❮ Projects page Legal Clinic for the Disabled, Inc.

Spatial Analysis Project:

LCD aims to create visualizations of the correlations between health status, income status, legal needs, and geography of low-income individuals in the Philadelphia region. By combining the substantial quantity of de-identified client data from its 5 innovative Medical-Legal Partnerships with publically available data sets on income, employment, household status and other demographic measures, LCD seeks to offer a unique perspective on the role that socio-economic factors have on the well-being of low income individuals. For example, maps of particular disabilities such as asthma patients, overlaid with housing condition cases may help us focus legal intervention for class action law suits against delinquent property owners. Given the inter-disciplinary nature of LCD’s work, the analysis will draw upon and help inform elements of public health, legal advocacy, public policy as well as geographic information systems.

Data available:

LCD has the capacity to provide de-identified data on thousands of low-income clients in the Philadelphia region. This data includes address, age, disability/health status, and legal need(s). This data will be combined and compared with publicly available data sets from entities such as the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Department of Health to provide a unique snapshot of the needs of low-income individuals with disabilities in Philadelphia.

Maps and Reports that will be created:

Examples of sought products:

• Combining maps of disability/health status with maps of legal needs to establish correlations
• Mapping the locations of low-income chronic asthma patients living in sub-standard housing
• Mapping the relationship between income, health status, and food insecurity in Philadelphia neighborhoods
• Identifying locations for public outreach where unmet legal needs likely exist based on the profiles created from current client data

How the maps and reports will be used:

The products will serve as extremely versatile tools for LCD. They will be featured at LCD’s outreach events to the Philadelphia community, in its quarterly newsletters, in its trainings and presentations to healthcare partners, and in subsequent scholarly research. LCD will utilize these visualizations as proof of the value of Medical-Legal Partnerships as effective means of addressing the social determinants of patient health. Furthermore, the maps will also inform expansion of services into target neighborhoods.