The greater Seattle region has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years, coupled with widening disparities. The pace of economic growth in our region is extraordinarily high, yet this growth has not been reinvested such that individuals, households, and communities truly thrive. Camber partnered with Civic Commons (a Seattle Foundation initiative) to develop a tool to measure shared prosperity, with the intent of informing decision making and collaboration among the social, private, and public sectors. While the traditional definition of prosperity focuses on measures such as GDP, shared prosperity emphasizes the overall well-being of everybody in our region, holding firm the idea that we do better when we all do better. 

Camber was tasked with determining the structure and appropriate indicators for the scorecard, as well as supporting a consortium of public, private, and social sector stakeholders to ensure the tool would be utilized across sectors. Camber worked with an advisory board to craft and align on a theory of change and define an initial set of bounds and requirements for the indicators. Based on the notion of shared prosperity, Camber identified meaningful categories (individuals, households, communities, economy, and democracy) and facilitated discussion to ensure that potential indicators enabled progress tracking, as well as shared interpretation of greater regional well-being. With deep literature and database research, consultation with subject matter experts, and advisory board engagement, Camber identified specific metrics for inclusion on the scorecard. Camber worked closely with the client to test the scorecard through a roadshow with additional SMEs and actors in the field to evaluate the actionability of the tool. Finally, Camber incorporated roadshow feedback and partnered with a designer to develop the final scorecard. 

The result of this collaboration was the Scorecard for Shared Prosperity, a regional asset launched in Fall of 2019. The Scorecard for Shared Prosperity prioritizes how individuals, households, and communities in our region are thriving, supported by a growing economy and a vibrant democracy.  All five dimensions of this framework are required to work in sync to truly achieve shared prosperity for our region. This scorecard is updated regularly and is meant to motivate new ways of thinking about prosperity, promote celebration of our collective successes, and galvanize action toward tackling our region’s most pressing issues.