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From Numbers to Narratives: Weaving Data, Context, and Experience to Drive Equitable Systems Change

In today’s fast-paced news cycle, it’s easy to get swept up in striking statistics: percentages about government cuts, projections for the future, or data points tied to policy outcomes. But numbers alone rarely tell the full story. They don’t always reflect how changes are felt in communities, what people on the ground are saying, or who is stepping up to challenge inequitable policies and institutions.

What we deem to be credible and valuable evidence has the power to shape what is possible for our communities. Narratives, built from collections of stories repeated over time, are central to our collective understanding. If the stories we tell rely only on a narrow approach to evidence, we risk telling incomplete stories, missing opportunities to advance positive narratives, and failing to effectively refute harmful ones. This narrowness can lead to solutions and actions that communities neither want nor need, and that may not actually work. Evidence-based decision-making is a cornerstone of effective public health. While research evidence is vital, we must also elevate multiple forms of evidence to responsibly describe lived realities and guide decisions in communities most impacted by inequitable policies.

In October 2024, Prevention Institute, in collaboration with the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, released the Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence (UCEE) report. This work builds on the CDC’s Framework for Thinking about Evidence, which recognizes three complementary forms of evidence:

  • Best Available Research Evidence: Findings from scientific inquiry, peer-reviewed and published.
  • Contextual Evidence: Measurable factors gathered from local and community data sources to understand how community context and characteristics will impact the implementation, usefulness, and acceptability of a strategy or decision.
  • Experiential Evidence: The accumulated expertise of people with lived experience and practice-based knowledge, including community residents and subject matter experts.

The UCEE report demonstrates why contextual and experiential evidence must sit alongside best available research evidence to strengthen decision-making. The report offered four practical strategies for integrating this approach:

  • Practicing meaningful community engagement
  • Shifting power, ownership, and action to communities
  • Implementing community-driven methods and approaches
  • Investing for sustainability

Across the project’s three webinars, participants emphasized both the promise of this approach and the challenges in implementation. The most common barrier cited was a lack of resources, guidance, and strategic planning to gather and integrate all three types of evidence. Yet the conversations also pointed to clear opportunities: building capacity, strengthening partnerships, and creating pathways for public agencies and communities to co-lead.

At its core, this work is about broadening what we recognize as evidence—so that decisions affecting health, equity, and justice reflect not just data points, but also the lived realities and wisdom of communities.

Prevention Institute has been utilizing this evidence framework in our work with our partners to help them consider the possibilities with the breadth of information that they currently have, identify gaps in existing strategies and initiatives, and move towards building comprehensive solutions. The following are two case studies of this framework in action.

Immigration Policies & Justice

In our work with Methodist Healthcare Ministries, a private, faith-based, not-for-profit organization that is focused on advancing health equity, we presented opportunities and challenges across priority issues affecting access to healthcare in South Texas. These issues were explored through braiding empirical data from the Census, contextual data from current events and community surveys, and quotes from their frontline staff, providing an opportunity to reframe common, harmful narratives related to immigration justice and rights. The organization is using this information to understand the rapidly changing environment of their work and to determine how to streamline resources to best advance their strategic goals. This method of braiding helped to underscore the value of the experiences of frontline staff, administrative data, and further alignment of multiple internal programs with their long-term goals for their service region.

A table titled “Immigration Policies & Justice” shows three types of evidence. The first column, “Best Available Research Evidence,” notes that about 50% of residents born outside the U.S. in communities served by a South Texas nonprofit do not have permanent citizenship status. The second column, “Contextual Data,” explains that residents without protected status face barriers to education, housing, and employment, and that increased immigration enforcement and harmful rhetoric are worsening health and social conditions for low-income families. The third column, “Experiential Data,” includes a quote from a frontline staff member describing fear in the community, with people avoiding medical care and children feeling scared.

Addressing School Disciplinary Practices

Multiple forms of evidence were also instrumental for a small community-driven coalition, The Future Is US, to illustrate their issue and policy impact. Researchers on their collaborative team used findings from a cultural equity audit to braid disaggregated data on disparities in disciplinary actions in the local school district and qualitative data from listening sessions with youth and parents on their experiences. Given the disproportionate impact on students of color, the collaborative also fostered constructive dialogues between advocates and school leaders who were committed to improving equitable student treatment and outcomes. By gathering and exploring multi-perspective data, the collaborative, its partners, and community stakeholders built strong capacity to provide education and resources for families, along with constructing a shared policy and advocacy agenda to advance equitable policies within their school district.

A table titled “Addressing School Disciplinary Practices” shows three types of evidence. The first column, “Best Available Research Evidence,” highlights data from a school district equity audit showing that Black students were three times more likely to be suspended and twice as likely to be referred to alternative education programs than white and Hispanic students. The second column, “Contextual Data,” explains that community members and partners examined policies and root causes behind these disparities, including institutional racism, structural barriers, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The third column, “Experiential Data,” shares feedback from parents, teachers, and stakeholders describing schools as socially divided, with racial barriers and unequal resources, and highlights youth expressing the need for cultural expression as a path to healing and unity.

When we braid together multiple forms of evidence, we can tell fuller, more resonant stories—stories that reflect lived realities, inform equitable policies, and catalyze structural change.

Later this year, Prevention Institute will release an action guide for practitioners to apply contextual and experiential evidence to create evidence-rich narratives that can support equitable policy and structural change. This framework will provide a guide to:

  • Identifying relevant and accessible contextual and experiential evidence;
  • Understanding bias within data sets and selecting indicators in light of their limitations;
  • Incorporating contextual and experiential data to share stories that connect evidence to structural, community-driven solutions that advance affirmative narratives; and
  • Weaving multiple forms of evidence into a narrative strategy.

This blogpost is the first in a series on Braiding Evidence for Equity & Impact. Stay connected with our body of work—you can follow us here on LinkedIn, sign up for the Prevention Institute newsletter, or reach out directly to Kalia (Community Impact and Engagement Specialist) at kalia [at] preventioninstitute.org (kalia[at]preventioninstitute[dot]org)

We extend our appreciation to Vibhuti Kacholia (Berkeley Media Studies Group) for her contributions to UCEE, this article, and the early development of the action guide while at Prevention Institute.

Project

Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence
Strengthening community health ecosystems grounded in health equity and racial justice (Core Operating Support)

Areas of Focus

Safety
Systems of Prevention & Health Equity
Building Power with Communities

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