The Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity311Search all NYC.gov websites
Since March of 2020, the wide-ranging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have required an unprecedented level of collaboration across City agencies. NYC Opportunity has stepped up to lend our expertise in service and program design, data integration, product development, research and analysis to support the response. Key initiatives that our teams supported are identified here.
NYC Opportunity was proud to be able to support the City through its darkest hour.
2021
- Conducted research and key estimates for an early childhood basic income allowance proposal, including analysing various scenarios, developing the baseline cost, and estimating poverty impact
- Offered service design team support for the city's Racial Inclusion and Equity Taskforce, including subcommittee management, structure of recommendations, developing workshop agendas, and running office hours to advise subcommittees on community engagement best practices
- Created an emergency cash assistance program for immigrant populations, in collaboration with MOIA and community-based organizations, targeted at individuals not eligible for other relief programs
- Conducted a COVID-19 economic recovery research project in collaboration with the Center for New York City Affairs
- Created the Designed by Community Fellowship, a paid fellowship program to support community members in designing and developing hyper-localized solutions related to the pandemic; developed in collaboration with TakeRoot Justice's Equitable Neighborhoods Practice Area
- Created a service platform for cross-agency data sharing, including cross-agency matching of people and businesses, which was used by agencies in their response to COVID-19 as well as other emergency events and general service coordination
- Launched the Training for Your Employees Program, in collaboration with the NYC Department of Small Business Services, aimed at helping small businesses upgrade their digital skills through no-cost training in digital literacy, marketing tools, online security, COVID-19 safety, and training on common digital platforms
2020
- Coordinated between nonprofits and the city's COVID-19 task force to assist nonprofits in adapting to COVID-19 guidelines
- Created resources in collaboration with MODA and the Office for Operations to share data on the NYC COVID-19 response by zip code, including testing, televisits, meal distribution, and outreach to older adults
- Advised on efforts to design surveys and intake forms for various COVID-era initiatives, including understanding neighborhood needs, hotel accomodations for essential workers, and administration
- Built a tool for the Mayor's fund to track and match COVID-19 related city needs and philanthropic aid
- Utilized service design principles to assist DOE efforts to bring parent and family voices into planning efforts for 3-K and Pre-K distance learning programs
- Built data infrastructure to support vendors for GetFoodNYC, a food delivery program for New Yorkers during the pandemic, including helping vendors set up operations, automate/implement logistics, report progress to relevant parties, and transition towards longer term food delivery programs
- Designed a NYC Opportunity service offerings one-pager, outlining existing services that would be valuable for COVID-19 response efforts
- Created estimates of populations affected by the first round federal COVID relief legislation
- Created a database of city resources and programs to support New Yorkers impacted by COVID-19 for the nyc.gov/coronavirus site launch
- Tracking NYC Opportunity programs' activities and budget changes during the pandemic
- Created a blog series around the effectiveness of remote work and plain language best practices for digital resources
- Assisted the Mayor's Office of Operations to create a COVID-19 dashboard to gauge the early impacts of the pandemic, including data on public benefits, poverty, essential workers, and overall equity
- Supported data integration and analytic needs for numerous COVID-19 programs outreach initiatives to leverage city data for proactive outreach and engagement
- Created a digital tool for New Yorkers to document their COVID-19 status through a DOHMH-issued "COVID Sick Leave Order," providing legal documentation for access to paid sick leave; this application was created in collaboration with DOHMH in response to the NYS COVID-19 paid sick leave law, which offers job protection and paid sick leave for people who missed work due to having tested positive for COVID-19 or having symptoms of COVID-19
- Supported the online emergency food project, ensuring that residents could use existing subsidies to order food online
- Supported content strategy and design efforts for the city's central COVID-19 website, especially for non-health content
- Created graphic materials on workers' rights, benefits eligibility, and service locations for city services, for use by AccessNYC, various agency social media accounts, and community-based organizations
- Developed estimates on number of at-risk workers by industry, drawing on ACS data
- Engaged various agencies to offer assistance from NYCO's Behavioral Design Team to support in COVID-19 communications
- Created a newsletter with COVID-19-related updates
- Created a tracker for social and economic policy responses to help workers affected by COVID-19, bringing together city, state, international, and private sector efforts
- Updated AccessNYC to share new information on changes to benefit programs and location changes due to COVID-19, and worked to expand the site to over 4 million users from the onset of the pandemic to October 2021
- Launched the Restaurant Revitalization Program to provide subsidized jobs to restaurant workers at $20/hour and promote equity goals and policy change around the minimum wage for tipped workers
- Updated GrowingUp NYC to reflect program changes from COVID-19
- Worked with the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Affairs to identify immigrant populations not eligible for SNAP and other nutritional assistance
- Assisted NYC Emergency Management to support mapping, workshop facilitation, and visioning for service coordination for the next phases of COVID-19 response and recovery
- Developed baseline estimates of workers in vulnerable industries, including geographic and demographic information
- Created a research tracker to compile information on successful strategies from past economic recessions and disasters to support economic recovery and build community resilience
- Created a blog series on how COVID-19 and federal programs impacted poverty, frontline workers, housing, childcare, and small business assistance, providing timely updates on the policy effects of the pandemic and new federal programs
- Launched the Fun at Home campaign to keep youth engaged during the lockdown, including informing youth on rapidly-changing COVID-19 guidelines and connecting them with resources and support
- Rapidly shifted research efforts to supply data about populations and locations in need of assistance, monitor the size and impact of federal assistance, and provide data to multiple task forces covering issues such as equitable recovery, racial equity, vaccinations, testing/tracing, poverty among older adults, school meal substitution and beyond