Integrated local datasets to inform resource allocation in Corpus Christi and Victoria, two majority-Hispanic cities with COVID-19 case rates roughly double that of Texas.

Corpus Christi and Victoria, Texas—two majority-Hispanic cities in an area of Texas still recovering from Hurricane Harvey—saw rapid increases in COVID-19 cases but also experienced a lack of good local data to inform a coordinated response and recovery. Community Information Now (CI:Now), a nonprofit that supports community information needs, worked closely with each city’s United Way organization to identify, integrate, and analyze local datasets with the goal of helping to direct resources to effectively respond to local needs and avoid exacerbating existing health inequities. 

This project used local data CI:Now started collecting in early March 2020. Data sources included :

• 211 requests for assistance
• Nonprofit service use and waitlists
• Records from the United Way
• State unemployment claims
• Local and state surveys of people and families
• US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey

CI:Now’s final reports to both United Ways contained custom maps, charts, and infographics that laid out the demographics of the counties, business loss in 2020, the receipt of paycheck protection loans, and the changes in benefit eligibility (i.e. SNAP and TANF) month by month. These data and the accompanying reports will enable the respective United Ways to target their recovery efforts toward communities that were already experiencing inequities prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and have been hardest hit during the pandemic.