Moving at the Speed of Trust: Building Ethical Data Systems with Sydney Idzikowski
In this episode of the Common Good Data Podcast, Roger and Drew are joined by Sydney Idzikowski, Associate Director of the Charlotte Regional Data Trust, for a deep dive into how integrated data systems can “move at the speed of trust.”
Together, they unpack what administrative data is, why it so often remains siloed across agencies, and how the Data Trust works to securely connect information from sectors like housing, education, and public health.
Sydney shares how building trust—amid privacy concerns and data surveillance fears—is central to effective data sharing, and explains the governance, legal, and technical frameworks that make it possible.
Sydney has been at the helm of turning fragmented agency data into a single, trusted resource for research, planning, and evaluation. From linking school records to shelter stays, to mapping out the pathways of people who’ve experienced homelessness – she’ll share real‑world stories that show how data can drive policy changes that actually help people.
In this episode we’ll cover:
The biggest challenges with administrative data at the local level
How a “data trust” works and why it matters for privacy, ethics, and impact
Success metrics for an integrated data system (think 35 % of a county’s population!)
A compelling case study on homelessness services that led to a full‑time social worker in a shelter
Practical tips for researchers, practitioners, and anyone curious about using linked data responsibly
Check out the Charlotte Regional Data Trust and Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy.
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Roger: So, Sidney, we thank you so much for joining us today for our podcast. We're excited to have you on. This has been looking forward to. So I'm going to go ahead and dive into our first question. So, Sidney, let's talk about the challenges of administrative data at the local. What is the biggest problem or what is the big problem that you and the data trusts are set out to solve?
Sydney: Yeah, thank y'all both for having me. I'm super happy to be here. So first I want to back up and just make sure everyone understands what we mean when we say administrative data, right? So this is data that is collected by government and non-profit agencies about the people they serve. And administrative data is primarily collected for operational purposes at these agencies, not research purposes. So you can think about all the government agencies running programs like Medicaid, food assistance, housing, and all the nonprofit agencies also providing services to the community. They're all collecting data and information about the people they're serving to run their own programs and to track their own impact. And at the same time, these agencies and programs exist because they're really trying to solve larger social issues that exist and remediate those social challenges like poverty, housing instability, and health. So that's kind of what we mean by administrative data. And that's the heart of the data trust. And so the data trust is here to address a central problem. And that is that all these challenges that the agencies and our larger communities are trying to solve really span across all these agencies, systems, and sectors, right? So like housing instability doesn't exist just within housing agencies. But all that information and data that's collected by all these agencies doing all this amazing work gets trapped inside all the agencies. And for really good reasons, right? Like privacy concerns for sharing data, the legal agreements needed to allow data to be shared across agencies, and then the technical capacity to securely store, manage, and then put that data to use. But the fact of the matter is, is that it's really hard to address everything that's before us when we have fragmented information. And the complex challenges and the solutions we're striving for require more complex data. And so that's where we come in with the data trust. We are here to bring together this fragmented data that exists across our community and use it to solve complex social challenges. We are here to tackle all those reasons why data gets trapped, right? The legal concerns and complexities, the technical needs and the governance structures to ensure we're using data ethically. and importantly, link all that data together so that it's no longer fragmented.
Roger: I think of the data trust as a, I mean, it's almost like a twofold word, right? So there's the trust component, which is all these agencies are trusting y'all with this information and how to figure out ways to put it out into community durable. But then also the concepts of a trust. Think of like a trust fund or something, where something exists and is cured and it's safe and it's only to be used for important reasons. So I really like that data trust. And so this exists for a reason, for good, and to also cross-pollinate. How do you help agencies cross-pollinate with their data and information for good use?
Sydney: Right, and to collaborate on solutions as well. And I'm glad I was going to touch on that later, Roger, too, but we changed our name in 2022 from the Institute for Social Capital, or ISC, to the Data Trust to better reflect kind of what we are holding all this important information in trust and how we operate leading with trust.
Drew: I want to kind of follow up on that too a little bit because for those who don't know about the data trust, I mean, the work that you guys do is incredibly important, incredibly detailed, and sometimes maybe hard to explain. So I want to take another kind of follow up to the original question. And maybe can you share, why is it important that we link all this data in the first place? Like what problems are we going to be able to explore or solve or better be able to address? Because we have all these agencies who previously weren't sharing data, now sharing data.
Sydney: Yeah, yeah. Great question. So one of the main things is really, like I said, those collaborative solutions. When the Data Trust was founded back in 2004, it was these kind of big entities in Charlotte, North Carolina came together and said, we're serving the same people. We know we're serving the same children and families. How can we understand how well we're doing at that and how we can better work together to promote well-being? So that was kind of really at the basis of why we were started in the first place. But then taking a look at, you know, understanding trends and use of programs and services across time, the data trust and other integrated data systems hold a rich amount of historical data. So linking data together over time allows us to better understand trends, right? And better target prevention and intervention. So, for example, we have several kind of violence prevention studies happening right now that are really looking, taking a kind of historical or backwards look at, okay, we know that these individuals have these instances. You know, they ended up experiencing violence or causing violence in one way or the other. What were their experiences over their life course? And then what can we learn from that to better target interventions to support young adults and children? So that's one example.
Drew: Awesome. I think it's a good example, too, where you're kind of like able to really almost see the many different ways in which any individual, you know, has an interaction with the social service system in some capacity. Or in beyond that, too, you know, criminal justice and others as well. So you talked a little bit historically about how the data trust started, a little bit about its history. Can you talk maybe a little bit more to about how it works? So if somebody is interested in participating, either sharing data themselves as an organization, or maybe you're a researcher and you want to do research, how do you get connected to the Charlotte Regional Data Trust?
Sydney: Yeah, yeah. So the Charlotte Regional Data Trust is, we're called an integrated data system. And we're actually part of a larger national network called Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy, or AISP, that supports the development and growth and peer, you know, peer networks of other places that are doing this super crazy work. So if anyone wants to really dive into what it takes to build and maintain an integrated data system, that their website, the AISP website, has amazing resources. And we love them. So getting involved with the data trust, yeah, we have lots of different avenues, right? So bringing data in, right? So thinking about kind of the two main components of my job, bringing data into the system and moving data out of our system. So bringing data in, if an agency or potential data partner is interested in becoming, sharing their data with us, we work with them on to execute legal data sharing agreements so that data can, individual level data that does have personal identifiers in it can be shared for research purposes. So like I said, administrative data is not collected for research purposes. Integrated data systems like the Data Trust repurpose that data for research planning and evaluation. So we negotiate those legal agreements with the data partners. And in those legal agreements, we use exemptions to privacy law so that this type of data can be shared for these purposes and used for research. These relationships can take years in the making. And we know that, you know, that we're here for the long run. So we focus really heavily on building and maintaining relationships with our data partners because I need them once they start sharing data too, right? These are the folks who serve on our committees, who update data on a regular basis, who can answer questions when people want to use the data. So we focus really heavily on relationships to bring data into our system. And so if anyone is interested in sharing data, you can, you know, I'm kind of the funnel for all things data trust. So definitely come my way. We also kind of, we're working on building a strategic research agenda. So I kind of want to, let me say too, the data trust is part of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. And the Urban Institute is a 55-year-old organization now that does applied social research in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community. So we've been a part of the Institute. So we're developing a larger strategic research agenda that will also help us make sure we have the right data and the right data partners to answer questions on the research agenda. So that's super exciting. And then on the data outside, we do allow people to make requests of the data at the data trust. It takes a lot of work to bring it all together. And we really, really want it and need it to be used, right? Because collecting data just for the sake of collecting data is not great. We need to put it to use. So Drew is very familiar with this process, for better or worse, requesting data. But if anyone wants to request data from the data trust, they need to submit what's called a data license request that outlines a clear purpose for the use of data. If anyone's familiar with like an IRB, the request will look very familiar. It asks a lot of things about the study, right? Who's going to be on it? What data do you want? What are your research questions? What's the benefit and risks? How are you going to share what you find? And then this request is reviewed by what's called our Data and Research Oversight Committee. And this committee is made up of the people who work at agencies who share data with us. And this is how they retain oversight over the use of this data.
Roger: The fun IRB. IRB process.
Sydney: Oh, yes. Fun research processes.
Roger: For those who are familiar with the IRB process out there, you know the sarcastic tone of the IRB process. I'm kidding. It's done for an excellent, reasonable reason. So we should all be happy and excited that we get to go through the IRB process when it's needed. Sydney, talking about all these different points, right? So all these different sectors that even yourself or folks Intercept privacy and confidentiality I would have ends up being a big challenge because you're sharing that across organizations and so be mindful of how it's shared and what is shared. So can you, can you share a little bit about how you approach this and maybe share some tips for our listeners about, you know, what should they think about with data privacy and confidentiality.
Sydney:. Yeah. Yeah. So this is always number one, right? The data held at the data trust represents real people. And all of us have data in lots of different places. And the data we have at the data trust can represent someone on their worst day, right? One of their worst days, so maybe a child welfare investigation or an arrest, or maybe on one of their best days, like securing homeownership, right? So there's a wide range of experiences represented among the people in the data. And because we hold data from government and nonprofit organizations, the people represented are seeking assistance for one way or another. And we know that across integrated data systems, the data largely represent people living with low incomes or lower incomes. And we learned, we did a kind of study or look at who was represented in the data at the data trust. And we learned that for us, people who identify as Black or multiracial are overrepresented in the folks who make up our data when compared to Mecklenburg County as a whole. We also know that people who are in integrated data systems using services, living in poverty, and people of color are some of the most heavily surveilled people in our communities, right? So, and this is the data we have, right, at the Data Trust. And by linking all that data together, it enhances that risk, right, of surveillance and privacy. So this is something we take super, super seriously at the Data Trust and across kind of our network. And also, like, in this moment, we are, data sharing is kind of a bad word, right? We're seeing horrific examples of how government entities are using shared data and linked data for really harmful purposes. So it's even of a higher importance maybe right now. So the way we approach this at the data trust comes back to that word, right, rather trust. But we know we have the saying that data moves at the speed of trust. Even if you have all of the legal agreements, privacy stipulations, all these these governance pieces in place, people have to trust in the system and trust in us that this that we are here to protect their data and use the information for good. And so that's kind of the basis on how we operate. And, you know, I kind of said it earlier, but we focus heavily on relationships, right? So we have, you know, we have all of our legit paperwork, right? And we've gone through different iterations where we like really start with how legit we are and look at all these things we have. And we have our legal agreements that our general counsel of the university crafted. And we have our secure terminals and servers that have very limited access. Right. But really, it does come down to those relationships. Right. and really making sure that we're having honest conversations with our data partners and with the people whose data are represented in the data at the data trust to make sure that we're being transparent, that everyone has their questions answered, and that concerns are addressed. And we always tell when we're talking to data partners that we'd be concerned if they weren't concerned about privacy and security. So, you know, that's what we, that's kind of how we go about that when people have very real and legitimate questions about how are we making sure this data is secure. Let's see, what else do I want to say about that? Oh, as far as tips go, I mean, honestly, if you're thinking about privacy and confidentiality, you're already starting off in a good place. The one thing I would recommend is documenting data privacy policies and practices at any entity, organization, right? What do you have in place? How are we going about it? And then really making sure that everyone is clear on those things. And then just come back to trust, right? Treat the data the way you would want your data treated. So I can go into more specifics about our documents if you need or our processes, but that's kind of how we go about it. Go ahead, Roger
Roger: Well, I love what you mentioned. The three key words there is trust relationship and documentation, right? And so I teach a, and by the way, we have a super trio on this podcast today because we three are social workers, right? So we know, yeah, let's go. We know and appreciate the value of ethics and how to function in an ethical manner. And so I teach our ethics, professional behavior and communication course here at New York, Charlotte. And, you know, if any of the listeners are former students or just social workers, they appreciate that you mentioned the trust relationship and documentation, because those three are very key when working with communities.
Sydney: Yeah, and honestly, the integrated data world is a wonderful world for social workers. There's a lot of social workers in this field and it's all about the connections, right? How do we understand people in their communities more holistically? And then how do we get systems to work together to promote well-being? So it's a great landscape for social workers.
Drew: I think it makes sense. You know, as a field, we kind of take pride in working interdisciplinary places, you know, recognizing that individuals are within and interact with lots of different organizations. And so it seems to make a lot of sense. You know, social workers are also big on evaluation. As you know, that's something that I'm always talking about myself. So I would love if you could share a little bit about how, you know, certainly many people use the data to maybe ask evaluation questions or research questions. But how do you as an entity define success? and what metrics would you use to define your own success in accomplishing your mission, which I suspect would be a challenging task.
Sydney: Yeah. So let's see. I'll speak to how we define data within the data trust work. I will say the larger urban institute has other metrics. But for the data trust, let's see. I listed five things for what success looks like. First is the number of data partners, right? The number of people who have signed agreements that have bought into this shared data ecosystem that we hold and trust. And right now that number is 65. So 65 entities have signed legal agreements with us at the data trust. About half of those are within the homeless management information system. So these are the entities providing homelessness services, housing stability services within our continuum of care here in Mecklenburg County. But we do have agreements with every single one of them, individual agreements, so we count it. And then a sub measure of that is kind of who is regularly providing data that we house and that is readily available for research, planning and evaluation. And that number is 43. Again, a large chunk of that 30 is within the Homeless Management Information System. But we have a broad range of large government and nonprofit of varying sizes too, who regularly provide data to the data trust. So that we do have our code books and all of our data documentation publicly available. So if anyone is interested in what all exists, that is all lovingly documented and online and available. A second way we define success is kind of how many people are using the data trust, how many projects are putting the data trust to use. So let's see. In 2024, we had a total of six requests that were submitted. I will say these studies typically last several years. And so the way I count kind of our metrics is how many people are submitting something or making a request in a in mid-year. So that was six last year. I think the year before in 2023, we had 12. And then so far in 2025, we've had six. So, and we expect it to continue growing as we bring in more data partners and continue to promote the data trust as a resource. We also take we've started to take a look at how representative our data is of our population. Right. Or how how much how well the data trust represents our overall population. So we we put out a report in December called the State of our Data Report, which is something we'll update annually. But this tells us a lot about we ask questions like who's represented in the data trust? How many unique people do we have across all of these agencies and how are they linked together? Right. How how do they overlap across these systems? So a lot of fun charts in our report as well. But one of the main things we learned there is that the data trust holds data for about 35 percent of Mecklenburg County's population. And in 2023, we had, let's see, 370, 434 unique individuals who were part of the data trust or access an agency during 2023. So I'd say right now we're not fully representative of Mecklenburg County or our region, but we are striving and growing. And then I mentioned it before, too, but the amount of longitudinal data we have, right? Like how rich is the data and how much is available? So some of our data partners, that data begins in the early 2000s. And then one thing I want to look more towards in the future is as we get better at really sharing these findings and engaging the community and promoting the findings from projects that use the data trust, I would want a number of kind of how much engagement happened around these findings. So y'all got me going on that question.
Drew: Yeah, well, it certainly speaks to the expansive work that you've been doing in terms of, you know, having a data on roughly a third of Mecklenburg County residents and being able to, you know, have some of those different studies come in, use the data and answer important questions. So that's really cool. Roger, take the next one.
Roger: Yeah, excellent. No, thanks for sharing all that. Sydney, thanks for sharing all that. I think the work that y'all do is incredible. It's important. And my hope is that listeners will tap into the Data Trust and perhaps reach out to you if they have questions about how to utilize it. But what is it, right? You have a wealth of information to share. And so we're just so thankful for that. What we would like to hear about is a story, a case study, right? So if you can share a case study of how data trust has been used by research or practitioners to answer important program and policy questions. is sharing narratives can be.
Sydney: Yeah, absolutely. Yes, anyone who wants to talk more, come join our family. We, yeah, we love this nerdy work that we do. So yeah, we, I mean, we strive to be a resource and have situated ourselves to be a resource for both universities and community members. So lots of diverse people and expertise are welcome to come and use the data. So one example of a case. Hold on. Lost my piece here. Let's see. Here we go. Okay. So a case study. Yeah. So one of the things that we like to lift up is we've had a long-term partnership with Mecklenburg County's community support services. So these are, and specifically their team who work in homeless services and preventions in our county. And as part of the annual reporting that goes on in our community about housing instability and homelessness, the data trust has been used across, let's see, five years now to explore a specific aspect or specific population of people experiencing homelessness or kind of the, what's the word I'm looking for, the kind of pathway from housing disability to stable housing, the spectrum, the housing spectrum. So with this partnership, kind of every year, they've dived into a different population, a different sample population. So, and these are all available publicly online, so people can go in and reference that on kind of Mecklenburg County's housing website. But this has been really cool. And one of the things we're going to do here in a little bit is pull together kind of all the things we've learned over the past 10 years about homelessness via linked data. So some of the populations that have been looked at in this is children and families, right? This was one of the first ones that people really wanted questions. What's going on with children and families in our community experiencing homelessness? What services are they using? How can we better serve them? And one of the things this study found, and granted, this was back in 2015. So things may look different now. But one of the things that this study found that is just a really good example of not really a complex project, right? We linked together kids who were staying in shelter at that time and kids and their records within school, their school records. So just kind of a simple link of those individuals. And what this study found was that nearly 40% of those kids who were currently staying in a shelter were not connected to McKinney-Vento services within school for one reason or another. there, right? So there's lots of reasons for that. But that really raised a red flag and said, well, how can we get this resource and support to these kids and families? How can we get them better connected to that? So that led to the placement of a full-time social worker at one of our main shelters in town to really help kids and families get enrolled in the support to promote stability within school. So that's one example. But another, you know, over other years, different populations were looked at, right? Like people who were previously incarcerated in our county jail, how are they experiencing homelessness before and after, right? Their incarceration, are they coming back? Are they being jailed again? This is a tiny population, right? This is a small, small number, but really kind of looking at how can we help promote stability of this population. And then we've also looked at what single adults, right? Single adults make up a huge proportion of the population of people experiencing homelessness. What's going on for single adults? And then the other thing we looked at too was for people using a key homelessness prevention service in our community, what percentage of those individuals are then entering into homelessness once they've applied for those services? Again, very small numbers, so that was fairly effective in helping prevent homelessness in the short term. So yeah, lots of cool things. We're going to piece it all together here shortly and tell that story. But yeah, yeah. And that's, you know, year over year to kind of say, how can we explore a different question? Yeah, it was really great.
Roger: Well, I love how what you did about the utilization of the data and the work, the outcome with the worker who needed to be present in order to provide that type of support. We need, and Drew, you know, I say this all the time, we, the world needs social workers and we social workers in all spaces. And so all they're doing is, is very pivotal. It's very good to get social workers out there in the world.
Sydney: Yeah. And like, you know, linking this information together to helps practitioners, including lots of social workers, better understand these different aspects of, in this case, homelessness and housing instability and work to kind of coordinate those services. So, yeah, it's critical, man.
Drew: And it's a great example of systems thinking. You know, I feel like Roger and I have both taught courses across the MSW, you know, curriculum. And one of the big things we talk about, especially in the foundation year of MSW and BSDV programs, are how to incorporate systems thinking and to use that theoretical perspective in the work that we do. And usually when we present it, it's always kind of like, oh yeah, that kind of makes my sense. A lot of different systems coming together. But it's only when you kind of see it placed out here where you kind of see why it actually really does matter to think in this way.
Drew: And that when we do ask those questions from a systems perspective, we are able to identify gaps. Like you mentioned, you know, not having so many, you know, youth who were eligible for M. McKinney-Vento not having access to it because of the way our systems were set up. So I think it's just a great example and a good example of data trust work, but also social work thinking. So love it. I'm here for it.
Sydney: Another thing I want to mention to you in terms of like case study is, you know, we've got data at the individual level for very deep and complex research. Another way the data trust has been used or the data we have at the data trust, we we aggregate that data up and use it as on our quality life explorer. So on our main kind of indicator project. So this is a mapping tool that displays over 80 indicators that relate to quality of life for MacArthur County, North Carolina, and several variables from that come from the data trust. So us kind of being this repository to be able to update this data and make it publicly available in a safe and protected way, but is a way that's very impactful. So, you know, things like all of the education data, the local education data that's on there, test scores, school attendance, chronic absenteeism, and then also use of public benefits like food stamps or snack.
Roger: Sydney, to have you come in as a guest for one of the courses I teach. But yet, Sydney, I feel like you should apply to be one of our adjunct faculty. So, separate conversation about that. But this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing everything. Drew, I think we might pop into our popular time now.
Drew: I think it's time.
Sydney: Well, Roger, I'm happy to come and speak to your class whenever you let me know.
Roger: Excellent. Well, definitely.
Sydney: Hit me, hit me with pop culture.
Roger: All right. So Sydney, all this talk about data is great. I love it. And this is helpful about this podcast. I'm coming to you. Well, for me, it's live right now from Holden Beach, North Carolina. It's summertime and it is vacation time, right? So it got me thinking about when I think about summertime, not necessarily vacation time, but just summer. Like what kind of music or what was I doing around my childhood in the 80s or 90s that would bring me back? And I noticed that you're a Dolly Parton fan. So I'm imagining that there are some songs or maybe an album that maybe you can connect with a point of your time as a youth. For me, I was thinking about senior year in high school, going to the beach, and the whole way there, we had tape players in our car, y'all. So my tape, I had Boston's first album, and we must have listened to that. Oh, my God, I probably burnt that tape out. But we listened to Boston's first album, and the first song, More Than a Feeling, was – so every time I – yesterday I was on the beach, and I was listening to music, and I had my Spotify on shuffle, and Boston's More Than a Feeling came up. And it just took me back to 1991, your beach trip, 1991. I was flooded with memories, you know, their car trip, the cassette play, the pit stops along the way. So that's my story. I'm sticking to it. Sydney, you're up.
Sydney: Okay, fun fact. Dolly Parton and I have the same birthday. So, yes, we're connected. Kindred Spirits. Yes. Kindred Spirits. I know. I love her. I've actually never been to Dollywood too. So that is on my bucket list. But in terms of something that brings me back to summertime, or a song, I mean, my family loves live music. We love music. But so something that brings me back, I guess, to summertime growing up. I grew up in Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. So we'd go on a lot of hiking and camping trips. And I guess this isn't really music, but one of the things that like always brings me back to driving around in the summer with my parents, like packing up the car, windows down, knowing we're going somewhere fun, is car talk.
Drew: Yeah!
Sydney: Dolly, because dolly won my heart. I think as an adult um but as a kid um yeah like car talk if car talk was on it was a good day and we were out doing something fun um as a family in kind of just the beautiful sunny Colorado Saturday morning
Drew: Man the click and Clack Brothers!
Sydney: I know, right? Yeah.
Drew: My wife's from Colorado, actually, and she was also a big, we both were big on Car Talk for the longest time. I don't know if it's still on anymore, but classic, classic radio.
Oh, man. I feel like I have to say Boys of Summer, Don Henley. I think it's 1984 for just a classic summer song. my kids are really into Bruce Springsteen right now, which makes me really happy because I, it's probably cause I put it on all the time. But like, you know, those are just like those classic rock eighties vibes. Like you hear it at anywhere you're out or at the pool or whatever. And I still, I feel like those always bring me back to those awesome moments, but you know, because, you know, and Roger always, you know, loves to talk about how I'm the millennial and he's the gen X in this relationship. So I feel like I have to add a late 90s song in there to, you know, truly represent my age group. And so I'm going to add in the song Kiss Me by Sixpence, Not the Richer, which I feel like epitomizes like your one hit wonder 90s kind of jams, you know, that like you would just be played. I have so many memories that just going to the pool and hearing all these 90s one-hit wonder songs. I feel like that one hits the summer vibe.
Roger: Excellent.
Sydney: Very airy and carefree. Yeah, good choice. Good choice.
Roger: So before we hop off, I do want to give a shout-out real quick. Because with one of my faves, Dr. Lori Thomas has to be one of the most significant individuals that I have met here in the Charlotte area who is passionate not only about social work, but just is passionate about data. She's passionate about people. And it just, she presents it in a way that you just fall in love with her and her work. he's just, he's just fallen in love with trying to help people. And I think, you know, Dr. Lori Thomas does have that service oriented persona and mind that anything that she has asked me to ask, I have said yes to because, you know, the passion that she shows. So I want to give a little shout out to Dr. Lori Thomas there.
Sydney: Can I add something too? Yeah, I mean, it's a joy to work with her. And it's been as she's taken on the role since, let's see, 2018 now, of director of both the Data Trust and the Urban Institute, right? So she is once our former director, Jeff Michael, left his long 20 plus year career with the Urban Institute, Lori has stepped into this role. And just seeing her continue, you know, she's already such an incredible leader, but seeing her continue to grow into this leadership position, leading us at the Urban Institute towards just more impactful work every day. It's been a great ride. It is a great ride.
Roger: And she's a social worker too.
Sydney: And she's a social worker. That's how I won her heart, man, in my interview, I feel. I'm a systems level social worker. Thank you.
Drew: Yeah, strong macro representation today. Sydney, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. We appreciate your time sharing your wisdom about the work of the Data Trust. For folks who are interested, how can they learn more about the Data Trust?
Sydney: Yes, visit our website. I think there'll be several links in the show notes, but the state of our data report is linked publicly. All our contact information is there. check out our data documentation and code books and send me an email. We can connect.
Drew: Awesome. Well, thanks so much. And we look forward to sharing this episode with all of our listeners. And thank you so much for your time today.
Sydney: Thank you for having me. This was great.
Thanks, Sydney. Thanks, y'all.
Our Guest
Sydney Idzikowski is the Associate Director of the Charlotte Regional Data Trust at the Charlotte Urban Institute. She is a systems-level social worker with a love for integrated data. As part of her role, she helps manage the daily operations of the Charlotte Regional Data Trust where she manages relationships with data partners, facilitates data sharing agreements, and coordinates regular data updates. She also assists the community with using integrated data from the Data Trust by overseeing the governance processes. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Warren Wilson College and a master’s degree in social work from UNC Chapel Hill.
