Mayor Paul Soglin announced Monday that Madison is now one of 16 new cities to be a part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, an effort to increase the city government’s use of data and evidence.
“This work will help us to connect city services with achieving the outcomes that matter most to our residents,” said Soglin in a City of Madison release. “We know there is still great work to be done in making Madison a place where everyone has access to the resources to be upwardly mobile. Our selection into this program will help to focus city services in the context of achieving outcomes that are critical to this vision."
Madison will now be a part of a 55-city national movement that will work to better use data and evidence in order to engage citizens, inform local decision-making and improve services for residents.
What Works Cities has led a movement across the country over the past 18 months by sharing lessons and practices to improve government effectiveness, as well as helping 90 mayors to advance services through better data and evidence.
Madison will look to complete two projects in early 2017 through this partnership. One project involves relaunching the Open Data Program, enhancing open data practices to release information on a timely basis to make it more accessible and engage residents. The other aims to establish and improve performance management programs to set, track and share progress and improve results.
