Resources
empowOR was designed with your agency's unique needs in mind, and this resource page serves as your comprehensive support system to maximize its potential. On this page, you'll discover a multitude of resources, guides, and tools carefully curated to streamline your client and case management workflows, enhance your agency's data capacity, and improve operations across all departments and programs. Whether you're a dedicated professional in community action or an organization leader, we're here to help you achieve your mission!
Strategies for Integrating Data
Strategies for Integrating Data shows how your agency can streamline client data across systems using file transfers, APIs, and data warehouses. It emphasizes clean data and shared standards to reduce duplication and improve reporting.
Leveraging Data Locally
Leveraging Data Locally highlights how Community Action Agencies can turn raw data into actionable insights through analysis and visualization. It outlines practical ways to use data for planning, operations, strategy, and communication. With simple tools like bar charts and heat maps, agencies can better understand performance, outcomes, and community needs.
Becoming a Data Driven Organization
Becoming a Data-Driven Organization helps nonprofits use data effectively by getting the right information to the right people at the right time. It emphasizes strong leadership, clear processes, and a culture of continuous improvement. The guide highlights practical steps to turn data into action for planning, operations, and outcomes.
De-Siloing Your Data
De-Silo Data Planning helps your agency create a strategy for combining client data across programs and systems. It walks users through defining their goals, identifying key data sources, and mapping how data should flow to support coordination, reporting, and referrals. The guide outlines levels of data integration - from basic reporting to full collaboration - and offers tools to evaluate software and plan next steps.
Exchanging Data Using a Standards Model Approach
Exchanging Data Using a Standards and Model Approach shares a pilot project where agencies tested sharing client data using a common model to reduce duplication and improve coordination. It highlights the need for data standards, outlines technical challenges, and proposes the CANDiO initiative to support easier, consistent data exchange across systems.
What Can We Learn From CAAs’ COVID-19 Experiences
This resources examines how Community Action Agencies strengthened data systems during the pandemic to better respond to community needs. It highlights how leadership, technology upgrades, and dedicated data staff helped agencies use information more effectively for services, reporting, and decision-making.
What Makes a Community Action Data Practitioner
This guide defines the key competencies needed for Community Action staff who turn data into action. It breaks down skills across agency knowledge, analysis, and communication at varying levels, from basic to advanced. The goal is to build data capacity across teams - not rely on one "data person" - to support informed, agency-wide decision-making.
Whole Family Approach Implementation
This guide highlights why integrated data is essential for Whole Family services. It shows how agencies can align systems and processes to give staff timely, accurate data - improving coordination, tracking outcomes, and driving real impact.