This post is written by Niles Friedman, CivStart board member, and Nick Lyell, CivStart co-founder.
The problem: A natural risk-aversion means innovation in local government can be an uphill battle.
Why it matters: Amid a changing world, the needs and opportunities of cutting-edge technology cannot be ignored.
The solution: To mitigate these risks, trusted nonprofits, industry experts, and cohorts of fellow local government leaders should take on the tasks of innovation together.
"we have been bridging some of the key gaps we’ve seen across our various experiences inside and outside local governments across the country — offering some much-needed innovation support"
Local governments have an opportunity and choice: they can double-down on the past, or they can look to the innovations that will define the future. Technologies and a renewed demand for serving the public in a more user-centred way are revolutionising everything from the way people travel to the ways they access government services — and local governments are positioned to lead the way for their residents, communities, and businesses.
CivStart, a young US-based nonprofit with the mindset of a civic-minded startup, has been a catalyst for local government leaders and startups. Seeing the current moment of need and opportunity, CivStart is launching a three-to-six month State and Local Government Innovation Programme (SLGI) for US municipal leaders in the spring of 2022 in collaboration with Engaging Leaders in Local Government (ELGL) and e.republic.
More than just a single program, CivStart is an innovation hub for local governments where we have been bridging some of the key gaps we’ve seen across our various experiences inside and outside local governments across the country — offering some much-needed innovation support for local government leaders and govtech startup entrepreneurs alike.
How we’re accelerating govtech
In 2021 CivStart launched our third annual Govtech Accelerator cohort, adding another 13 companies to our growing roster of top-tier innovators and civic-minded founders. At the same time, we supported 13 diverse cities, from Manor, TX to Green Bay to Philadelphia through a year-long innovation programme in conjunction with the National League of Cities and the Kauffman Foundation.
It’s proven beneficial for those who joined. “We came to the CivStart team with several challenges and we wouldn't have found such affordable and innovative solutions to those challenges without them,” says Brandon Johnson, Vice Mayor of Wichita, Kansas.
"The climate crisis and the major changes in work and life brought about by the pandemic mean that local governments who make smart future-focused investments now will create the resilient, adaptable, and green transportation networks that their residents and communities will come to rely on."
In the bigger picture, we hosted a dynamic online State of GovTech conference and built out an even more impressive mentor network and GovTech community in so many ways. In 2022, we see an incredible opportunity for innovation in the transportation and mobility space in particular, and plan to launch a programme to support local governments in overcoming some of the biggest barriers to innovation.
What we’ve seen and what we’re doing about it
The need for innovation in transportation and mobility technology is clear enough — the climate crisis and the major changes in work and life brought about by the pandemic mean that local governments who make smart future-focused investments now will create the resilient, adaptable, and green transportation networks that their residents and communities will come to rely on every day. What’s more, automated vehicles, smart city sensor systems, smart congestion pricing, on-demand electric scooters, mopeds, and bikes, and other new technologies mean unprecedented opportunities to revitalise downtown businesses, underserved neighbourhoods, adapt expenses and revenue streams to a changing world, and generally improve the quality of life of residents.
"Innovation isn’t easy for local governments. We understand that and we’ve created programmes to help."
Through our experience, we’ve come to understand some of those barriers that face even the most forward-thinking local government leaders. They are multiple. For over-taxed public officials, innovation can feel like it requires too much time, expertise, and appetite for risk. Finding out what technologies are out there can be time-consuming and is in a constant state of change. Research from six months ago may already be out of date. And many local governments have limited expertise to evaluate the latest sensor designs, data-analytics software, or user-experience research. And local government leaders are fiduciaries for the public trust and treasury: they don’t want to spend public money on a company that ends up not integrating with the existing systems as expected, or worse, an innovative startup that, like so many, goes out of business a few months after signing a contract.
So with all that in mind, how can a local government go about this without running into these drawbacks? Capacity, expertise, and risk management, and CivStart is helping local governments grapple with all three. In conjunction with the National League of Cities, CivStart helped bring a challenge-based innovation process to numerous cities — large, small, and in-between. In the midst of the pandemic, many of these cities faced major challenges to support their local businesses and communicate actively with their residents, and pilot programs that came out of this work directly answered these challenges in cities like Wichita, KS, Rochester, NY, and Carlisle, PA.
Innovation isn’t easy for local governments. We understand that and we’ve created programmes to help.
Innovating on innovation
Seeing the challenge on the horizon that many city, state, and county leaders will be facing to put this once-in-a-generation transportation and infrastructure funding to use in fostering long-term growth and improvements in their communities, CivStart joined together with Engaging Leaders in Local Government (ELGL) and e.republic to launch the three-to-six month State and Local Government Innovation Programme (SLGI) for the spring of 2022. It’s free for local government leaders and promises to apply their capacity and expertise to permit local government leaders to learn about innovation, engage with their fellow leaders, and deploy a real pilot solution to one of their key transportation and mobility challenges.
Not everything can be solved by a startup or a pilot programme. There are challenges that are best addressed with comprehensive overhauls by large established contractors. Established companies have been providing support to CivStart’s network of local governments and startups from the very beginning. There are challenges best addressed internally by local government staff themselves. However, in almost every case, there are smart, civic-minded founders, often former public servants themselves, who are thinking about ways that cutting-edge innovations can make the processes and outcomes smoother, better, and cheaper for local governments.
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