The leaders from Macon-Bibb, Ramsey and Miami-Dade counties; and the cities of St. Paul, Minn., and Akron, Ohio, shared takeaways during a “Demo Day” webinar hosted by The Opportunity Project for Cities.
ST. PAUL AND RAMSEY COUNTY, MINN.
The city and county presented a united front during the webinar, citing workforce challenges for local employers seeking to fill specific jobs.
According to Rachael Molenaar, the interim planning manager for Ramsey County, “Employers in our region are having challenges finding workers to support their current business needs, particularly in the construction and green energy pathways.”
One of the reasons for this is “severe inequities in unemployment, wealth, income and financial mobility” within the state, she said, making it extra challenging to fill these new jobs.
One way the proposed tool aims to achieve this is by matching job seekers to green trade careers based on their responses to a questionnaire, and providing them with information on wages, training and local job postings via the county’s website.
However, the tool is still a work in progress.
“We’re planning to apply for funding that has been announced through the DOE [U.S. Department of Energy] to continue to build and sustain the tool,” Liz Boyer, St. Paul’s climate action coordinator, said. “We think we’re really well-positioned to be awarded that prize.”
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
For Miami-Dade County, its challenge centered on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a federally funded program that helps low-income families pay for essential services such as cooling and heating their homes.
To apply, residents must fill out an application in person at their local community center — but as a result, panelists said, many residents struggle with this, resulting in fewer families receiving assistance for energy crises and home energy bills, increasing their risk of service termination.
To address this, the county is working with Google.org to develop a new application to meet the following objectives:
- Increase residents’ application success rate
- Reduce strain on frontline staff
- Increase residents’ trust in LIHEAP
One way the app achieves this is through an enhanced eligibility pre-screening process to inform residents about their program eligibility status before they go to a community center to apply.
Another feature in the app is an ID extraction tool, allowing residents to upload copies of their IDs so data can be extracted and used to fill out various portions of LIHEAP applications.
The app will also offer document-scanning capabilities, so residents can gather, scan and upload all their documents directly into their application packet.
“By December, the Google team will finish their work and transition the application over to us, and then the Miami-Dade County team will take it from there,” said Jorge Valens, an innovation manager from the county’s IT department.
MACON-BIBB COUNTY
For Macon-Bibb County, Ga., its primary focus is to create a digital tool that helps simplify its business permitting process.
After consolidating the county’s government in 2014, several critical processes became more challenging, one of the panelists explained.
“Long-term consolidation was absolutely the correct decision. However, the merge of both county and city services created several points of tension, particularly with business permits and licensing,” said Erin Keller, chief of staff and vice president for development at NewTown Macon, an independent nonprofit focused on revitalizing downtown Macon.
As a result, the county, in partnership with Google.org, is working to redesign its own website to include improved navigation and organization features, and implement a new chatbot to assist new and existing business owners.
Over the next six months, county officials plan to conduct user testing, expand the chatbot’s knowledge base, and review and update website content based on user feedback.
AKRON, OHIO
Leaders in Akron, Ohio, developed a proposed solution to address the city’s declining tree canopy.
“While currently fairly healthy at 34 percent coverage, the city’s tree canopy is facing a downward trajectory,” according to Casey Shevlin, the city’s inaugural sustainability and resiliency director. By 2040, she said, coverage is anticipated to shrink to 30 percent.
One of the main issues in expanding Akron’s tree canopy is that the city owns only 9 percent of the land within the municipality, while the rest is privately owned.
City staff conducted extensive research via surveys and focus groups to gather feedback from residents on how they can work together to improve Akron’s tree canopy.
“The greatest opportunity really lies in private, non-city owned land, and it’s critical that we find a way to collaborate and take advantage of that opportunity,” Shevlin said.
With this in mind, the city is currently working on a digital tool called “Canopy Connect” to help residents visualize the tree canopy in their neighborhood and access data on what trees they can plant to help the city grow the canopy.
The tool is still a work in progress, Shevlin said, and not ready yet for launch.
A version of this story first appeared in Industry Insider — Florida, part of e.Republic, Government Technology's parent company.
