We sometimes face difficulties in finding accessible data sources. Here are some data sources that are available freely for research:
1. Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data (https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm)
2. Global Tobacco Surveillance System Data (GTSSData) (https://nccd.cdc.gov/GTSSDataSurveyResources/Ancillary/DataReports.aspx?CAID=2)
3. Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) data by Unicef (https://mics.unicef.org/surveys)
StatsCan is always a scholarly source. Although it is the Canadian federal government's statistics agency, researchers from anywhere in the world (in English or French) will find the website easy to use, and a good model for public access to research methods and results.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/start
Canadian provinces also publish data. For example, the Ontario Data Catalogue currently posts 2,904 data sets.
https://data.ontario.ca/
What does it mean to make data sources freely accessible?
When we talk about making data freely accessible, that means both accessible to read, and accessible to research and produce. Because Canada's university system has a mixtures of students from all economic backgrounds, there are graduates everywhere who can obtain, share, and produce data.
Canada has the Homeless Hub.
https://www.homelesshub.ca/
Many homeless people in Canada have degrees. in fact, the majority of homeless men have degrees in STEM, followed by Business degrees. (Curious, isn't it)? And women experiencing homelessness also include many people with Bachelor and Graduate degrees.
That means, homelessness in Canada is always being researched by the people who are experiencing it. From census data, to surveys and interviews, to research that critiques government policy, and research that contributes to government policy, all get produced and distributed through data sharing centers like the Homeless Hub. The HH also connects tenured professors and NGO policy researchers to people on the margins of housing.
The city of Toronto also has OCAP: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. OCAP, though, is mandated to challenge government policy on behalf of low-income and no-income people.
https://ocaptoronto.wordpress.com/
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is a direct-action anti-poverty organization based in Toronto, Ontario. OCAP mounts campaigns against government policies affecting poor and working people. It provides direct-action advocacy for individuals against eviction, termination of welfare benefits, and deportation.
OCAP is always conducting research, hosting speaker series, publishing flyers that summarize current anti-poverty theories (lately, like UBI - Universal Basic Income). OCAP has obvious biases, but always always makes data accessible to low-income communities so they can advocate for themselves, or with the coalition.
Law and public legal education -
Canadian law - CanLii is a free database that everyone can access in English and French. It contains, basically, all of Canada's published court decisions, as well as lots of Law journal articles, case commentaries, and noteups (although the noteups don't have all the little symbols and shortcuts you get with the Lexis Nexis paid website).
Canadian provinces fund legal clinics for access to justice (lawyers, paralegals, help with filling out forms) for low-income people. Legal clinics also publish research, as well as lit reviews, and policy proposals.
CLEO - Community Legal Education Ontario posts resources online:
https://cleoconnect.ca/about-us/cleos-research-work/
Individual legal clinics have specialties about which they occasionally research or summaries of their own data. For example:
JFCY - Justice for Children And Youth publishes comic books, videos, posters and other material to make rights education accessible to kids
https://jfcy.org/publications/
ACTO - Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario is a legal clinic for renters ion conflict with their landlord or roommates. They publish data in the form of reports. They also, of course, use data to amke arguments in their Legal and Law reform submissions.
https://www.acto.ca/media-and-reports/reports/
https://www.acto.ca/legal-and-law-reform/
These legal examples might not be the kind of data that you are looking for, but I think they are relevant because they are designed to be accessed by people (like children) so they can use data and legal concepts to think about their own issues (like children's rights in family law or children and human rights).
Also, I hope this gets people brainstorming ways to link researchers with law offices, and to think about ways for lawyers (private or public lawyers), to help make data accessible among the people who are affected most. For example, do Environmental Science researchers have ways to make their data available, through law offices, to people affected by environmental issues? Etc.
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