At A Glance
Featured government partners:
- Michigan
- New York City, NY
- Paterson, NJ
Project Spotlight
Recently completed projects that other state and local governments may benefit from by replicating.
Aggregating Data to Support Decision-Making
We worked with New York City to help identify and aggregate disparate data sources from multiple agencies into a consolidated view. This approach allows city leadership to more effectively use the data to help drive smarter decision-making as they work to satisfy time-sensitive demand for personal protective equipment (PPE). Thanks to the partnership between U.S. Digital Response and agency officials, New York City now has the ability to compare the total supply of key types of PPE — consisting of inventory, purchases, donations, and manufacturing efforts — with projected demand over the coming days, weeks, and months.
Our team used a similar process with the Pennsylvania Department of Health to automate data collection and build an online dashboard to track the number of available hospital beds and ventilators on a county-by-county basis. If you would like to create a dashboard for your state or local government, complete this form.
Comprehensive Support for State Governments
“From helping make our COVID-19 website more usable to advice on SNAP benefits for online ordering, USDR has provided smart, informed, and fast help for a variety of issues. They are an invaluable resource to governments at a critical time.”
— Robert Gordon, Director, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
The State of Michigan needed faster progress towards allowing online use of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards. USDR was able to provide volunteers with relevant expertise to facilitate technical conversations with their vendor managing these payment options. In addition to online EBT, USDR has partnered with Michigan on a range of requests: supporting a text message program that streamlines communications with residents, implementing a tool to field volunteer requests and offers, mapping data to track the spread of the disease, and more.Whether there’s a well-defined project request or simply a need for consultation, tell us about the challenges you’re facing. We’ll get back to you within hours.
Helping the Homebound Get Meals
“In the City of Paterson, we want to make sure our senior citizens are taken care of. Neighbor Express will allow us, together as a community, to be there for one another during these uncertain times.
— Mayor Andre Sayegh, City of Paterson, NJ
Neighbor Express is a platform created for local governments that connects at-risk community members with essential services including meals, groceries, and ad-hoc deliveries during COVID-19. Developed and implemented by USDR volunteers, this program launched in Concord, CA and has since expanded to Walnut Creek, CA and Paterson, NJ.
Each iteration of Neighbor Express has continued to evolve. The Paterson program tested a new model: partnering with grocery stores to offer pre-paid packages for seniors. Paterson has partnered with Shoprite and Golden Mango, allowing senior citizens to request deliveries or help via phone or an online form. Neighbor Express is looking to expand into more cities nationwide. Learn more about bringing Neighbor Express to your city.
This Week’s Outlook — Robin Carnahan
Robin Carnahan is the former Missouri Secretary of State and formerly led 18F’s state and local practice within the General Services Administration. She is a fellow at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and is also leading Government Partnerships for USDR.
Food security continues to be a high priority. Concerns around the accessibility of food for vulnerable populations are growing, even more dramatically over the past week. We’re keeping a close eye on what services are available and how effectively they’re being managed. The goal is to provide solutions that allow at-risk communities to stay home and still have access to nutritional food. Programs like Great Plates Delivered, a meal delivery service for older adults launched in California by Governor Gavin Newsom, are being implemented around the country. Meanwhile, efforts to make online shopping a possibility for low-income shoppers who use food stamps are ongoing. USDR volunteers are actively working on these issues, expanding Neighbor Express and assessing the policy and technology barriers to making food more accessible.
Demand for federal stimulus tracking increases. As money from the federal CARES Act is distributed, states want to provide transparency and accountability to people who are wondering how the money is spent locally. We’re finding that our teams can help in a variety of ways: understanding what grants are available and what to ask for; tracking money once it’s received and spent; coordinating activity across teams. USDR is already partnering with two states on their approaches to stimulus tracking. Through our network, we have been able to adapt the open source technology from USAspending.gov to create a demo that meets stimulus tracking needs at a state level. By reusing existing tools that were built with taxpayer money rather than building from scratch, we help states move quickly with trusted systems.
Getting ahead of the curve
Here are a few topics USDR teams are investigating in preparation for potential requests:
- Home meals for seniors: On April 24, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the launch of a first-in-the-nation “Great Plates Delivered” program, a meal delivery service for California’s older adults. We are thinking about how to support states that want to provide similar services.
- Manual contact tracing and exposure notifications: We are still focused on helping counties and states understand responsible case management. We’re building a playbook of best practices for scaling manual contact tracing. In the meantime, we published an overview of what we’ve learned so far.
