Over a third of U.S. federal employees are eligible to retire in the next five years, yet only 6% of employees are under 30—a pressing issue given the rate of innovation. Piloted as an effort between agencies and a student-led nonprofit, the Civic Digital Fellowship recruits the next generation of technologists—students and recent grads—pairing them with in-need agencies. It has scaled to six agencies, and is an attractive on-ramp for technical students into public service.
Innovation Tag: Cross-Sector Partnerships
An emergency event in a neighbouring authority highlighted how hard it was to identify vulnerable persons during a confirmed gas leak, Falkirk Council resolved to find a faster, more accurate and secure method for quickly identifying those in need during any type of emergency incident where local residents might be in danger. Data was cleansed and uploaded to an electronic mapping system which allows us to identify vulnerable persons in a few simple clicks and has been hailed as quantum leap.
Department of Community Services has piloted Career Rising program which provides a continuum of employment-related supports that help break the cycle of inter-generational poverty. The program is designed to provide youth with comprehensive and sustained support that will lead to increased participation in academic and economic activities. Youth participants gain employability and leadership skills, build confidence, connect to community, engage academically, and help meet labor market needs.
Le LabZéro est un laboratoire d’innovation publique qui poursuit des objectifs “zéro”, comme “zéro personne à la rue”. Afficher une forte ambition permet de mobiliser les énergies et d’encourager la créativité. C’est un lieu tiers, piloté par l’État régional et animé par une équipe d’horizons différents, qui rassemble tous les acteurs concernés et volontaires pour trouver de nouvelles réponses aux questions de politiques publiques.
Carrot Rewards is a platform promoting healthy living and public engagement that leverages behavioural economics, mobile tech and the power of loyalty programs to motivate and educate users to make better everyday lifestyle choices for themselves, their families and the planet. Created in collaboration with public sector agencies, leading Canadian health NGOs and the private sector. With over a million downloads, Carrot is driving sustainable positive behaviour change on a population scale.
Instead of composting or incinerating invasive alien plant species, we are developing new ways how to process them into new, useful products (paper and wood products, dyes and hybrid coatings, extracts for controlling of plant harmful organisms, food source, input materials for the industries of the future and 3D composites). Invasive alien species are a locally accessible and abundant resource and opportunity for a new business model, promoting zero‑waste approach and circular economy.
Services Guide is a response to the scattered and inefficient information on public services available, developed as an open data digital catalogue, that together with an artificial intelligence software provides personalised information to the user while collecting data about citizen’s needs at the same time.
The OEE established a Social Innovation "UnLab" (SIU) to test an embedded innovation model and amplify energy efficiency policy and service impacts in Canada. The SIU creates value for energy efficiency stakeholders in three ways:
Building relationships and capacity for energy efficiency policy and service innovation;
Generating evidence and collective learning by co-creating and testing insights and interventions;
Amplifying impacts by scaling learning and implementing what works.
A first of its kind (in our context), cross-jurisdictional partnership between three levels of government to research, co-design and test prototypes with citizens to inform and improve the experience and uptake of home energy efficiency labeling and reporting.
The core team was comprised of representatives from Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE), the Province of Alberta’s CoLab, and the City of Edmonton with service design support from Situ Strategy.
In May 2016, the Mayor of San Francisco launched the Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Promise. This was a new initiative to improve the quality of life in San Francisco with a coordinated approach to delivering City services better and faster. He issued an Executive Directive to Department Heads responsible for quality of life issues directing them to prioritize services so all residents have access to clean, safe, maintained public spaces and facilities. To ensure success, the mayor created the…