As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL supported the City of Mesa, AZ in procuring for a partner organization to implement the Love Your Neighborhood (LYN) program, which is a community engagement and home rehabilitation initiative. The City wanted to provide residents with resources and services to create sustainable improvements in a neighborhood that was particularly challenged with high instances of code violations, graffiti, police calls, and vacancies. A program was launched to help homeowners qualify for and implement home rehabilitation activities and to engage residents with information and resources related to home and property maintenance. After a pilot run, the city realized that a third-party partner was needed to deeply engage community members, identify homeowners to participate in the program, and carry out home rehabilitation projects. The GPL worked with the City to strategically procure for a partner organization, while emphasizing key performance metrics like number of exterior home rehabilitation activities completed and number of households engaged in community training. The GPL then helped the City implement strategies of active contract management that enabled the city and partner organization to meet frequently to discuss opportunities for collaboration, celebrate successes, and flag program challenges in real-time.

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help the City of Tempe apply results-driven contracting strategies to improve the outcomes of its employee wellness program.

In Tempe, the city’s employee wellness program provides low-intensity supportive health and wellness services to all employees. However, the city had not clearly articulated the goals of the program nor set in place a method for evaluating the impact of the services. With the help of the GPL, Tempe reworked the procurement process to incorporate performance metrics of interest, such as reduction in negative health outcomes and increase in physical activity. The city also established a governance structure to review progress and refine program design over the course of the contract in order to continuously drive towards better outcomes. This process will provide the city leadership with insight into the overall impact of the program and help identify which components of the program have the greatest impact.