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| Emergency Management |
More colleges and universities are now preparing students for careers in emergency management and disaster response. Growing up with man-made and natural disasters that seem to be increasing in frequency, more of today’s students are matriculating into programs such as the one in SUNY New Paltz, where they take interdisciplinary courses in geography, media, global terrorism, and the latest approaches to aiding disaster victims. FEMA has recorded that there are now at least 232 emergency-management programs, up from 70 in 2001.
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| Services for Specific Populations |
Through a unique program, Chicago is partnering with the private sector to bring Internet access into the homes of its low-income students. Internet Essentials—the city's partnership with Comcast—will offer vouchers to eligible families to buy low-cost computers and broadband Internet service for $9.95 per month. In some Chicago neighborhoods, as few as 15 percent of households currently subscribe to Internet service.
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| Technology |
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New York City is rolling out its "Road Map for a Digital City," an initiative that includes an array of website and interactivity improvements. The city is also formalizing partnerships with major social networking companies. The goal of these “upgrades” is to promote civic engagement, enabling the public to both receive real-time information and provide real-time feedback across multiple platforms.
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| Civic Engagement |
In the wake of the 2010 Census, which gave Utah a fourth congressional district, the Utah Legislature's Redistricting Committee has unveiled free mapping software that allows its citizens to conceive of their own proposed boundaries for the state's legislative and congressional districts. The tool allows its users to create maps, share them with other citizens and the Committee, and offer comments on other proposals.
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| Defense Services |
The California State University system is training U.S. Marines in small-scale agricultural techniques to help them improve collaboration with civilians in Afghanistan. During the weeklong training in California, the Marines learn how to prune fruit trees, evaluate irrigation systems, check livestock for disease, and test soil. In addition, Marines in the field can call upon their stateside professors to receive answers to technical questions within 24 hours.
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| Transparency |
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A new website is making it easier for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and other employers to do business with Delaware while making the state’s business more transparent to the public. Visitors to “MyMarketPlace.Delaware.Gov” will have access to state bid solicitations, prior bid solicitations, and currently awarded contracts. Users will also be able to chart spending trends and details of contract usage with this new resource, and can register comments, concerns, and suggestions on how the state can procure goods more efficiently.
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| Municipal Benchmarking: The Holy Grail |
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Good municipal benchmarking doesn't provide all the answers, but it helps us ask all the right questions. A robust, objective measure to compare cost effectiveness of various cities is something of a holy grail in the quest to improve municipal government.
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| Better Contracting, Greater Diversity |
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By working toward fairness and equality in purchasing, we can also remove procurement barriers that will allow the marketplace to operate more efficiently. To increase minority and women contracting, New York City is working to remove obstacles that impede an efficient marketplace for goods and services.
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| The Lottery Winner and Food Stamps |
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How do you determine economic need? We must resist the temptation to play a game of pin the blame on the bureaucrat, and instead rethink programs in order to limit assistance to the truly needy.
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| Obama, the Zoo Lady and Job Security |
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While it is important to express appreciation for every public employee, it's also critical to acknowledge that streamlining government must be a priority. As new technologies and budget realities take hold, public leaders have to insist that the public workforce embrace changes that promote efficiency.
Newsletter produced by: Jessica Engelman, editor; Brendan St. Amant, researcher and writer.
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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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