About MDRC
Yu is a quantitative researcher in MDRC’s Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities policy area. She currently contributes to the Purpose Built Communities study and the TANF Data Innovation technical assistance project. Her past work at MDRC includes data visualization, design and development of MDRC’s online social network analysis primer, as well as data management and analysis for the HUD Rent Reform Demonstration, Santa Clara Housing Authority Moving to Work Retrospective, and Chicago New Communities Program studies. Prior to joining MDRC, Yu worked as a magazine editor, digital content strategist, UI/UX designer, and economic consultant. She holds a master’s degree in public policy and a bachelor’s degree in English literature and computer science from Columbia University.
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MDRC Publications
ReportStability and Change
January, 2019Community organizations are at the center of neighborhood improvement efforts. But how do organizational networks evolve over time, and how does their evolution affect local capacity for positive change? This report takes on these questions to advance an understanding of how community networks function, and how to better support them.
MethodologyMarch, 2018Social network analysis models the structure of relationships using “nodes” (such as organizations) and “edges” (or ties, such as contracts). This Reflections on Methodology post highlights what the method can analyze — strength and complexity of connections, an organization’s positional power — in the context of a community development study in Chicago.
ReportLearning from the Chicago Community Networks Study
November, 2017This report presents findings from the Chicago Community Networks study — one of the most extensive efforts to measure interorganizational partnerships in local neighborhoods. It uses social network analysis and extensive field research to ask how specific patterns of partnership promote better-implemented collaborations that, in turn, can inform public policy.
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Other Publications
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Projects
With support from the $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund, Social Finance aims to empower more than 20,000 learners to realize over $1 billion in aggregate wage gains over the next decade. Google Career Certificates are industry-recognized credentials that prepare people for in-demand, entry-level jobs in the fields of data analytics, IT support, project...
Over 2 million households receive federal housing subsidies that allow them to rent in the private rental market. The Housing Choice Voucher program, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD ), requires households to pay 30 percent of their incomes toward rent; HUD subsidizes the remaining amount of the households’ rent up to a certain...
Richard Hendra, Stephanie Rubino, Erika Lundquist, Melissa Wavelet, Johanna Walter, Edith Yang, Mark van Dok, Audrey YuTANF Data Innovation ( TDI ) is a national initiative to support state, local, and tribal agencies that administer Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF ) and the federal agencies that oversee this work. This initiative aims to substantially expand the routine use, integration, and analysis of TANF and employment data to improve outcomes for families and to...
James A. Riccio, Nandita Verma, Gilda Azurdia, Edith Yang, Jonathan Bigelow, Keith Olejniczak, Joshua Vermette, Audrey Yu, Melissa WestThe Housing Choice Voucher Program is one of the federal government’s major programs for helping very low-income families with children, elderly people, and disabled people afford decent and safe housing in the private rental market. Housing vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban...
Can community-led efforts improve outcomes for residents at the neighborhood level? This is a critical question for policy and practice. For over a decade, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has supported the Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Chicago ( LISC Chicago) to make neighborhoods safer, support young people, improve schools, and preserve...