Case study: Teens build data skills at the Providence Public Library
This case study was developed by the Data for Good project team to share the range of activities and approaches taken by libraries that implemented a Data for Good program.
About the community and the library
The Providence Public Library (PPL), located in downtown Providence, is a one-site system that serves the approximately 179,0001 city residents as well as those living across the state. PPL staff and leadership foster an innovative and risk-taking mindset through an openness to trying new things and being willing to make mistakes in order to determine what works best for the local community. The Data for Good (D4G) initiative started at PPL and was born from what was learned through other initiatives for and with adults and teens.
How did Teen Data for Good come to be?
The predecessor to Data for Good was Data Navigators, a program offered to the Providence-based Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College (RINI). A high school, RINI focuses on “educating the next generation of nurses.2” Data Navigators was offered to seniors working on their final senior project. RINI was looking for help in building student research and data analytics skills, and PPL had already been thinking about a data analytics initiative for teens. While the Data Navigators program with RINI was not 100% successful, library staff analyzed what they learned and were able to transform Data Navigators into the teen D4G program.
Where does the "For Good" come in?
The Data for Good Program is an engine for social good, pairing local teens with data science skills with nonprofit organizations that lack staff expertise or capacity. The program engages youth with nonprofit clients, some we have worked with in the past include Girls on the Run, 4-H, and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Fish and Wildlife Division. HR professionals from Verizon and financial experts from Financial Literacy Youth Initiative (FLY) have provided workshops on resumes and cover letters and financial literacy.
Participants, working in teams, learn basic and intermediate Microsoft Excel, data analysis skills, data visualization skills in Tableau, presentation skills, and how to work with clients to answer their data questions. The teens meet one-on-one with clients to better understand their data needs, clean and organize the client data, and then create data visualizations in Tableau. These visualizations are presented to the client at a showcase event. Throughout the project, a simulated work environment is created and youth receive and implement feedback from their nonprofit clients.
In Providence, Data for Good is a summer employment opportunity for teens to earn a wage while building data and workforce skills.
What do PPL staff say about the initiative?
Staff at the library who supported the project shared some of their thoughts about working with the teens and the overall experience:
“I think it's rigorous. You know, it's not it's there are expectations of you, you know, you're not you're not going to coast through this. You're going to have to try and if you don't, you know, there's other people around you who are holding you accountable - adults and teens….I think what's nice is that everyone is working. Teens work in teams. And then within their teams, they're working in pairs. So if you're not doing your work, you're letting one of your peers down. We do a lot of team building at the start of the program….to connect them to their groups so that they feel invested. You may not like data, but like you don't want to let your peers down, you know, or your team down because you're this also has real world implications. If you let someone down, this is [your peers and] a client that’s a nonprofit.”
“I [say to teens] it's great if you want to get a job at McDonald's or [a job] in retail…. You will make some money, you can put it on your resume. [With] a job like D4G you're learning skills that will give you a step up from the rest of your peers. These are skills employers are looking for. It’s a real opportunity to give yourself an edge.”
“Sometimes we have teams, especially with Tableau, who say ‘I really want to try out this feature. I think this would be really helpful.’ And, sometimes because there's so many people who have to help that we can't spend as much time [with them] one on one with them. Then they have to kind of dig around and go with trial and error themselves. Then they will run with it. That's really cool to see too. They figure out how to use different things on their own.”
What are some of the details?
- Teen D4G is a three-week, Monday-Friday summer program, that runs from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm each day.
- Teens 14-19 apply to participate in PPL’s D4G program.
- PPL staff review the applications and interview a selected group of applicants.
- 16 teens are invited to join the summer program.
- Teens earn $14 per hour for 80 hours of work.
- At the end of each week teens are asked to complete a learning and engagement focused self-reflection.
- Graduates of the teen D4G program are invited to apply to work as a D4G Teaching Assistant (TA).
- Two teens are selected from TA applications.
- PPL teen library staff, a data analytics expert/trainer, and the two teaching assistants make up the PPL D4G team.
- Two nonprofit organizations are selected each year.
- Nonprofit clients are recruited through social media and word of mouth including from previous D4G clients.
- Previous clients include First Works, a performing arts organization, Team Read, a reading initiative where teens serve as reading coaches for elementary age students. Providence Promise, an organization working with families on saving funds for college, and the Fish and Wildlife Department of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
Getting a D4G teen initiative started at your library
If you’re interested in bringing a D4G program to your library, you might consider:
- Who might be on the team?
- Who has the skills and knowledge to teach data analytics and visualization?
- Who has relationships with nonprofits that may be interested in being a client?
- Who has relationships with teens?;
- Who has the time to devote to designing, planning, and implementing the initiative?
- What do we need to learn in order to launch a teen D4G initiative?
- Are we able to provide stipends? Do we need to raise funds to be able to provide stipends?
- Will we use previously developed curricula, for example D4G curricula, or design our own?
- How will we evaluate our initiative along the way and after the final activity?
Learn more
Additional Data for Good case studies from the Providence Public Library (RI), DeKalb County Public Library (GA), and the Rhode Island School of Design are also available.
Project curriculum
The Data for Good curriculum is available for anyone to replicate and adapt into a training program in their community. The curriculum is a set of project-based lessons that guide adult or teen learners in achieving the skills they need to analyze data. There are 14 lessons, each with a lesson plan packet, slide decks, and activities for learners.
The curriculum is published under a Creative Commons license for anyone to reuse and repurpose.