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The purpose of the 2015 Local Arts Agency (LAA) Census was to characterize the different ways that LAAs perform their vital roles in every community. LAAs share the goals of enabling diverse forms of arts and culture to thrive locally, ensuring broad accessibility to the public, and building healthier communities through the arts.

The census provides details about LAA staffing and oversight, services and programs, partnerships and collaborations in the community, grantmaking, diversity within staff/volunteers/board and diversity in programming, marketing and communications practices, arts education, services for the military, and operating revenues and expenditures, and more. For a more detailed listing of question groups, please refer to the Description of Variables below.

This study contains data from the two forms of the surveys (Full and Abbreviated--a subset of the Full survey). These surveys were distributed online to 4,377 individual Local Arts Agencies in the United States which were known to Americans for the Arts in 2015. A total of 1,127 LAAs responded to the census survey. 641 submitted the Full survey; 486 completed the Abbreviated survey. The overall response rate was 26%.

The data is contained in two separate datasets comprising results from the two surveys. The Full Survey (dataset 1) contains data from the 641 respondents who completed the long survey. The Combined Surveys (dataset 2) contains responses from both the 486 respondents of the abbreviated survey as well the corresponding 641 responses from the full survey for a total of 1,127 respondents. The rate of response from large and mid-sized LAAs was very high, while small and volunteer-driven LAAs were underrepresented in the survey respondents.

SMU DataArts hosts the Cultural Data Profile (CDP), an annual online survey collecting detailed financial, programmatic, and demographic information from cultural nonprofits, which they use to apply for funding to multiple grant programs. SMU DataArts also integrates surveys from national arts service organizations into a unified platform, streamlining data collection and providing more reliable, standardized data. Participating organizations, including those in broadcast, media, literary arts, education, museums, performing arts, and advocacy, report detailed information on revenues, expenses, marketing, balance sheets, investments, attendance, programming, staffing, and volunteers. This results in a comprehensive longitudinal dataset essential for research and advocacy, supporting the evidence-based demonstration of the arts' value and impact. SMU DataArts provides data in various formats, from raw datasets for research to custom analyses and reports.

Cultural Data Profile datasets can be requested for the past five completed fiscal years for $750, with discounts for academic use. The available datasets include: the National Dataset (all available data for broad analysis), the National Trend Dataset (for consistent trend comparisons across organizations), and the Most Recent Fiscal Year Dataset (a snapshot of the latest fiscal year). Customization and aggregate data services are available for additional fees. For more details, view the data dictionary here and the Cultural Data Profile questions here. Contact [email protected] for customization or further inquiries.

In 2012, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) launched a demonstration field experiment, the Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program (MEDP) and Evaluation to examine: (1) the use of an "advocacy" role for mentors; and (2) the use of a teaching/information provision role for mentors. The overall goal of MEDP was to develop program models that specified what advocacy and teaching look like in practice and to understand whether encouraging the general practice of advocacy and teaching could improve youth outcomes. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted a rigorous process and outcome evaluation of programs funded by OJJDP in 2012. The evaluation was designed to rigorously assess the effectiveness of programs that agreed to develop and implement enhanced practices incorporating advocacy or teaching roles for mentors, including providing focused prematch and ongoing training to mentors, and providing ongoing support to help mentors carry out the targeted roles.

MEDP grantees comprised collaboratives that would offer coordinated implementation of the same set of program enhancements in three or four separate established and qualified mentoring programs located within the same regional area. The MEDP collaboratives varied widely in their geographical locations, their size and experience in mentoring, and the structure of their mentoring programs. The types and structures of mentoring programs also varied across, and sometimes within, collaboratives. All the collaboratives proposed enhancements in the way they would train mentors for their roles, and in the way they would provide ongoing support to the mentors and in some cases the youth that they were matched with.

This data collection consists of multiple types of respondents (youth, parents, mentors, and staff) across multiple data collection periods.

The National Arts Administration and Policy Publications Database is a bibliographic tool that enables users to access current and historical information on a multitude of topics related to arts administration and policy. Records in the database are classified into four types:

• Americans for the Arts archive
• research abstracts
• sample documents
• one-pagers (infographics).

The database contains over 7,000 bibliographic records--providing arts administrators, policy researchers, and advocates with information to help them locate information on arts policy and practice and arts administration resources and best practices. More recent entries to the database may also include the actual publication for download. To obtain the publications, please contact the publisher listed in the abstract. When possible Americans for the Arts had included the publication for download, but in most cases, the database is bibliographic by design.

The National Congregations Study (NCS) is a national survey effort to gather information about America's congregations. The first wave of the NCS took place in 1998, and the study was repeated in 2006-07, 2012, and 2018-19. The NCS tracks continuity and change among American congregations, and each NCS wave also explores new subjects.

With information from 5,333 congregations collected over a span of more than 20 years, the NCS helps us better understand many aspects of congregational life in the United States, and how congregations are changing in the 21st century. The NCS contributes to knowledge about American religion by collecting information about a wide range of congregations' characteristics and activities at different points in time.

In all four waves, the NCS was conducted in conjunction with the General Social Survey (GSS). The 1998, 2006, 2012, and 2018 waves of the GSS asked respondents who attend religious services to name their congregation, thus generating a nationally representative sample of religious congregations. Researchers then located these congregations. In 2006, the sample included re-interviews of a subset of congregations that participated in 1998, and in 2018-19, the sample included re-interviews of a subset of congregations that participated in 2012.

A key informant at each congregation - a minister, priest, rabbi, or other staff person or leader - provided each congregation's information via a one-hour interview conducted either over the phone or in-person. The survey gathered information on many topics, including the congregation's leadership, social composition, structure, activities, and programming. The NCS gathers information about worship, programs, staffing, community activities, demographics, funding, and many other characteristics of American congregations. Respondents of the NCS survey were asked to describe the worship service and programs sponsored by the congregation other than the main worship services, including religious education classes, musical groups, and recreational programs. Informants described the type of building in which the congregation met, whether it belonged to the congregation, and whether visitors came just to view the building's architecture or artwork. Congregations were geocoded, and selected census variables are included in this study.

This study was a 2-year evaluation of the City of Chicago Domestic Violence Help Line. The Help Line was a unique telephone service functioning as a clearinghouse for all domestic violence victim services in the Chicago metropolitan area. The service was toll-free, multi-lingual, confidential, and operated 24-hours, 7 days a week. The purpose of the Help Line was to connect domestic violence victims to specialized services through direct referrals and three-way phone linkages.

In order to conduct a comprehensive evaluation, the perspective of a broad range of users of the Help Line was sought. Telephone interviews were conducted with domestic violence victim callers to the Help Line over the course of one year (Part 1 - Victims Data). Telephone interviews were also conducted with domestic violence service providers (Part 2 - Providers Data). As the largest referral source into the Help Line, Chicago Police Officers completed a written survey about their experiences with the Help Line (Part 3 - Police Data). Finally, to explore the general awareness of the Help Line, members of the District Advisory Committees across the city were surveyed (Part 4 - District Advisory Committee (DAC) Data).

The Part 1 (Victims Data) data file contains 399 cases and 277 variables. The Part 2 (Providers Data) data file contains 74 cases and 137 variables. The Part 3 (Police Data) data file contains 1,205 cases and 128 variables. The Part 4 (District Advisory Committee (DAC) Data) data file contains 357 cases and 105 variables.