Cambridge Selected To Participate in Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Initiative

Today, City Manager Richard C. Rossi announced that Cambridge has been selected to participate in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ “What Work Cities”, one of the largest-ever philanthropic efforts to enhance the use of data and evidence in the public sector. Launched in April 2015, the $42 million initiative is already providing support to City Halls in eight cities and will admit up to 100 cities on a rolling basis through 2017.

"We are excited to collaborate with What Works Cities on further developing our open data program and expanding our day-to-day use of data and evidence through a performance stat program," said Cambridge City Manager Richard C. Rossi. "Our hope is to not only use open data to engage the public in new ways, but also to expand our internal use of data insights in departmental decision making and progress tracking of city goals and priorities."

Cambridge is the first city in the Northeast to be selected to participate in the initiative.

Cambridge joins 12 other new cities in publicly committing to enhance their use of data and evidence to improve services, inform local decision making and engage residents. Along with the mayors of Anchorage, Alaska; Bellevue, Washington; Denton, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Independence, Missouri; Las Vegas, Nevada; Lexington, Kentucky; Saint Paul, Minnesota; San Jose, California; San Francisco, California; Tacoma, Washington and Waco, Texas, the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts will receive support from world class experts.

What Works Cities collaborates with participating municipalities to review their current use of data and evidence, understand where they are utilizing best practices and identify areas for growth. Through its expert partners, What Works Cities will develop customized approaches to help Cambridge create open data governance policies, design and implement a performance stat system, and develop community engagement strategies for both new data programs.

The consortium of leading organizations that has been assembled by Bloomberg Philanthropies to provide a program of support includes Results for America; the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University; the Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School; Sunlight Foundation; and The Behavioral Insights Team.

"Cities around the country are looking to use data more effectively, and the new What Works cities range from Alaska to the East Coast," said Michael R. Bloomberg. "They understand that data is a tool that every city can use to improve public services, and our What Works Cities initiative will help them do just that." 

With the addition of the new cities to the program, What Works Cities is now working in 21 cities in 15 states. The selected What Works Cities represent over 8 million Americans, with annual budgets exceeding a combined $31 billion. Bloomberg Philanthropies named the first eight cities in August 2015. Since then, these cities have made substantial progress by passing open data policies, launching performance management programs, and undertaking new efforts to evaluate programs and manage contracts more effectively.

To receive updates on the What Works Cities initiative, please visit www.whatworkscities.org.