PHOTO | TROY HULL

Leading on Opportunity launched the Opportunity Compass to measure how Charlotte is addressing economic mobility and guide strategies across public, private and corporate sectors.

Charlotte leaders unveiled an equity dashboard to measure the city’s progress on improving economic mobility.

Leading on Opportunity debuted the Opportunity Compass, which was developed in collaboration with community leaders to determine ways to improve economic and social capital in the region. A 2014 national study ranked Charlotte last among the 50 largest U.S. cities in economic mobility.

“The Land of Opportunity study was a nationwide wakeup call that achieving the American Dream is not the reality for everyone,” Sarah Oppenheimer, executive director of Opportunity Insights, said in a statement. … “Charlotte is leading the way in using evidence-based strategies to improve local opportunity and is now creating a location- specific tool to measure the impact of their collective work.”

Leaders from the public, corporate and private sectors joined forces to develop strategies after the 2014 Land of Opportunity study, also known as the Chetty study, revealed Charlotte’s poor performance in social mobility. In 2017, the Opportunity Task Force Report published research and community-based strategies, as well as almost 100 recommendations to local organization.

Measuring progress, however, was problematic, which necessitated development of the Opportunity Compass, which measures four factors of economic mobility: College and career readiness; child and family stability, early care and education and segregation. Advocates say the dashboard is the first economic mobility tool of its kind.

“What excites me about this is it gives us a single shared measurement tool to collectively gauge our work,” Crisis Assistance Ministry CEO Carol Hardison said. “So, if 25 organizations are all working towards one thing, and there’s some progress, it indicates that at least some of them are on the right track and gives us an opportunity to learn.”

The opportunity gauge will be available on Leading on Opportunity’s website, with its data available for anyone to review. The Opportunity Compass tracks evidence-based drivers of economic mobility through publicly available data to set a baseline that determines effective interventions. The data reveals the region has shown improvement in 23 of 33 areas measured.

“Leading on Opportunity is still guided by our North star that every child in Charlotte-Mecklenburg will have a chance to achieve social and economic success,” said Sherri Chisholm, Leading on Opportunity’s executive director. “Providing decision-makers with a tool like the Opportunity Compass to guide strategy and measure progress is a demonstration of our commitment to this work and our children.”

Online:
leadingonopportunity.org/compass

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