FSW 273 - Data for People in 2026: Equity-Driven Approaches for Non-Profits and Social Services
Course Description
Data plays a pivotal role in shaping decisions and interventions in the social and human service sectors, but it often reflects and perpetuates systemic inequities. For instance, racialized and marginalized communities are over-represented in certain datasets, such as police encounters, while being under-represented in areas like healthcare research.
These workshops empower professionals in social work, non-profits, and grassroots organizations to create a data cycle, from planning to data use and advocacy, that embodies the values of social equity, particularly in the post-pandemic context of resistance against equity work. Participants will learn how to use data for advocacy, program development, service improvement, and fundraising, ensuring equitable outcomes for the communities they serve. The workshops will be structured around the data cycle, including guest speakers from the non-profit sector in Calgary.
Course Details
Lecturer bio
José J. F. Ribas Fernandes is a public servant trained as a medical doctor (MD from Universidade de Lisboa, 2006), and an academic researcher in cognitive neuroscience (PhD in Biology and Neurosciences, from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2013). He conducted research at Princeton University (2008-2013) and University of Victoria (2013-2018) in the neural anatomy of decision making. After academia, he briefly worked in a behavioral economics consulting company, BEworks, in education, financial, and public transportation sectors. He has been at the Canada Energy Regulator since 2019, and has worked in data science, equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty.
For any questions, please contact us at: fswpd@ucalgary.ca