About Forsyth Futures
Studying our community to inform action.
Mission
Catalyze Forsyth County’s collective problem-solving capacities for positive change.
Vision
A vibrant, equitable, and prosperous Forsyth County, in which everyone has access to the information they need to make intelligent, informed decisions.
Purpose
Study our community to understand the causes of systemic challenges, communicate these insights in accessible, engaging ways, and disseminate them to stakeholders at all levels to inform positive change.
Work and Capabilities
Reliable local data empowers everyone in our community to better advocate for the policies and practices that can enhance our collective wellbeing. Our core capabilities include:
Data Collection and Analysis
Interactive Data Visualization
Geospatial Analysis
Program Design and Evaluation
Literature Review
Communication and Design
Community Data
The go-to source for a broad range of current Forsyth County data.
Community Data serves as a common point of reference for our community to inform decision making through program planning and evaluation, funding and resource allocation, grant writing, and more.
Community Data contains a wealth of high-quality, reliable data sets that are specific to Forsyth County. Users will find over 40 regularly-updated key and supporting measures of community wellbeing, many of which include invaluable disaggregations by age group, gender, geography, race/ethnicity, and comparison communities.
Community Data is organized across these sectors (click to view):
Reports and Briefings
A wealth of topic-specific Forsyth County information.
Forsyth Futures produces contextual data reports called community briefings to help our community better understand the conditions surrounding the most complex aspects of community life. These briefings sometimes have a broad, cross-sector focus (such as the briefing on the local economic impact of COVID-19) and they sometimes have a more specific, topical focus (such as the briefing on the benefits cliff in Forsyth County).
Forsyth Futures also frequently contracts with other community organizations to design, implement, analyze, and produce high-quality contextual studies and data reports. Recent examples of contracted projects include:
- Through a Gender Lens: The Economic Security of Women and Girls in Forsyth County in 2020 (with The Women’s Fund of the Winston-Salem Foundation)
- The Pre-K Feasibility Study (with Family Services, Inc.)
The Reports and Briefings page contains more than 20 reports, each with reliable, high-quality data specific to Forsyth County, published between 2013 and 2020. Many of these reports include invaluable disaggregations by age group, gender, geography, race/ethnicity, and comparison communities.
Data Requests
Answers to the critical questions that move our community’s work forward.
By fulfilling data requests, Forsyth Futures provides critical support for community organizations and stakeholders to better understand the context of their activities.
The insights gained through data requests are important tools that can help organizations optimize their planning and impact. Forsyth Futures receives funding to offer free data request services to community groups, under specific conditions.
Partnerships
Partnering to help others achieve their strategic data and research goals.
Forsyth Futures partners with local organizations that have a strategic, ongoing need for expert data and research capacity.
If your organization has a strategic, ongoing need for expert data and research capacity, our team can work intensively with you to help meet your needs. If you are interested in a potential partnership, or just want advice in how to achieve a specific goal, contact us at [email protected].
A brief history.
Forsyth Futures aims to provide an objective view of information regarding Forsyth County. Although it has existed for decades, the name Forsyth Futures evolved from the work of the Leadership Roundtable, a group of leaders from agencies focused on improving the quality of life and futures of children and families of Forsyth County, North Carolina.
In 2006, Forsyth Futures formally became the name of the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization previously known as the Forsyth County Council of Children and Families, which emerged from the work of the early Juvenile Justice Council (est. 1975). Through data-based analyses and research studies, Forsyth Futures’ team of experts seeks to understand topics such as the strength of our school system, the quality and equity of health care, and economic indicators like housing and transportation.
Learn more about Forsyth Futures.