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De Blasio Administration, Second Term (2018-2021)
New Program Models & Digital Products
- Launched inaugural Designed by Community program for community leaders to work with the Service Design Studio to execute projects and learn service design methods
- Launched Mental Health for All to make it easier to find and access mental health resources
- Partnered with the Office of Community Mental Health to create an Academy for Community Behavioral Health to expand mental health capacity in neighborhoods
- Launched Training for Your Employees program with Small Business Services
- Supported expansion of child savings accounts program to be citywide for all public school kindergartners
Research & Evaluations
- Began testing the efficacy of cash transfer programs for young people through Baby's First Years and Trust Youth Initiative
- Released the Young Adult Literacy Evaluation
- Launched new evaluation of providing living stipends to participants in City job training programs
- Partnered with NYPD to create and field a survey to better understand community perspectives on Neighborhood Policing efforts
Data Integration & Tools
- Launched a new cloud-based data lake to provide controlled access to multiple administrative data sets for collaborative research across agencies and research partnerships
- Launched new Data Catalog – a digital, searchable tool designed to curate information about data sets, systems and services that City agencies manage
Poverty & Equity Analysis
- Published multiple analysis on the impact of COVID on low-income New Yorkers
- Enhanced poverty analysis with community-based qualitative research focused on lived experiences
- Began a joint research partnership with Opportunity Insights to identify long term impacts of local policies on economic mobility
- Launched a new dashboard for poverty rate data and risk of poverty by demographics, community, and other measures
- Estimated effects on poverty of expanded child tax credit and earned income tax credits.
Service Innovations
- Completed Homeless Youth Research project to capture how youth experiencing homelessness want to find and access resource
New Program Models & Digital Products
- Launched 3-2-1 IMPACT program with H+H to integrate primary care and behavioral health for families of infants
- Created subsidy to support restaurants, elevate the sub-minimum wage and provide free meals during the pandemic
- Launched Working NYC, bringing together employment and job-training resources from across City government
- Partnered with DYCD to modify youth programming based on evaluation findings, launching Advance and Earn to increase education and employment of young people
- Began to prototype My File NYC, a digital tool to make it easier for families to share documents and personal data during benefits application processes
- Launched EquityNYC online to disaggregate data on social conditions and agency performance
Data Integration & Tools
- Activated the integrated data service hub to provide critical data management and analytic support for multiple COVID-19 operations
- Completed development of a new Enterprise Master Data Management (MDM) service to support City agencies link person or business data across different systems
Poverty & Equity Analysis
- Launched Results for Racial and Social Equity Program to help 25 agencies develop equity assessments and plans
- Teams serve as go-to resource for City agencies and task forces to assess impact of pandemic and related policies on low-income New Yorkers
Service Innovations
New Program Models & Digital Products
- Funded 5 competitively sourced initiatives to facilitate new cross-agency improvements to service delivery
- Deepened Jobs-Plus employment program for NYCHA residents by integrating mental health supports
- Published NYC Benefits Screening API to open source eligibility guidance for multiple safety net programs
Research & Evaluations
Data Integration & Tools
- Launched a new service alert using integrated data to support the efforts of street outreach providers serving street homeless clients
- Piloted the NYC Opportunity Research Workspace as a secure infrastructure for the analysis of confidential data by external research partners
- Produced report and recommendations to City Council on data interoperability and information sharing in human service
Poverty & Equity Analysis
- Successfully used NYCGov poverty data to lower utility costs for low income households, generating $60m in new discounts
- Developed guidance for NYC's first Agency Equity Assessments and Action Plans under LL 174 applying to ACS, DOHMH and DSS
- Advised on development of flood insurance policy for low income households in climate threatened neighborhoods
Service Innovations
- Funded and helped develop DSS' Center for Service Innovation to accelerate how the agency uses client experience to shape products and services
- Applied Service Design methods to understand, explore, and develop initiatives to prevent future incarceration through a coordinated family based reentry system
New Program Models & Digital Products
Research & Evaluations
Data Integration & Tools
- Built the data platform to support the integration and analysis of the City’s workforce development program data
- Published Social Service Site Location Data, a curated data set of delivery locations of City-funded social services
- Established Social Service APIs, a new data service using a set of standardized web services, to support interoperable data exchanges between case management systems
- Created integration service hub to support data needs for outreach operations serving vulnerable residents during citywide emergencies
Poverty & Equity Analysis
Service Innovations
- Partnered with ACS to elevate family voice as first comprehensive project in the Service Design Studio's "Designing for Opportunity" program
- Released "The Guide to Collaborative Communications" to foster more stakeholder input in development of City RFPs
- Arches program selected as a finalist for Harvard Innovations in American Government award
- Worked with DHS staff, clients and leaders to recommend opportunities to create a more trauma-informed family shelter system
- Produced report and recommendations to City Council on using technology to streamline benefits access
National Influence
De Blasio Administration, First Term (2014-2017):
New Program Models & Digital Products
- Funded Baby’s First Year’s project, a landmark direct cash program studying the causal impact of poverty
- Launched new cohort of CUNY ACE, replicating ASAP to improve graduation rates of bachelors degree students
- Launched NYC Kids Rise as data and evaluation partner, leading to citywide expansion of universal savings accounts
- Expanded NYCitizenship naturalization resources for immigrant communities to increase economic security with libraries and MOIA
- Redesigned ACCESS NYC as user-friendly, mobile first, open-source product to help New Yorkers connect to benefits and services, eventually reaching 4 million users
- Led research for MOCJ Jails to Jobs initiative and began development of related workforce training
Data Integration & Tools
- Established data sharing partnerships to create a longitudinal database of integrated workforce data
- Applied human-centered design to launch a more user-friendly, mobile-responsive interface for WorkerConnect
- Built an integrated data platform to facilitate streamlined outreach, phone banking and door-knocking during citywide emergencies
Poverty & Equity Analysis
Service Innovations
National Influence
Organizational History
New Program Models & Digital Products
Research & Evaluations
- Used performance data to end Justice Scholars
- Partnered with Thrive to manage high priority evaluations
Data Integration & Tools
- Supported citywide effort to support data sharing and integration for street homeless case conferencing
- Launched v1.0 of IntelliMatch, a privacy-preserving record linkage service to support cross-agency data matching and integration
- Launched a new cross-agency data alert notifying an agency when their client may be in need of housing support
Poverty & Equity Analysis
Service Innovations
- Supported rollout of broadband at Queensbridge with user research to determine resident's priorities for digital resources
- Incubated HOME-STAT, case conferencing and StreetSmart to improve outreach to street homeless
- Launched NYC Behavioral Design Team with leading behavioral insights firm ideas42, completing dozens of projects through 2021
National Influence
New Program Models & Digital Products
- Saw Mayor de Blasio expand CUNY ASAP from 4,000 to 25,000 students based on NYC Opportunity evaluation findings
- Designed the College Persistence Initiative, a series of behavioral science interventions with CUNY and ideas42 aimed at improving college persistence
- Awarded $6M federal Social Innovation Fund grant for Connections to Care to integrate mental health and social services
Research & Evaluations
Poverty & Equity Analysis
Service Innovations
New Program Models & Digital Products
Research & Evaluations
Data Integration & Tools
- Partnered with DOE to grant Community Schools access to Worker Connect to better support families
- Launched a new data service through the Worker Connect platform to support outreach to low-income families about the new Pre-K for All program
Poverty & Equity Analysis
Service Innovations
- Began hosting Code for America Fellows
- Joined Change Capital Fund as a data and evaluation partner
Organizational History
- Center for Economic Opportunity and HHS Connect join the Mayor's Office of Operations, moving out of the office of the DM for HHS