We are pleased to partner with Dr. Carolyn DeLoyde, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Betsy Donald, Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University, to bring the Local Futures project to life in the City of Kingston, Ontario.
Dr. DeLoyde and Dr. Donald are Co-Principal Investigators of Kingston in Focus, a collaborative project involving Queen's University, the City of Kingston, Kingston Economic Development and the Kingston and Area Association of Museums, Art Galleries and Historic Sites. This project provides rich, community-relevant data about the City of Kingston, initially developed during the Covid-19 pandemic to understand and communicate the pandemic’s impact on the City of Kingston.
In April 2025, the project expanded to offer deeper insights into the social, cultural and economic realities of Kingston. The site now hosts twelve interactive dashboards that provide data in several areas to measure municipal resiliency, including local economy, community health, housing, and community safety.
Kingston in Focus contributes to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing data to understand Kingston’s progress towards and opportunities for advancing the Goals. One of the key principles of the SDGs is to “leave no one behind,” and disaggregated data is essential to develop targeted policies and programs. By telling “a data story of how the Kingston community is working towards an economic, social, environmental, and culturally sustainable future,” Kingston in Focus provides an evidence-base for policymakers, academics and community organizations to develop impactful research, policies, and programs.
Using a collaborative approach to project design and implementation, the process of developing the dashboards not only produced high-quality data but also strengthened relationships and improved collaboration among the partners, including technological innovation and improved organizational and management processes for all partners involved. The Kingston in Focus design showcases how dashboard making has the potential to be a conduit for better collaborative planning.
Check out our full list of partners on the Project Partners Page.
