September 24, 2019 - The City of Hartford was selected as one of five American cities that will replicate Providence Talks, an early childhood education program that empowers parents and caregivers with tools to support language development at a critical age and help children enter kindergarten classroom ready. Combined with local investments, the support provided across five cities totals nearly $12 million over three years. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, through its What Works Cities initiative, Hartford is launching Hartford Talks, an expansion of The Village for Families & Children’s Words Count program, to serve Hartford children, parents and caregivers.
View Full Story
September 24, 2019 - The city of Birmingham was selected as one of five American cities to replicate Providence Talks, a free, citywide early childhood program that aims to increase interactive talk with children to foster early brain development. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, through its What Works Cities initiative, Birmingham is launching Birmingham Talks to serve 2,500 children across Jefferson County over the next three years. The other four cities that are replicating Providence Talks are: Detroit, MI; Hartford, CT; Louisville, KY; and Virginia Beach, VA.
View Full Story
September 24, 2019 - Bloomberg Philanthropies today announced the five American cities that will replicate Providence Talks, an early childhood education program that empowers parents and caregivers with tools to support language development at a critical age and help children enter kindergarten classrooms ready. Combined with local investments, the support provided across five cities totals nearly $12 million over three years. The five cities are Birmingham, AL; Detroit, MI; Hartford, CT; Louisville, KY; and Virginia Beach, VA.
View Full Story
September 24, 2019 - Detroit is one of five cities chosen to launch a new program that equips children with special recording devices known as talk pedometers. They work like regular pedometers but instead of counting steps, they count how many words a child hears and speaks during the day. The data is then used to assist parents in upping the word count for children as a way to prepare them to excel in school. The other cities are Birmingham, Alabama; Hartford, Connecticut; Louisville, Kentucky, and Virginia Beach, Virginia.
View Full Story
September 24, 2019 - Bloomberg Philanthropies today announced the five American cities that will replicate Providence Talks, an early childhood education program that empowers parents and caregivers with tools to support language development at a critical age and help children enter kindergarten classroom ready. Combined with local investments, the support provided across five cities totals nearly $12 million over three years.
View Full Story
September 21, 2019 - Americans are becoming more polarized. A series of polls conducted by the Pew Research Center this year show growing partisan divides across a range of topics, including the value of higher education, concern over climate change and the fairness of our tax code. But while polarization seems to persist across many issues, new survey data show that Americans agree that a more effective and efficient government is a good thing.
View Full Story
September 20, 2019 - The City’s Information Technology Department earned three awards this month for projects that improve government service and delivery as well as engage and inform residents. First, IT staff won two Governor’s Technology Awards from the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium. The first award recognized the city’s Data Innovation Initiative, a cross-departmental effort led by IT to improve data-driven decision making and data quality, increase access to public information, and enhance coordination and internal data sharing among staff. Information Technology also sought expert input from external partners such as What Works Cities and the Sunlight Foundation.
View Full Story
August 21, 2019 - There will be others, but there can only be one first. And in this instance, that is the City of Arlington. Arlington made history recently by winning the first Sharman Stein Award for Storytelling Changemakers. The new award was created by Results for America — the lead partner in the Bloomberg Philanthropies data-driven local governance initiative What Works Cities. It highlights local governments doing strong work in communications and resident engagement.
View Full Story
August 20, 2019 - To move the ball forward, we've created a checklist for an important element of public leadership: encouraging a culture of evidence-based decision-making -- a culture that values the use of research, evaluation, data and other analytical tools to strengthen results for residents and taxpayers. Our checklist draws on the useful Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence from the nonprofit Results for America.
View Full Story
July 30, 2019 - Arlington, Texas, has won the first-ever Sharman Stein Award for Storytelling Changemakers, a new accolade created to highlight local governments doing strong work in communications and resident engagement. Results for America — the lead partner in the Bloomberg Philanthropies data-driven local governance initiative What Works Cities — is the creator of the award, and officials with the organization praised the robust and innovative ways Arlington communicates with its residents.
View Full Story