Guidance: Using Data To Tell Your Story

July 20, 2023

Sam Mackay, Kerry McCarthy, James Bowles

Between July 2022 to May 2023 Apteligen was appointed by Justice Together Initiative (JTI), Justice Lab and North East Law Centre (NELC) to provide data practitioner support to NELC and two of their partners in the JTI funded NE Partnership – North of England Refugee Service (NERS) and Justice First.

A specific objective of the project was to develop guidance for legal advice and support organisations to develop compelling case studies and stories that use quantitative and qualitative data. This short guide shares the steps and approaches that were used to develop case studies with NELC and Justice First. The guide provides a useful framework and practical tips that can be used by other legal advice and support organisations to develop their own data stories and visualisations.

Throughout the project, NELC, NERS and Justice First as legal advice and support providers; JTI and Justice Lab as funders; and Apteligen as data practitioners were supportive of how the process would need to evolve to respond to the needs of the different organisations, and the realities of the contexts they are working in. The changes to the project scope and lessons learnt are captured in this report.

This guidance was developed as part of a JTI, Justice Lab and NELC commissioned project to improve data maturity of three partners from the NE partnership. The project involved supporting the partners to better understand the data they collect about client profiles, engagements and referral pathways. A paper reflecting on lessons learnt through this project can be viewed here.