Many jurisdictions outsource the provision of critical social services to local nonprofits, which in turn provide client level data back to government agencies to be used for planning and evaluation. These data are some of the most critical measures cities have for tracking poverty, health, and economic well being. Recently, the Human Services Department of Seattle, Washington did something extraordinarily unprecedented, releasing seven years of client level service provision data as open data. We use these data to develop a service demand forecasting model and present a tool that addresses four key use cases:
- Where is the actual and forecasted demand for services across space?
- Where does the provision of services currently meet that demand?
- How are Service Providers collaborating or competing in shared Service Areas?
- What can Service Provider audits tell us about the efficacy of these programs?