2017 TLG Case Studies | Alliance for Innovation
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Population: 650,000
Denver’s Mayor made Customer Service one of his top priorities when he took office in 2011 because one of the biggest customer complaints was how long it took to do business with the City. Three agencies examined wait times and customer service satisfaction.
Government agencies are monopolies; we are the only provider of our goods and services. The lack of competition has led to the perception of tangled bureaucracy and government workers who don’t care about the customer. And perception is reality.
Our customers’ perception now is that they are our priority every day. Now, we hear how quick and easy doing business with us is and how we exceed the customer’s expectations. Heck, we even get Yelp awards because people love us. How many Departments of motor Vehicles can make that claim?!
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City of Durham and County of Durham, NC
Populations: 228,330 and 276,587
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle
As two organizations serving largely the same residents, two years ago City and County staff conceived IdeaLab as a regular forum and place for both organizations to coalesce around a shared vision to generate ideas and build innovation capacity. Every other month, employees from a wide variety of City and County departments gather – often in funky, startup-style meeting spaces off-site – to learn about an innovation concept and to then practice that concept with a hands-on activity. Since its creation, IdeaLab has evolved into a workshop-style forum where employees are exposed to a variety of innovative concepts and skills such as behavioral economics, human-centered design and prototyping. The City and County of Durham are committed to fostering a culture of innovation, one IdeaLab session at a time.
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Population: 21,000
Well, it really started with the 2014 Innovation Academy, followed by a box of wigs, a music video, and then the creation of an internal leadership development program. The City of Decatur Innovation Academy team decided to create a program that engaged and motivated employees to lead growth and change in the organization. In 2015, the first E5 Academy started with participants taking part unique team building activities, learning leadership techniques, and building strong interdepartmental relationships.
This session is for anyone looking to create an internal leadership training program or for anyone looking to breathe new life into their organization by getting employees to think outside the box. You’ll hear from members of the original Innovation Academy team and graduates of the first E5 Academy class, and experience some of the E5 activities first hand.
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Population: 21,000
What is government’s role in creating a space for community dialogue across differences? How do you bring everyone to the table, especially those who have not traditionally felt welcomed or included? Why should you spend time and money on a civic engagement process to create a plan designed to result in a more just, welcoming, equitable, inclusive and compassionate community?
This presentation addresses these questions and more in a dynamic, interactive dialogue with Decatur, GA officials and residents who created and are currently implementing the Better Together Community Action Plan for Equity, Inclusion and Engagement and taking a proactive approach to addressing conversations across differences.
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Population: 70,320
American contemporary author E.A. Bucchianeri contends that “there are times when wisdom cannot be found in the chambers of parliament or the halls of academia but at the unpretentious setting of the kitchen table.” Indeed, local governments are constantly striving to meet constituents where they are, while also conducting public discourse in an open, transparent way. In the digital age, this balance has become even more critical to engaging stakeholders and earning their trust.
Online technology has afforded a solution—essentially creating a ‘virtual kitchen table’ where everyone can pull up a chair regardless of their schedules or comfort with public speaking. The City of Flagstaff, AZ, recently exemplified what is possible with online civic engagement, when it launched a dedicated online portal in 2015. The city was able to create a digital hub rich with thoughtful, productive discussions—many of which included new voices from the community. During this session, attendees will learn what went into making this effort successful, and how it has benefitted city staff, elected officials and the community at large.
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Population: 150,000
As the City of Fort Collins’ external services grow, our internal workforce is in need of opportunities to learn more about our own programs, specifically how we are achieving sustainability within our operations. One Planet is an internal, employee engagement and sustainability program, designed around field trips, which educates City staff about the services and programs provided for our community.
The One Planet program is a short term, annual program strives to inspire the people in our workforce (the City of Fort Collins) to embrace the three pillars of sustainability and become better employees through hands-on learning opportunities. One Planet fosters interdepartmental collaboration, connections and idea generation. It stretches employees who participate to learn more about their own organization and it stretches the employees giving tours to learn how to showcase their work. The best part of the program is that it is run by employees for employees, allowing internal experts to showcase and describe their work to their co-workers. It also provides leadership opportunities to the Ambassadors (a group of employees dedicated to running the program). It is great to step away from the daily grind of work to see the big picture and how we, as an organization, make a difference in our community through the projects and programs that are on available. There are no other opportunities to learn and grow through hands-on opportunities like One Planet.
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Population: 353,000
The innovative Junk Mail project is directly tied to Manatee County’s vision for a sustainable community. The goal of eliminating massive volumes of junk/third-party mail coming into the county system came from an online residential survey which addressed recycling and waste disposal services in Manatee County. Community recycling concerns included the continuous cycle of receiving and disposing of junk mail. After assessing the results, the junk mail project officially kicked off in November of 2015 and is currently ongoing. The initial idea behind the project was simple; decrease the amount of incoming mail by eliminating it at the source. The thought was to unsubscribe from all media and marketing agencies, cancel and reduce subscriptions, and join the modernized world of digital communications.
The Energy and Sustainability Coordinator contacted hundreds of marketing and media organization and unsubscribed from thousands of unwanted materials. Over the past year, researching the many external components associated with junk mail became essential for the awareness and accountability of the careless use of natural resources and harmful environmental consequences. Other unfavorable issues anonymously affect the community and local taxpayers by paying the cost of delivery and disposal of unsolicited junk mail. The project continues to be a proactive approach by improving time management, updating county operations, preserving environmental and county resources by considering the triple-bottom-line and the analysis of the entire nexus system.
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City of Mesa, AZ
Establishing Employee Health Centers and Creating Positive Health Outcomes
Population: 457,587
The City of Mesa has taken a very progressive stance on improving the health of its organization. In 2014, the City of Mesa established its own employee Health and Wellness Center, drastically changing how healthcare is delivered to its employees and family members participating in the City’s health plan. By decreasing the barriers to quality healthcare and developing an integrative approach, the City has created and continues to discover new ways to transform and improve the health of its organization.
In this case study session, participants will learn how an onsite employee health center can ignite many positive changes within an organization, including improved employee health, morale, productivity and retention. Participants will get the opportunity to assess their employer health benefits plan and see how implementing an employee health center can provide a variety of benefits. In addition, the session will address the integrative approach taken by the City of Mesa to employer health and benefits design and the challenges and opportunities that come with this endeavor.
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Health Check Up SOAP Note
Population: 58,753
Imagine spending countless hours in 6+ software packages developing an “easy to understand” document that eventually produced material to fill multiple 4-inch binders. The result was the City of Novi, Michigan’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP). City staff reached the point where there had to be an efficient alternative and engaged the private sector to partner in developing a technology-driven solution to improve and optimize how the City creates and publishes the CIP document. The end result allows for easy comprehension of the material by elected and appointed officials, along with other community stakeholders.
An interactive and engaging session will guide participants through leads identified by a private partner, Socrata, to think outside of the box and come up with a new platform to present a complex set of data in lieu of settling with printing reams of paper to convey the necessary information. Session participants will see firsthand how a digital solution optimized an obsolete way of conveying information.
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Population: 58,753
Every community is looking for new ways to attract new residents to call their municipality home. Novi, Michigan took a new approach by utilizing constantly evolving mapping solutions and leveraging the partnerships with its respective school districts to develop a new tool to say “hello” to potential new citizens. No matter where you are in the world you can take a virtual tour of the City and view videos highlighting important landmarks (schools, parks, shopping districts, etc.) to help you decide this is the right place for you!
The presentation will guide interested attendees through the process of pulling together a content rich website and working with several partners to pull everything together and make it work!
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Population: 1,500,000
The City of Phoenix is taking a new approach to sustainability by implementing circular economy principals to transform trash into resources. The City is creating economic activity from materials that the City previously spent money to landfill such as mattresses, food waste, and palm fronds while increasing the diversion rate. Additionally, The City is repurposing what was previously considered undesirable land near a transfer station, a materials recovery facility and a closed landfill and now leasing that land to manufacturers who are creating jobs and new products, all from materials previously considered trash.
This interactive case study will help you identify ways your local government can mine for gold in the waste stream to increase the solid waste diversion rate; create jobs; and stimulate the local economy by attracting new businesses, manufacturers and innovators.
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City of Phoenix, AZ
Population: 1,500,000
Named among the nation’s worst recession ghost towns following the housing crisis, Phoenix was left with a surge of vacant properties throughout the city. For years, Phoenix has overlooked state laws that provide Arizona municipalities the power to foreclose on delinquent blight abatement liens. After all, what city would ever think to foreclose on its residents? Phoenix’ Abatement Lien Program (ALP), utilizes the leverage granted by state law to foreclose on properties it paid to secure and abate blight transforming chronic vacant or abandoned and blighting properties into lived in, tax paying, contributing residential properties, while recovering millions of dollars of unpaid liens.
What problems is your organization facing that should warrant its assumptions to be challenged? What circumstances make a solution, once seen as impractical, politically viable? Phoenix had to change antiquated assumptions that delinquent abatement lien properties were lived in as the economic downturn continued to produce dilapidated and vacant properties that were draining city funds to repeatedly abate their blight. The changing circumstances made it politically acceptable to foreclose on vacant property that is a burden on neighborhoods from a health and safety, nuisance, and property value perspective.
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City of San Antonio, TX
Population: 1,469,845
Many communities have struggled with the issue of decreasing the population of those that are chronically homeless. Often Police Departments are expected to “arrest away” the problem. However, arresting away the problem does not work – the chronically homeless cycle in and out of the criminal justice system and homelessness; businesses and residents do not see any changes in their neighborhoods; and the chronically homeless do not get the help they need. In the fall of 2015, the City of San Antonio’s Office of Innovation collaborated with the City’s Police Department, the City’s Department of Human Services and local homeless service providers to come up with a collaborative, innovative solution to the problem. The new strategy aimed to balance law enforcement and human service approaches and has led to a number of improvements for the City’s homeless population, the people serving them and our community as a whole.
This presentation will provide information on our new strategy which includes multi-disciplinary IMPACT teams (Integrated Mobile Partners Action Care Team), a modernized organizational structure and a streamlined continuum of care system to access services. The presentation will also include hearing directly from the providers of services and those that are benefiting from the services. This has been a truly collaborative effort that has had an immediate impact on San Antonio. Within the first six month, the IMPACT teams have documented over 579 contacts with homeless individuals since the start of the program, resulting in a 33% referral rate. Data shows that homeless individuals are now more willing to accept assistance and refusal of services has reduced from 57% at the start of the program to 38%.
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Population: 403,505
Tulsa is known for its wide range of services for at-risk populations. A particular emphasis has been on services for teens through organizations like Youth Services of Tulsa and the Campaign to End Teen Pregnancy. Throughout the years, these agencies have struggled to engage teens consistently due to a lack of transportation options. Typically teens must arrange their own transportation after school to attend physical and mental health related appointments. Over the past year a team of social entrepreneurs came together as part of the Mine Fellowship to solve this problem.
The solution was a combination of a volunteer-based transit system, called ModusSelect and a training called ModusEd that sought to train teens on ways to use existing transit. In the meantime, Tulsa Transit and Tulsa Public Schools were working on a partnership to allow high school students to ride transit for free using their ID. A small team of Code for Tulsa developers set out to develop a simple interface called TPSRides that allows students to get transit directions to school on their smartphones. We will discuss the partnership between Tulsa Public Schools and Tulsa Transit as well as the benefits of helping teens use transit. Today over 2,000 trips per week are being taken on Tulsa Transit.
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