Resources & News

Activating Communities: Open Data User Research to Support Complete Neighborhoods in Madison, WI

February 1, 2018 – Madison established an open data ordinance in 2012 and subsequently launched a city open data portal. Since that time the city has published 136 datasets on the portal; however after some initial success with the civic hacking community, much of this data has gone largely unused by community groups. The city sought to make its data more usable and ultimately impactful to the public. In 2017 Madison reached out to Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative for help.

What Works Cities Brief: What Excellence Looks like in Local Government

January 25, 2018 – In a new brief, Stephen Goldsmith discusses how What Works Cities has identified the key characteristics of a city devoted to using data to comprehensively identify, well, what works. Driven by the desire to share that knowledge more broadly, What Works Cities designed its newly announced Certification program to recognize high-performing cities across those criteria, to create an objective standard of success, and to help cities at any point in the data journey understand how they can improve their practices.

Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab: Improving Government Vendor Diversity

September 14, 2017 – This policy brief describes strategies for increasing the share of government contracts with minority and women-owned businesses (MWBEs) based on the lessons learned from the Government Performance Lab’s (GPL) work with the City of Boston. The GPL’s pro bono technical assistance was provided through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative.

Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab: Active Contract Management: How Governments Can Collaborate More Effectively with Social Service Providers to Achieve Better Results

September 11, 2017 – Drawing on the Government Performance Lab’s engagements piloting active contract management (ACM) strategies with state and local governments across the country, this new policy brief describes the problems that ACM aims to solve, discusses the benefits of using these strategies, and outlines elements of effective ACM systems.

What Works Cities Resource: The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab: Outcome and Process Metrics Recommendations Developed for Seattle’s Homeless Services Contracts

As part of its contract recommendations to Seattle’s Human Services Department, the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL) developed outcome and process metrics for homeless services. These metrics are described in this brief and may be helpful to other jurisdictions that are seeking
to adopt a data-driven approach to managing their homeless services contracts.

What Works Cities Resource: The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL): Shaking up the Routine: How Seattle is Implementing Results-Driven Contracting Practices to Improve Outcomes for People Experiencing Homelessness

Seattle’s budget for homeless services increased from $29 million in 2005 (in 2016 dollars) to $50 million in 2016. Yet homelessness has continued to rise—at an average rate of 13% per year between 2011 and 2016. In an effort to change this trend, the Seattle Mayor’s Office, the Human Services Department (HSD), and five service providers began a pilot project in August 2015 to reorient homeless services contracts to focus on performance (primarily permanent housing placements and housing stability) and address other limitations with the current contracting structure.

What Works Cities Brief: The City Hall Data Gap

March 10 2016 – Unlocking the potential of data and evidence to inform decision making is key to ensuring cities thrive in the 21st century. Through What Works Cities’ early efforts, we’ve learned that cities across the country are sold on the value of using data and evidence to make informed decisions for their communities; the demand is robust. But a wide gap exists between cities’ desire and their ability to implement evidence-based practices. This brief quantifies cities’ current practices around the use of data, based on an analysis by The Bridgespan Group of What Works Cities applicants. The analysis is focused on information from the 39 cities visited by What Works Cities and supported by surveys from all 115 applicant cities. Consider that 81% of cities have engaged the public on a strategic goal, yet only 19% of cities publicly communicate their progress towards meeting that goal.