Mayor Krewson Launches Citywide Initiative to Measure Progress Toward Equity

Today, Mayor Lyda Krewson, announced that the City of St. Louis has been selected as one of five cities nationally that will receive support to develop an Equality Indicator to measure progress toward equity.

An Equality Indicator is an online data tool used to analyze whether St. Louis is making progress toward reducing inequity. The Krewson Administration, Forward Through Ferguson, and a cohort of local partners will establish the baseline against which progress will be measured. This publicly accessible dataset will then empower the entire St. Louis community to track successes and implement data-informed interventions to address disparities impacting St. Louis residents. Development of the Equality Indicator will build upon and support existing reports, data and measurement efforts happening in other parts of the region.

The Equality Indicators project is a collaboration with the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG), The Rockefeller Foundation, and 100 Resilient Cities (100RC).

St. Louis joins Dallas, Oakland, Pittsburgh and Tulsa in collaborating on this effort.  

“August of 2014 has become a defining moment for both St. Louis and our nation,” said Mayor Lyda Krewson. “The protests which began in Ferguson marched down the streets of nearly every major American city. As a result, St. Louis now stands at the forefront of the national conversation about equity and the debilitating racial disparities across our communities.

What we've learned through this conversation is that real equity cannot be defined by merely one indicator, but rather many, and it is something that we have to work toward continuously and with intention," Krewson added. "The ISLG Equality Indicators grant and our partnership with 100 Resilient Cities presents St. Louis with an opportunity to collaborate with other leading cities and experts in order to better inform our local decisions and utilize data to drive the policies that will close our equity gaps."

The Equality Indicators tool is based on a model developed in 2015 in order to measure equity in New York City. The New York effort measures six broad indicators, including economy, education, health, housing, justice, and access to city services.

ISLG Executive Director Michael Jacobson said: “We’re proud to expand our work with The Rockefeller Foundation to measure equality in five diverse cities across the country. At this critical time when there is increased scrutiny of local government policies and practices, it’s important for jurisdictions to look closely at the data they have to really understand what’s going on, what’s working, and where improvement needs to be made. This work will go a long way towards helping jurisdictions do this in a thoughtful and transparent way.”

The Equality Indicators are a project of the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG). The CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance bridges the gap between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to address the challenges and opportunities confronting government. ISLG works with government agencies, as well as nonprofit organizations, philanthropic institutions, and the private sector, to improve public systems to produce better results that are worthy of public investment and trust. For more information, please visit equalityindicators.org and islg.cuny.edu.