CMY’s latest research uncovers significant obstacles in data collection with multicultural youth
CMY’s latest report “Data? It’s everything about you!” Collecting data with multicultural young people elevates the voices of young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds in relation to data collection. Bolstered by the Supplementary Report, CMY’s research underlines the importance of collecting quality data in ensuring appropriate, targeted and impactful policy planning and setting, decision-making, and service delivery.
Data collection has been a major and often contentious topic over the past decade. For community, government and service decision makers interested in community development, accurate data is a critical tool to improving outcomes and driving positive change. In recent years, systemic issues with data collection have been further exacerbated by erosion of public trust in data collection amid a series of data hacks and breaches. This public discourse is often reflected at a high-level, but as insights in this report suggest, this can have a negative ripple effect on the quality of data being collected by services.
Understanding and reflecting on the experiences of young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds in data collection processes should be a priority. Navigating settlement can be confusing, with many priorities, as a result quality data collection can be under-prioritised.
“Data? It’s everything about you!” identifies a number of serious obstacles to quality data collection. It shares insights from young people and workers highlighting the fractured state of communication between major stakeholders in the data collection process. Through a series of recommendations, it aims to address this issue while informing the development of improved practice.
“If they genuinely take the time to tell me why they are collecting my information then I am more inclined to tell them.” – Young person
CMY’s latest research shines a spotlight on an area of critical importance to quality service delivery and decision making for multicultural youth and their families. Most importantly, it uses the lived experiences of young multicultural people to inform and identify the ways in which this might be done.