Abby André, Director of the Impact Project | Doctoral Fellow, Lawyer, Professor, Data Visualization Expert – “I wanted to share this 91.7 WVXU/Cincinnati Public Radio story about The Impact Map, a tool I created to help visualize how federal employment, funding, and policy decisions affect our communities. With more than 5,300 data points—and growing—the map is designed to make the invisible visible, so that as many people as possible can understand the breadth of impact of these changes. Behind every data point is a person or a community navigating the effects. If you’re curious about how these impacts show up in your area—or have a story to share…Thanks again to WVXU for highlighting this work – you can read the full article here

“The Impact Project provides objective, transparent, and open-source data to help explain how federal policies, funding, and workforce changes affect our communities. Our first tool, the Impact Map, shows the local impact of federal decisions. Given the limited availability of reliable data, the Impact Map will evolve as new data becomes available. Map data is sourced from local and national news reports and crowdsourced testimonials from individuals directly affected. Story locations are approximate, and in many cases, represent the geographic center of the city or county where the impact occurred, which may include an office location or place where work was being done. Stories were collected using methodologies described on this page. If articles meet the data needs for mapping (data specificity and location information), they are included. We make updates as frequently as possible subject to the availability of new and reliable data and team capacity to add new information. The data included in the Impact Map does not represent a complete picture of the impact of government policies actions and should not be construed as a complete depiction of impacts. We welcome suggestions about how we could better represent the impacts of government change…”

See also The New York Times: “Federal Work Force Prepares for Another Round of Mass Firings as Deadline Nears. The Trump administration’s drive to slash and overhaul the government, led by Elon Musk, has already led to tens of thousands of departures…The group’s hard-charging effort has cast a pall over the federal work force since Mr. Trump returned to the Oval Office. This week’s plans for the mass firings, called “reductions in force,” should offer a clearer picture of the administration’s vision of a downsized federal government. Thousands of workers have also resigned voluntarily in recent days, accepting an offer to quit while temporarily being paid — including more than 1,100 people at the National Park Service, according to a person familiar with the details. The incentive applied only in certain departments as Monday’s deadline neared, and was originally pitched in January as a one-time offer. The Times has interviewed dozens of federal workers who have been fired or expect to be, as well as those who have watched co-workers disappear without any guidance on who would do their work. All spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. Since Jan. 20, agency supervisors and managers have largely been left in the dark about the personnel changes. Many have come to rely on the news media to learn about their job security, a scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency said. And scant information about the resignation and early retirement offers has left federal workers to seek advice on social media about whether to accept…”