Resources & News

Data-Smart City Solutions: Data, Design, and Collaboration: How Baltimore is Innovating During a Pandemic

August 26, 2020 – The Harvard Kennedy School’s Data-Smart City Solutions connected with the City of Baltimore—a WWC Honor Roll city—and its Office of Performance and Innovation to talk about the transition to remote work, committing to racial equity, and how COVID-19 has required “hasty innovation.”

Smart Cities Dive: Gilbert, AZ gets creative with its digital strategy during COVID-19

August 18, 2020 – The town of Gilbert’s Office of Digital Government received Results for America’s second annual Sharman Stein Award for Storytelling Changemakers for its in part because of the team’s longstanding history of creative and effective digital storytelling.

What Works Cities: Cities and Economic Mobility: What It Takes to Jumpstart Progress

July 31, 2020 – The Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), a WWC expert partner, shares how cities designed their economic mobility projects with local partners and set the right evaluation metrics.

What Works Cities: Sustaining Progress on Economic Mobility During COVID-19

July 8, 2020 – More than 50 local government leaders and community partners from the nine participating cities participating in the WWC Economic Mobility initiative convened in a virtual conference organized by Results for America. Over the course of two afternoons on June 17 and 18, the cities problem solved with their peers and heard from experts in racial equity, workforce, housing, financial security, and child care.

What Works Cities: How Data-Driven Cities Respond Swiftly and Effectively to COVID-19

May 29, 2020 – To contain the novel coronavirus’ spread and protect residents, local leaders have had to act swiftly and decisively, underscoring the power of data to guide critical decisions. Read more about how cities across the country have leaned on the data cultures they have built in their response to COVID-19.

What Works Cities: Boosting Economic Mobility: The Great Challenge of Our Time

April 30, 2020 – Maia Jachimowicz, Vice President for Evidence-Based Policy Implementation at Results for America, and Zachary Markovits, Director of City Progress at What Works Cities, share why the work started by cities in the What Works Cities’ Economic Mobility Initiative to address economic disparities—even before the pandemic—is as urgent and as important as ever.

U.S News and World Report: How Data Is Shaping the Way Cities Respond to COVID-19

April 28, 2020 – What Works Cities Executive Director Simone Brody shares her perspective on the uses of data during COVID-19, and Los Angeles Chief Innovation Officer Amanda Daflos shares what L.A., a What Works Cities Gold Certified city, has been doing to ensure a data-driven approach to their city’s COVID-19 response.

Results For America: What Works Cities Invites Cities to Apply to New Intensive Learning Opportunity Focused on Addressing the Economic Impacts of Driver’s License Suspension for Residents

November 4, 2019 – What Works Cities, a Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative, is partnering with the City of Durham Innovation Team and the Fines and Fees Justice Center to provide a new intensive, virtual workshop for cities that want to end the negative impact of driver’s license suspensions on their residents’ economic opportunity and well-being. The 10-week workshop, Ensuring Opportunity Through Driver’s License Restoration & Reform: What Cities Can Do Now, will be offered in an online classroom with an immersive, expedited format.

English Forward News: Early childhood education brightens 2.5k lives

September 30, 2019 – Early childhood education will be provided to children in Birmingham under the auspices of Bloomberg Philanthropies. Birmingham has been chosen as one of the five cities in the United States participating in an initiative similar to Providence Talks. The Providence Talks initiative was first launched as a program aiming to help secure early childhood education for those between one and three years old, in the Providence area. However, the idea behind this initiative has now spread to numerous cities and states in America, and Bloomberg is helping in developing such programs.

BAMA Politics: Birmingham Early Childhood Education Gets A Boost From Bloomberg

September 28, 2019 – The city of Birmingham was selected as one of five American cities to replicate Providence Talks, a free, citywide early childhood program that aims to increase interactive talk with children to foster early brain development. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, through its What Works Cities initiative, Birmingham is launching Birmingham Talks to serve 2,500 children across Jefferson County over the next three years.