"But what exactly does CIAC do?"

Over the past year, UMSL’S Community Innovation and Action Center has grown significantly.

Our staff expanded from 6 in 2023 to 16 staff today (as well as  four amazing students!) . In collaboration with our partners , we advanced our evaluation and data work with community health workers in St. Louis City and County ; launched outreach and training efforts for a statewide early childhood initiative ; conducted statewide financial analysis with the national Children’s Funding Project; continued our leadership for the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs ; built out a local Data for Social Impact community of practice; engaged North County youth with the St. Louis Zoo; worked closely with the St. Louis Regional Response Team  and the  St. Louis Regional Health Commission to implement their new strategic priorities; and served as the data backbone for the St. Louis Community Information Exchange .

And that’s not even half of our active projects!

This period of growth led us to reflect on how we can better support our community in understanding what we do and how you can work with us. A lot has changed since CIAC was founded in 2018, and after much internal discussion (and wordsmithing ), we are excited to share CIAC’s Focus Areas below.

Strategy

Co-designing actionable plans that align with community goals and advance equity . CIAC can support your Strategy needs through:

• Developing your strategic plan
• Launching and expanding a community coalition
• Building data and learning systems across partners

Community Engagement

Centering the perspectives and priorities of those most impacted to understand context and pursue more equitable outcomes. CIAC can support your Community Engage ment needs through:

• Conducting/ analyzing focus groups and interviews to answer critical questions and understand community priorities
• Recruiting diverse participants for new programs and initiatives
• Translating data and research findings for community accessibility and action

Data

Developing transparent, action-oriented infrastructure and analysis. CIAC can support your Data needs through:

• Developing strategies for how data can best be used for community impact
• Expanding data infrastructure to support data sharing and collaboration
• Building data analysis and visualization tools for community use

Evaluation and Research

Answering questions that matter by centering community expertise and lived experience. CIAC can support your Evaluation and Research needs through:

• Planning and conducting process and impact evaluations of programs, coalitions, and systems
• Conducting applied research projects (like needs assessments, social network analysis, concept mapping)
• Matchmaking between community priorities and university research expertise

Learning

Strengthening collective capacity to address complex issues through collaborative training and skill-building. CIAC can support your Learning needs through:

• Implementing collaborative training and skill-building programs
• Developing experiential learning approaches for key sectors and leaders
• Pairing students and fellows with community-based projects/ priorities