Projects

Projects By Jurisdiction

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Projects by Policy Area

Housing & Homelessness Projects

Massachusetts Shelter Contract Performance Improvement

Massachusetts’ family shelter system has struggled to meet its mandate of quickly re-housing homeless families, with over 40% of families staying in shelter longer than one year. To improve outcomes for this population, the GPL helped Massachusetts better understand the state of the current shelter system by analyzing contract spending and interviewing stakeholders, including shelters providers and families who have used the system, and helped release a Request for Information to identify current challenges and brainstorm solutions for system improvement. The GPL is now working with the state to use this information to help Massachusetts reprocure its $155 million family shelter system, which serves roughly 12,000 people in families with children each year, to focus on outcomes and prepare for active contract management.

New York City Child Welfare

 

The Government Performance Lab (GPL) provided pro-bono technical assistance to help New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services better identify caregivers with substance use concerns in child welfare investigations and match them with appropriate support, in an effort to reduce the number of incidences of child abuse and neglect and improve caregiver health.

Rhode Island Permanent Supportive Housing Pay for Success

In 2017, Rhode Island was home to approximately 240 chronically homeless individuals, who were among the highest utilizers of expensive emergency services such as shelter, hospital, and jail beds. In an effort to better serve this population, the GPL is assisting multiple Rhode Island agencies in an effort to build a Pay for Success (PFS) permanent supportive housing project that will connect housing resources with critical wraparound support services. This project will target individuals who have experienced a pattern of homelessness and interactions with the criminal justice system with the goal of reducing costly emergency service utilization and increasing the well-being of this population.

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Children & Families Projects

New Hampshire Child Welfare System Transformation

New Hampshire is redesigning its child and family services system to better keep children safe and with their families, and to enable those families to thrive. The GPL’s technical assistance is focused on expanding and strengthening supports that can keep families together, helping families receive the most appropriate interventions after contact with the system, and building upstream connections to early childhood, family wellbeing, and other prevention services. This work builds the state’s permanent capacity to contract for results, connect families to the services that can best meet their needs, and use data to actively manage program and service delivery.

New York City Child Welfare

 

The Government Performance Lab (GPL) provided pro-bono technical assistance to help New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services better identify caregivers with substance use concerns in child welfare investigations and match them with appropriate support, in an effort to reduce the number of incidences of child abuse and neglect and improve caregiver health.

Texas Child Welfare Prevention Supports

 

Texas is seeking new ways to support families, elevate family preservation, and prevent abuse and neglect before it occurs. The GPL’s technical assistance aims to leverage data, family voice, and community input to help design, demonstrate, and spread upstream innovations that create greater access to services and offer supports before crises occur to families with complex needs.

 

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Criminal Justice Projects

Illinois Wraparound Services for Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth

In Illinois, approximately 700 youth per year become simultaneously involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. These dually-involved youth experience very poor outcomes; on average 1,300 arrests per year and 230,000 days spent in congregate care. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, the state tested a new model for supporting families involved with multiple agencies and has re-engineered data systems to improve performance management and referral processes. It now takes the state child welfare agency less than three days to identify a dually-involved youth, down from over 90 days on average. Once flagged as dually-involved, youth are matched to a wraparound facilitator who serves as their primary contact for support and refers them to appropriate services in a coordinated manner.  As part of the project, Illinois is also expanding the clinical and social services available to dually-involved youth (including family therapy and community-based placement), with the goals of reducing days spent incarcerated and in congregate care and improving child well-being.

California Criminal Justice Pay for Success Grant Competition

In 2014, California passed a bill authorizing the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) to grant $5 million dollars to up to three counties to launch outcomes-driven recidivism reduction projects. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, BSCC designed and implemented a competitive process to select county projects that would reduce recidivism while shaping a new model for how local governments deliver programming - focusing on tracking and using data effectively, reducing traditional siloes within government, and incentivizing performance. Alameda County, Los Angeles County, and Ventura County each launched a Pay for Success project that have collectively produced approximately $30 million dollars of preventative and outcomes-driven services to reduce recidivism across the state.

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Economic Mobility Projects

California Department of Social Services SNAP Job Training and Employment Services

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) operates a workforce development program for CalFresh recipients called SNAP Employment and Training (E&T). In California, counties run their own E&T programs, with funding provided by the state and federal governments. GPL helped expand and improve E&T programming in three ways. First, GPL helped the state explore new ways to use federal matching funds that can create a perpetual, sustainable funding stream with a one-time investment of state dollars. Second, GPL facilitated a data match of county E&T participants to state wage records. Counties can now determine which E&T clients were ultimately able to find employment with the help of dashboards that GPL created. Finally, GPL helped pilot a statewide contract for E&T services, which will allow the state to supplement services in under-resourced communities.

Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement Pay for Success

While Massachusetts has some of the highest educational performance in the country, the state continues to face challenges in supporting the employment and career success of English language learners and those who have not achieved high school credentials. With pro bono technical assistance from the GPL, Massachusetts launched a project to provide vocationally-oriented adult basic education and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services to approximately 2,000 adults over the course of three years. The program is expected to improve earnings and education outcomes for participants.

Rhode Island TANF Work Supports

Improving workforce participation and employment outcomes for TANF employment programs through more integrated service array and active contract management

Rhode Island Workforce Development

To address a skills gap among the workforce, the State of Rhode Island rolled out a $14 million workforce development program called Real Jobs Rhode Island to help ensure that demand for talented workers was met across growing industries. The GPL helped Rhode Island's Department of Labor and Training develop a rigorous strategy for data collection and performance management of its new job programs, streamline intake procedures by eliminating burdensome application processes, and pilot collaborative, high-frequency meetings with program providers to improve service performance. Rhode Island was able to reconfigure the way it manages and evaluates its job training programs to capture meaningful long-term employment outcomes, improve customer service, and better meet employer demand.

San Francisco, CA Workforce Development Contract Alignment

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help San Francisco improve its workforce development outcomes by 1) better aligning services, funding, and contracting across departments and 2) incorporating performance-based payments in contracts held by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD).

Washington, DC Workforce Development Agency Coordination

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Washington, D.C. apply results-driven contracting strategies to improve the outcomes of its workforce development services.

Illinois Career Outcomes for Higher Education

Improved transparency and decision-making for students and parents by developing a user-friendly website that matches labor market outcomes (such as wages) to every school and program of higher education in Illinois

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Procurement Systems Projects

Boston, MA Asphalt Resurfacing

The Boston Public Works Department’s  contracts for road resurfacing were overly focused on achieving mileage targets to the detriment of other key goals, such as maintaining steady work flows and minimizing inconvenience to constituents. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, the city incorporated results-driven contracting strategies to reorient the roadway resurfacing contracts around a holistic set of goals, provide vendors with incentives to meet these goals, and increase the flow of performance data enabling the Department to course correct issues in real-time. The new contracts, worth $6 million a year, set out a performance payment structure to align stakeholder interests and reduce vendor uncertainty around anticipated work hours. The Public Works Department has expanded this pilot and is implementing results-driven contracting strategies in all of the City’s yearly capital programs (worth $40 million per year).

Boston, MA Capital Project IT System

The City of Boston spends over $120 million on construction projects every year but lacked the infrastructure to systematically share project information and effectively coordinate project management across departments. As a result, multi-departmental projects were falling behind schedule and running over budget. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, the city launched a problem-based procurement for a cross-department capital project management IT system. The procurement aimed to standardize project management processes, increase the flow of data, and improve service delivery both across and within departments. After receiving more than twice the number of anticipated proposals, the city purchased a new standardized IT system that has promoted the sharing of best practices, process improvement, and increased coordination across departments.

Boston, MA Procurement for Bike Share Operator

Boston faced a number of challenges with its bike share system – some stations frequently had no available bikes while others were completely full, total ridership was lower than expected, and access was limited in low-income and minority communities. To address these challenges, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help the city reshape the bike share system through the procurement of a new system operator. The procurement implemented performance metrics that better capture the user experience, improved system operations by balancing operator oversight and flexibility, and recruited private financing for the system expansion. As a result, Boston and neighboring municipalities will expand the bike share network by more than 70 stations over the next two years without spending additional public dollars, increase access for low-income and minority communities by reaching new neighborhoods, and incorporate new procedures to improve the user experience.

Boston, MA Vendor Diversity

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Boston improve its vendor diversity by contracting with more Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs).

Boston aimed to increase the racial and gender diversity of its vendors. The city established concrete vendor diversity goals and, with pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, created a performance tracking system to monitor progress, streamline procurement practices to improve accessibility and transparency, and expanded technical assistance for diverse vendors. Initial signs, including an increase in vendor diversity for maintenance contracts, suggests that these strategies are working. Additionally, the city launched a New Small Business Center to serve as a one-stop resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs, providing professional training, networking, and one-on-one coaching sessions.

Charleston, SC Waste Collection Services

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Charleston increase price flexibility for the City's waste collection contracts, and ultimately, improve service delivery.

In Charleston, the city provides a mix of in-house and contracted waste collection services and seeks to ensure that seeks to ensure that all neighborhoods – regardless of service provider - receive safe, high-quality, and timely waste pick-up. With key contracts for waste collection services set to expire, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help the city develop a new procurement process that targets the city’s goals and is oriented around clearly-defined performance metrics (such as route completion and response times).  The new procurement improves the collection of key data, provides vendors with the incentives to meet the city’s goals, and encourages excellent performance of waste collection services across the city.

Indianapolis, IN Technology Service Contracts

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Indianapolis increase competition, reduce costs, improve service quality, and enhance the City’s information technology (IT) capabilities by adopting results-driven contracting strategies for its IT application services contracts.

The Government Performance Lab is using results-driven contracting strategies to enhance IT capacity in local government. In Indianapolis, the city sought to improve the performance and value for money of its contracted IT application services. To do so, the GPL helped the city create several performance metrics to track the outcomes of IT application services, including timeliness of project work and department satisfaction surveys. The city then designed a competitive procurement approach which enabled them to compare vendor competencies in an actual project setting and accommodate both recurring support and special project needs through a new pricing structure. The GPL also made a number of recommendations to improve contract management and unbundle services from the master IT application services contract. In 2017, Indianapolis negotiated a contract renewal that reduced annual costs by approximately $900,000—nearly $3.6 million total over the remaining life of the contract.

Little Rock, AR Vendor Report Cards

 

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Little Rock adopt results-driven contracting strategies across its entire procurement portfolio, improving consistency, vendor management, and data usage throughout the City.

Little Rock aimed to reform its entire procurement portfolio and to improve the city’s procurement process. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, a new outcomes-focused procurement template was designed based on in-depth interviews, and a vendor performance review form was created to better track vendor performance. Little Rock has transitioned 100 percent of their procurements to the outcomes-focused template, and regularly uses the performance review form to discuss project progress with vendors. As a result, there has been a decrease in re-procurements and change orders, increased cost control, and poor performing vendors are beginning to be replaced. Furthermore, the city has created a cross-departmental Procurement Task Force to review existing procurement policy and make recommendations for changes based on best practices and the work done with the lab.

 

Louisville, KY Strategic Procurement System

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Louisville design and pilot a strategic procurement system to improve the outcomes of the City’s contracted dollars.

Mesa, AZ Blight Remediation

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.

Saint Paul, MN Street Construction

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Saint Paul expand the pool of vendors that bid on street reconstruction contracts and improve vendor management during construction.

The City of Saint Paul faced several key challenges with their street reconstruction contracts. Vendor competition was low, and projects ran past agreed-upon budgets and timelines. With pro bono technical assistance from the GPL, the city conducted a vendor survey and implemented pre-bid meetings to improve vendor competition, streamlined project management responsibilities from design to construction completion, and created a dashboard to track vendor performance and enable real-time improvements. As a result, the city has seen a significant expansion of the vendor pool, and there are early indications of fewer contract amendments for recent projects. In addition, the Procurement Office has continued to foster a culture of continuous feedback by following up with vendors at the end of each project to understand strengths and opportunities for improving the procurement process.

Tempe, AZ City Employee Wellness

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.

Wichita, KS Ground Maintenance Contracts

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Wichita reform its solicitations for grounds maintenance and landscaping services to improve the quality of City parks while reducing costs.

Wichita aimed to improve the quality of the city’s parks while reducing costs. In 2015, grounds maintenance bid amounts were up 30 percent over the prior year, contractors were failing to meet parks inspectors’ quality standards, and Wichita City officials had received numerous complaints about the height of the grass on playgrounds and playing fields. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, the city created a mobile tool to track performance on key indicators (including grass height, debris on site, and property damage) for inspectors to fill out on-site. They then conducted a competitive procurement to select vendors for smaller parcels based on both quality of service and price, and included a bonus payment to reward strong performance. As a result, the city boosted overall competition (number of vendors submitting responses rose by 38 percent, and more than 95 percent of parcels had more than one bid) while keeping costs roughly the same as during the prior year. Most importantly, residents’ lives have improved as indicated by the fact that complaints to the City Manager about grounds maintenance have substantially fallen.

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The GPL currently works in four policy areas: Children & Families, Criminal Justice, Homelessness & Housing, and Procurement Systems. Economic mobility is a cross-cutting theme across all our policy areas.