The Black Equity Coalition (BEC) was created by community leaders in Pittsburgh in 2020 to address racial disparities in the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. This work originated in data justice and advocacy around the needs of the Black community in Allegheny County during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we are excited to announce the Data Justice in Pittsburgh’s Black Neighborhoods initiative, which expands upon the data to action model of the BEC to build decision-making power for Black Pittsburghers and those that have not been included in decisions made about data in the City of Pittsburgh. This project is being carried out in partnership between the BEC and the City of Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh is one of four communities in the United States supported by the de Beaumont Foundation in the Modernizing Anti-Racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice funding program.

There are two initiatives to the Data Justice in Pittsburgh’s Black Neighborhoods Project. The community governance of data takes place of course at the city level, while we are additionally engaging one neighborhood in data advocacy and building health.

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