The Chicago Out-of-School Time Project

The Wallace Foundation funded five major US cities in 2006 to develop comprehensive Out-of-School Time Systems for youth in their cities.  While each city had unique organizational, political and funding structures, one of the goals of the Wallace funding was to integrate data and develop a comprehensive view of out-of-school time programs and program quality available for youth in each city.  Strategic Urban was selected by the Department of Children and Family Services and After School Matters to help launch this Wallace funded project in Chicago.  Over four years, we helped Chicago with virtually every aspect of organizational and technical project management.   We helped the executive team develop their organizational and partnership structure, and developed a strategy to encourage and facilitate stakeholder engagement across the organizations through pilot programs and implementing shared technologies.

Cleveland is a city of neighborhoods and the community development corporations (CDCs) are often at the heart of helping to sustain and rebuild city neighborhoods.  As an intermediary, funder, and program partner to many CDCs, Neighborhood Progress Inc. wanted to look at the various programs funded in the city and managed by CDCs in relation to various demographic and geographic data (population growth/decline, vacant land, commercial space, etc.) to see if data could be collected more accurately and effectively and used for better programmatic decision making.  Our work included: the development of a survey to collect production data from non-profits, data collection and analysis, design of a map series with production data and current geographic and economic factors, and documentation of next steps for continued process and data collection improvement.

The Bureau of Information Processing of the Illinois DOT has taken the lead in developing and maintaining GIS data and applications for the DOT. In this project, the goals are to review existing conditions and develop a strategic plan to create a more enterprise wide model/framework for GIS use within the DOT, including the 9 District Offices. The strategic plan focuses on all the various aspects of GIS implementation: organization, data, architecture, applications, maintenance, and integration with other DOT systems and state departments.

This was a smaller project, but the type we love to work on as it gets us on the ground floor of what’s happening in our communities. This project involved looking at how the Sisters of Charity Health Systems’ Building Healthy Communities program might be able to better organize and collect data to begin formal evaluations for their programs.  These wonderful Building Healthy Communities programs focus on increasing the health of Cleveland neighborhoods though participation in farmers markets, dance/exercise classes, and health education. It was a pleasure working with the staff at Building Healthy Communities, Sisters of Charity Health System, and St. Vincent Charity Medical Center.  Our final report included a comprehensive review of their program details and looked at how surveys, better attendance tracking, and using the hospital’s existing CRM could streamline what they needed for reporting, evaluation, and operations.

Strategic Urban was hired by the Auditor’s Office in Wayne County Ohio to develop a strategic and operational plan for GIS. The goal of this project was to develop a GIS Strategic Plan that would document the current workflows in the Auditor’s office, the GIS data needed for the office, and how GIS could be integrated into the Auditor’s daily work environment.

Strategy for non-profit coalition to provide low income tax counseling services

The Enterprise Foundation is a national non-profit organization that focuses on the social and economic redevelopment of urban areas. The Enterprise Foundation along with the Cleveland Legal Aid Society, United Way and other local non-profits have worked to develop a framework for establishing a more comprehensive program for providing tax-counseling services especially focused on the Earned Income Tax Credit, within Cuyahoga County. The goal is to increase the number of County residents receiving the tax credit and to help alleviate poverty in the County. Work has included the development and implementation of the program strategy as well as the implementation of technology to help manage the coalition. The Coalition website can be found at refundohio.org.

Our work with Enterprise Community included:

Design and management of Coalition committees
Implementation of key initiatives to increase … Read More »