By Julie Rusk, Assistant Director, Department of Community and Cultural Services for Santa Monica
The Guardian
In 2013 we were awarded a Bloomberg Philanthropies innovation prize to create a wellbeing index for the city of Santa Monica in California. It sounded simple. Define, understand and measure what matters most: how people are doing. There was just one thing. No one had ever done it before. There was no model, no textbook and no map. We were heading into uncharted territory.
Guided by a team from different departments (some excited, others sceptical) we set out to tackle this new challenge. We combed through databases and gathered information about crime, transit, libraries, parks, graduation and employment rates. We sorted the data but needed to know more.
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