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Welcome to the redesigned Innovators Insights newsletter from the Government Innovators Network.
Government Innovators Network 
 
March 5, 2015
In This Issue

What's New

In the News

Data-Smart City Solutions

Better, Faster, Cheaper

 

WHAT'S NEW


Conservation Webinar

Cosponsored with the Conservation Innovation Forum

Please join us on March 18 for a webinar on "Conservation Momentum: Leveraging the Enthusiasm of the National Workshop on Large Landscape Conservation." Registration is free and is required. Learn more and register>>

Human Services Webinar

Cosponsored with Leadership for a Networked World

Please join us on March 25 for a webinar on "Insights from the 2014 Human Services Summit: Leadership in an Era of Convergence," which is designed to help leaders examine convergence and build capacity for the future. Registration is free and is required. Learn more and register>>

IN THE NEWS


Newark's Vacant Lot Sale Is for Lovers

This past Valentine’s Day, Newark, New Jersey, hoped that couples would express their devotion to each other by buying and cohabiting the city’s available vacant land. On February 14, the city launched the vacant land component of its Live Newark program through which it’s selling municipally-owned vacant lots for only $1,000 to couples (regardless of sexual orientation) looking to reside for five years in residences that they build or rehabilitate. The city has attached these strings to promote family development in the community and to dissuade institutional or all-cash investors.

Minnesota Community Starts Cultural Unit for Emergency Response

Eden Prairie, Minnesota, will begin training community members of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds to provide assistance during disaster situations or prevention activities. The Cultural Services Unit will address the increasing diversity of the community to ensure that identified members can assist firefighters and police officers with search-and-rescue operations, translating, door-to-door outreach, and ensuring officers follow cultural norms. The program will begin training twenty residents in April.

App helps hospitals prepare by streaming crash scenes

The University of Iowa and the Iowa Department of Transportation have unveiled the TraumaHawk app to enhance communication between first responders and emergency room staff. In a severe car crash, there is a race against time to get the right treatment to people who are hurt, and while paramedics are trained to assess injuries and get them to the proper place of care, hospitals lose time when they cannot see the accident scene or what paramedics are doing. The app allows first responders, especially troopers who have passed duties over to arriving paramedics, to send photos of accident scenes to give ER physicians and nurses a better sense of the severity of a patient's injuries and where impacts likely occurred, allowing them to plan accordingly for the patient’s arrival. Use of the app is currently undergoing pilot testing in certain areas of Iowa.

Website helps Delaware businesses take 'first steps'

To a help fledgling businesses get off the ground without a hitch, the Delaware Department of State has launched a website designed to help new business owners and entrepreneurs navigate a host of approval processes and other requirements. Business First Steps assembles an index of nearly 200 industries, professions, and products that require state, county, or municipal registrations, licenses, certifications or permits, as well as links to various applications, forms, codes, and regulations. The website has been in development for over a year and required close coordination among state agencies.

Cities Target Elevated Levels of Pedestrian Deaths

Cities across the country are using multifaceted public policy approaches to stem the tide of pedestrian deaths. While the issue has always been a concern, transportation officials are beginning to make it a priority when planning their capital investments and running their departments. Interventions include using data to identify problematic intersections, giving pedestrian’s “head starts” at certain crosswalks, enforcing speed zones around pedestrian activities, shortening crosswalks, and creating pedestrian safety islands.

White House open-sources budget data on GitHub

Several weeks ago, the Obama administration became the first White House to release its budget through GitHub and other data-sharing sites. The move, which releases the data underlying the budget in machine-readable format, allows data gurus to use the data to create their own visualizations or data products and examine unpublished details below the high-level information published in the budget.

DATA-SMART CITY SOLUTIONS


Open Data as an Accountability Tool: Chicago’s Problem Landlord List

This article explores how Chicago is using open data to address problem landlords. In addition to drawing public attention to negligent building owners, a new ordinance administers new penalties and limitations against owners on the list until they take action.

BETTER, FASTER, CHEAPER


Utah Applies Social Impact Bonds to Early Childhood Education

The investment tool is catching on as a better, safer way to invest scarce public resources. Governments across the country have begun to utilize social impact bonds to solve complex problems with the help of private investors -- and to put those resources only into approaches that work.

Harnessing Data to Fight Crime

Police in a Maryland county combined analytics with aggressive goals to put a serious dent in armed robberies. The Prince George's County police department offers an important example of how modern data analytics, the courage to set challenging goals, and a liberal dose of creativity can help governments do more in austere times.

ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER


Innovators Insights is the news digest from the Government Innovators Network on the latest in government innovations. This digest is sent out every two weeks and is compiled and written by the editorial staff of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. In each issue, the editorial team identifies top policy and programmatic news that is related to government innovations so that you can stay informed about creative government at its best.

Editor: Jessica Engelman
Researcher & Writer: Brendan St. Amant
Note: The stories in this newsletter link to source articles on other websites and may not be available after a certain length of time.



ABOUT THE ASH CENTER


The Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence in governance and strengthens democratic institutions worldwide. Through its research, education, international programs, and government innovations awards, the Center fosters creative and effective problem solving and serves as a catalyst for addressing many of the most pressing needs of the world's citizens. The Ford Foundation is a founding donor of the Center. Additional information about the Ash Center is available at http://ash.harvard.edu.

 
 
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