentation are based largely on feedback from users of the tool.
For more information on the literature and evidence base related to each indicator, please see the information sheet under the About link on the left pane.
How often are the data sources refreshed?
The data sources are refreshed on an annual basis and align with updates from the various data sources. The American Community Survey (ACS), the primary data source, is conducted every year by the U.S. Census Bureau and includes information on social, economic, housing, demographic, and other population characteristics. We use the ACS 5-year estimates because they tend to be more reliable (due to more survey responses) and they provide data for smaller geographies, like census tracts and block groups.
What data sources are used, and where can I find more information about the indicators?
Clicking on the “i” icon near an indicator will open a pane that shows more information about each indicator. You may also review our technical documentation under the About link on the left pane.
How do I share, download, or print the data?
Once you've searched and selected an area, you can click on the Share, Download, or Print buttons on the left pane. "Share" will create a share link of your current view of the map that you can send to someone. "Print" will open a menu to print the map and indicators into a pdf document. "Download" will export all the underlying data indicators into an Excel document where you could do additional analysis or create your own charts.
How does the geographic search work?
The U.S. Census Bureau divides the U.S. into small areas called census blocks, block groups, and census tracts. A census block (commonly an ordinary city block) is the smallest unit in the census, an area bounded by visible features, such as streets or railroad tracks, or by invisible boundaries, such as city limits; a block group is a collection of census blocks and the smallest unit for which the data is released to the public. Census tracts are collections of a few block groups; they typically have between 1,000 and 8,000 inhabitants and are stable over time.
These census tracts and block groups (and, for a few indicators, school districts) are the building blocks of the map. When you search for a geographic area, the map will “snap” to the small census areas that make up the geography you've selected. All the small building blocks whose center is inside the larger area you’re searching for will be combined in the data displayed on the map.
Because of this search method, searches by ZIP code, custom search, federally recognized tribal lands, and Puerto Rico municipios data provide close, but not exact, estimates.
Where can I find additional community data?
There are many places you can find additional data about communities across the United States, but here are a few national resources to consider:
- The U.S. Census Bureau provides information on social, economic, housing, demographic, and other population characteristics.
- The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® is a premier source of data on children, youth, and families.
- The Child Opportunity Index (COI) measures and maps the quality of resources and conditions that matter for children's healthy development in the neighborhoods where they live.
- The Latino Data Hub is a reliable source of information about important issues facing Latinos.
You may also consider looking at publicly available state or local data from police departments, school districts, city planning departments, election boards, hospital associations, departments of public health, chambers of commerce, and others.
Why is there no data about the child welfare system?
Unfortunately, the national public data about the child welfare system only shows the largest counties in the U.S. and is not available at a smaller level of geography than county. Many child protection agencies, however, have combined their own internal child protective services data with this map tool. If you’d like more information on that, please reach out to us through your Casey Family Programs strategic consultant, or through our feedback form under the Feedback option in this menu.
Can I add more data and indicators to the Community Opportunity Map?
Unfortunately, no — though we would love to hear your recommendations through our feedback form, as we regularly add new indicators. In some instances, users have downloaded the data from the Community Opportunity Map and added their own data using mapping software like Tableau or ArcGIS. For example, users have added rates of child protective services involvement by ZIP code or community assets like community centers, faith-based organizations, and libraries. Several jurisdictions have created their own versions of this tool, including Nebraska, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.
What if my search has no results?
Start by checking what you typed into the search bar for typos. Then, the search function of the Community Opportunity Map needs at least four letters typed into the search bar before a list of possible matches will appear for cities and counties. If you are searching for a city or county in the United States that is spelled using only three letters, simply enter a comma following the city name, and the search function will show a list of matches.
When searching for cities using the search bar, be sure that you select the city from the state you’re looking for. The names of many cities in the United States, including major cities, exist in multiple states. For example, Dallas is a city in Texas, Georgia, and Oregon, as well as a town in North Carolina and South Dakota and a village in Wisconsin.
Why does some data say “N/A”?
This means that the indicator was not able to be calculated for the area you selected. This may mean that the data was not collected in that state or city. Alternatively, this may mean that the American Community Survey did not have reliable data for that indicator for the selected area.
What if the information and statistics do not seem correct?
Minor variations may exist across data sources or across geographies. For example, ZIP code estimates represent an approximation of postal ZIP codes, as the COM uses census block group information for those block groups whose center lies within a ZIP code to approximate ZIP code estimates. These estimates will differ slightly from ZIP code tabulation areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Further, small area estimates tend to have greater margins of error, which is important to consider when assessing the reliability of any estimates displayed by the COM. If estimates seem wrong or inconsistent with information from the American Community Survey or other data sources, please let us know through our feedback form.
Does the map provide information for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or other territories?
The map provides information for Puerto Rico, using the Puerto Rico Community Survey, which is similar to the American Community Survey.
The map does not provide information for any other territories. Information collected on American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands is collected every 10 years by the Decennial Census of the Island Areas, as well as every five years by the Economic Census of the Island Areas. Because this data does not align with the estimates from the American Community Survey, both in terms of recency and frequency of data collection, they are not shown in the COM. Information on these island areas can be accessed through the U.S. Census Bureau’s website.
How does the Community Opportunity Map provide estimates for the land areas of federally recognized tribal nations?
The search function for tribal areas uses the boundaries of "Land Area Representations" from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), including all federally recognized tribal nations with sovereign land areas. Our team matched the land areas from the BIA with their directory of tribal leadership. The data presented primarily uses the American Community Survey, which collects information on block groups and census tracts in American Indian areas and provides estimates for these areas. Similar to ZIP code or custom searches, when you search for a land area of a federally recognized tribal nation, the map will “snap” to the small census areas that make up the geography you've selected. All the small building blocks whose center is inside the larger area you’re searching for will be combined in the data displayed on the map. Because of this search method, the map provides close, but not exact, estimates for these areas. As mentioned earlier, because of the way this map is constructed with census tracts and block groups, we cannot offer data for federally recognized tribal nations without sovereign land areas.
How should I cite this tool?
We recommend you cite this tool with the following: Casey Family Programs (YEAR). Community Opportunity Map. Retrieved [DATE ACCESSED] from https://www.casey.org/community-opportunity-map/.
