CASE STUDY
Equity Indicators
LOCATION
Nationwide
ACTIVE
2014-present
This project helps cities around the country measure and understand disparities faced by marginalized groups and communities through the development of local equity tools.
Challenge:
Inequity in our systems and communities has been a focus of much research, advocacy, and government action. These inequities can affect numerous spheres of life and all who touch them, from the economy to education to public health to the criminal legal system. These disparities are not new, but recent events have brought these issues into sharp relief; most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic magnified existing health, policing, and economic disparities, especially in Black, Brown, immigrant, and other marginalized and under-resourced communities. The impacts are still playing out years later.
While these events have elevated public awareness of the urgent need for reform, addressing disparities requires substantial changes to policy and practice. It also requires sustained attention and monitoring of progress as changes are implemented. When cities and states attempt to create effective solutions, they often grapple with understanding quantitatively where the actual disparities exist—and where to target the solutions. A measurement tool that provides key data points across critical aspects of life can help cities make informed decisions and direct resources toward areas of greatest impact. Such a tool can shed light on individual cities’ specific challenges, enabling the development of tailored solutions.
When cities and states attempt to create effective solutions, they often grapple with understanding quantitatively where the actual disparities exist—and where to target the solutions.
Approach:
In 2014, CUNY ISLG developed a flexible methodology that laid the foundation for Equity Indicators tools across cities with a wide range of needs and priorities. These tools provide a mechanism for cities to understand and measure equity as well as to track progress toward increasing it over time. They address many substantive areas—such as economic opportunity, public health, and community safety—to provide a holistic picture of the disparities experienced by people of color and other historically marginalized groups, and a guide to where change efforts should focus. Rather than serving academic purposes, they are specifically designed to guide decisions about policy and practice, providing information about whether initiatives meant to reduce disparities are working and where new initiatives and resources may be needed. Initially piloted in New York City, the first Equity Indicators tools were designed with a versatile methodology and have been expanded to a nationwide cohort of cities, each of which we have guided and supported toward establishing a unique, localized tool.
The areas, groups, and indicators examined by the tool can be tailored to meet each individual city’s needs and align with its most pressing priorities, using community and other stakeholder engagement to determine the optimal areas of measurement.
The areas, groups, and indicators examined by the tool can be tailored to meet each individual city’s needs and align with its most pressing priorities, using community and other stakeholder engagement to determine the optimal areas of measurement. Each tool relies on multiple data sources but uses a common metric to score indicators. This means that scores can be evaluated across indicators for a high-level view on a city’s performance, or broken down to examine specific areas such as early childhood education or labor force participation. The information gathered is public-facing, both increasing transparency and enabling the data to be used by a broad audience of community stakeholders to support their advocacy and decision-making.
Progress:
CUNY ISLG has raised the profile and impact of the Equity Indicators tools. In partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, we developed our methodologies and implemented the New York City pilot, then built out a multi-city effort across Dallas, Oakland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Tulsa. The tools have had a major impact in each city, informing budgeting allocations, spurring new policies and procedures, inspiring data collection efforts, and galvanizing collaborations among city agencies and broader communities. To name a few examples, the tools catalyzed the first public hearings ever held by Tulsa’s City Council, a budgeting for equity effort in Dallas, a door-knocking campaign in Oakland, and the development of a dashboard covering the wider region in St. Louis County. The City of Pittsburgh used its findings to invest in areas of greatest inequity, with efforts including a violence prevention program to reduce disparities in homicide rates and an initiative to increase financial empowerment among communities of color. The project has also helped spur the establishment of equity offices in Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Tulsa, ensuring a targeted focus on—and investment in—equity moving forward. A later expansion site, Fort Collins, Colorado, created an Equity Office and continues to use and update their dedicated dashboard.
In addition to the creation of Equity Indicators tools, CUNY ISLG serves as a convener and advisor on equity and measurement. This work has ranged from hosting a six-city conference as well as guiding additional national and international jurisdictions of all sizes on how to assess different facets of equity or to develop their own tools. We have acted as a resource for a wide-ranging variety of stakeholders, from city and federal agencies to nonprofits and community groups, and have worked with individual cities to establish Equity Indicators using modified versions of our original methodology. We welcome further collaboration.
To learn more, visit the Equity Indicators site, or contact Victoria Lawson at victoria.lawson@islg.cuny.edu.
