Mayor Madeline Rogero announced Monday that Knoxville has been selected to be one of the 16 newest cities to participate in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative.

“As a City, we want to make sure our operations are as transparent as possible and our services and resources are being used to provide the greatest possible benefit to our citizens,” Mayor Rogero said in a press release. “I am excited about this partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies to improve public data access and explore innovative ways to track and visualize our operations.”

This program, which focuses on getting governments to effectively use data and evidence, now has 55 cities committed to its mission. Established in April 2015, the What Works Cities initiative is one of the largest philanthropic effort to enhance the use of data and evidence in the public sector.

“We are thrilled to welcome these new cities to the initiative, furthering our mission to help cities leverage data and evidence to improve their residents’ lives,” said Simone Brody, executive director of What Works Cities. “We’re proud to add the commitment of these 16 new and innovative cities to this national movement.”

With Knoxville being one of the many new participants, the city will receive technical assistance from experts as it engages in better usage of information to help improve services for residents, inform local decision making, and engage citizens. Specifically, Knoxville will be working on two projects as part of the initiative. The city will be assisted by the open-government group Sunlight Foundation to develop an open data policy and online data portal, as well as be working with the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University to document and share progress toward blight abatement in areas across the city.

The 55 mid-sized cities involved come from 33 states, represent 19 million residents, and have a budget exceeding $63 billion. The What Works Cities initiative has produced 130 resources that cities everywhere are using to improve their communities and give residents better outcomes. The initiative will partner with 100 cities on a consistent basis through the year 2018.