Often when someone mentions data, thoughts of charts and tables filled with numbers enter our minds. These numbers guide the work being done and often serve as indicators for possible areas of concern or areas of strength. However, the numbers do not serve as true representations of the individuals they are intended to speak for. It is through the use of qualitative data that we are able to fill in the gaps and truly understand what the numbers are saying. It is crucial to recognize the importance of qualitative data and train CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement) staff to incorporate qualitative data analysis into their CQI framework. Many shy away from working with qualitative data as it is often not as clean nor as simple to work with as quantitative data.
Entry into foster care, adoptions, placements, demographics, each of these are more easily measured through quantitative analysis, but without the voices of those children that entered foster care or the experiences of resource families or social workers, we lose half of the story. More than that, we lose out on the insight of those who are directly engaged in the circumstances we are seeking to understand. Currently the public health sector is conducting research using what is known as ‘participatory implementation science’. This means public health officials are leveraging the input of those impacted by the policies they want to implement or the changes they want to make to better inform their decision making. These same strategies can be utilized in the child welfare system where much of the data involved is qualitative in nature.
Lived experience is equal to expertise. It is vital to understand that each person is an expert in their own situation and their experiences should be taken with serious consideration, and as you listen to the experiences of more and more people, patterns begin to emerge. The patterns let you know what numbers you should be looking for and the numbers let you know whose experiences you should be listening to and they soon begin to serve as an interconnected CQI ecosystem, with each component of the system working in complement and in conjunction with the other.
Adrian Gomez, Cultural Responsiveness Academy (CRA) Learning and Curriculum Coordinator
