Category: What Counts?

Democratizing Data Pathways Through Partnerships to Enhance Community Well-Being
admin June 10, 2026

Democratizing Data Pathways Through Partnerships to Enhance Community Well-Being

Public data is increasingly recognized as a critical tool for strengthening transparency, accountability, and community well-being. When used effectively, it enables residents to understand how decisions are made, how resources are distributed, and how local governments respond to community needs. However, many communities still lack the tools, infrastructure, and enabling policy environments required to meaningfully engage with and benefit from data systems. The Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative’s Equitable Community Data Pathways team explores how more equitable data ecosystems can be built through partnerships between communities, researchers, and government institutions. Their work highlights that improving well-being is not only a...

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GDP Up, Satisfaction Down: Why the World Needs a New Way to Measure Progress
admin May 21, 2026

GDP Up, Satisfaction Down: Why the World Needs a New Way to Measure Progress

For decades, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been treated as the primary benchmark for national progress. When GDP rises, it is widely interpreted as a sign that societies are improving economically. Yet in many contexts, this growth narrative increasingly contrasts with lived experience: while economic output expands, public trust declines, inequality persists, and overall life satisfaction stagnates or even falls. This growing disconnect raises a fundamental question: if GDP is going up but people do not feel better off, what exactly are we measuring—and what are we missing? The Limits of GDP as a Measure of Progress GDP is, in...

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admin June 3, 2024

Promoting Economic Participation through Regional Equity

What is regional equity? In the context of the San Francisco Fed’s work, regional equity means ensuring that all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, geographic location, or other demographic factors, can fully contribute their talents and skills to the economy and benefit from it. The San Francisco Fed studies the underlying conditions that influence people’s access to opportunities as part of its mission to promote a healthy, inclusive, and sustainable economy and support the nation’s financial and payment systems. Where people live within a region—whether it's the Bay Area, the Inland Empire, the Seattle metro area, or the Salt Lake...

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admin September 22, 2015

Changing the Development Process – Data Opening Up New Opportunities in Kansas City

The sprawl and segregation that characterize America’s suburbs are the direct result of inefficient “low-density” land development processes. Those processes became so entrenched in recent decades that some gave up hope they could ever be changed. Yet a program of the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC – Kansas City’s metropolitan planning agency) suggests real possibilities for new directions. Interestingly, data have served as the central change agent.

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admin August 13, 2015

Data and Measurement Issues Surrounding “Hub” Models: The Case of Briya/Mary’s Center

In the best of all possible worlds, community initiatives would be collecting and using client and services data to know whether they’re working in both the short-term and with a longer time horizon. Unfortunately, organizations faces multiple challenges when it comes to using evaluation and data to demonstrate success to municipalities or philanthropists. The authors’ examination of Briya/Mary’s Center underscores the importance of ensuring that community-serving organizations can create a broad data collection and sharing ecosystem.

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admin May 26, 2015

Data in Action: Mobilizing Change by Mapping Health Disparities

When is a picture worth a thousand words? When that picture is a map depicting neighborhood health disparities. Visit the Data in Action tab to find out how mapping helped Communities of Opportunity, a joint initiative of the Seattle Foundation, the Department of Public Health-Seattle & King County, and the King County Department of Community and Human Services, hone in on its goal to make the region’s health assets more equitable.

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admin February 4, 2015

Data in Action: Worker Conditions in Chinatown

We went behind the scenes to show how communities are using data to spark change. In this case, workers in San Francisco’s Chinatown collaborated with researchers to document conditions in restaurants. The results were surprising, even to workers. Visit the Data in Action tab to read all about it.

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