The De Blasio Administration

The Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity

The Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity


ProgramsProductsSpecial InitiativesMilestones

Overview
The Adams Administration, First term
The De Blasio Administration
The Bloomberg Administration
COVID Response
Awards

Overview

The Adams Administration, First term

The De Blasio Administration

The Bloomberg Administration

COVID Response

Awards


De Blasio Administration, Second Term (2018-2021)

New Program Models & Digital Products

Launched inaugural Designed by Community program for community leaders to work with the Service Design Studio to execute projects and learn service design methods

Launched Mental Health for All to make it easier to find and access mental health resources

Partnered with the Office of Community Mental Health to create an Academy for Community Behavioral Health to expand mental health capacity in neighborhoods

Launched Training for Your Employees program with Small Business Services

Supported expansion of child savings accounts program to be citywide for all public school kindergartners

Research & Evaluations

Began testing the efficacy of cash transfer programs for young people through Baby's First Years and Trust Youth Initiative

Released the Young Adult Literacy Evaluation

Launched new evaluation of providing living stipends to participants in City job training programs

Partnered with NYPD to create and field a survey to better understand community perspectives on Neighborhood Policing efforts

Data Integration & Tools

Launched a new cloud-based data lake to provide controlled access to multiple administrative data sets for collaborative research across agencies and research partnerships

Launched new Data Catalog – a digital, searchable tool designed to curate information about data sets, systems and services that City agencies manage

Poverty & Equity Analysis

Published multiple analysis on the impact of COVID on low-income New Yorkers

Enhanced poverty analysis with community-based qualitative research focused on lived experiences

Began a joint research partnership with Opportunity Insights to identify long term impacts of local policies on economic mobility

Launched a new dashboard for poverty rate data and risk of poverty by demographics, community, and other measures

Estimated effects on poverty of expanded child tax credit and earned income tax credits.

Service Innovations

Completed Homeless Youth Research project to capture how youth experiencing homelessness want to find and access resource

New Program Models & Digital Products

Launched 3-2-1 IMPACT program with H+H to integrate primary care and behavioral health for families of infants

Created subsidy to support restaurants, elevate the sub-minimum wage and provide free meals during the pandemic

Launched Working NYC, bringing together employment and job-training resources from across City government

Partnered with DYCD to modify youth programming based on evaluation findings, launching Advance and Earn to increase education and employment of young people

Began to prototype My File NYC, a digital tool to make it easier for families to share documents and personal data during benefits application processes

Launched EquityNYC online to disaggregate data on social conditions and agency performance

Data Integration & Tools

Activated the integrated data service hub to provide critical data management and analytic support for multiple COVID-19 operations

Completed development of a new Enterprise Master Data Management (MDM) service to support City agencies link person or business data across different systems

Poverty & Equity Analysis

Launched Results for Racial and Social Equity Program to help 25 agencies develop equity assessments and plans

Teams serve as go-to resource for City agencies and task forces to assess impact of pandemic and related policies on low-income New Yorkers

Service Innovations

CUNY ASAP awarded Harvard Government Innovation Award for doubling community college graduation rates, becoming the 3rd NYCO investment to win

National Influence

Christine D’Onofrio of the poverty research team joins fellow experts at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to discuss child poverty and the NYCgov poverty measure

New Program Models & Digital Products

Funded 5 competitively sourced initiatives to facilitate new cross-agency improvements to service delivery

Deepened Jobs-Plus employment program for NYCHA residents by integrating mental health supports

Published NYC Benefits Screening API to open source eligibility guidance for multiple safety net programs

Research & Evaluations

Released evaluation of NYC Men Teach, a program to recruit and retain male teachers of color

Data Integration & Tools

Launched a new service alert using integrated data to support the efforts of street outreach providers serving street homeless clients

Piloted the NYC Opportunity Research Workspace as a secure infrastructure for the analysis of confidential data by external research partners

Produced report and recommendations to City Council on data interoperability and information sharing in human service

Poverty & Equity Analysis

Successfully used NYCGov poverty data to lower utility costs for low income households, generating $60m in new discounts

Developed guidance for NYC's first Agency Equity Assessments and Action Plans under LL 174 applying to ACS, DOHMH and DSS

Advised on development of flood insurance policy for low income households in climate threatened neighborhoods

Service Innovations

Funded and helped develop DSS' Center for Service Innovation to accelerate how the agency uses client experience to shape products and services

Applied Service Design methods to understand, explore, and develop initiatives to prevent future incarceration through a coordinated family based reentry system

New Program Models & Digital Products

Launched Generation NYC, a user-friendly digital guide to City resources for teens

Growing Up NYC awarded Adobe Government Creativity Award

Research & Evaluations

Released Paycheck Plus evaluation report, demonstrating impact of an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit

Released evaluation of Arches mentoring, a major DOP Program, showing promising results for reducing recidivism among young adults

Data Integration & Tools

Built the data platform to support the integration and analysis of the City’s workforce development program data

Published Social Service Site Location Data, a curated data set of delivery locations of City-funded social services

Established Social Service APIs, a new data service using a set of standardized web services, to support interoperable data exchanges between case management systems

Created integration service hub to support data needs for outreach operations serving vulnerable residents during citywide emergencies

Poverty & Equity Analysis

Released first-ever report report to estimate the poverty status of New Yorkers by immigration status

Service Innovations

Partnered with ACS to elevate family voice as first comprehensive project in the Service Design Studio's "Designing for Opportunity" program

Released "The Guide to Collaborative Communications" to foster more stakeholder input in development of City RFPs

Arches program selected as a finalist for Harvard Innovations in American Government award

Worked with DHS staff, clients and leaders to recommend opportunities to create a more trauma-informed family shelter system

Produced report and recommendations to City Council on using technology to streamline benefits access

National Influence

Testified to the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs about the poverty impact chilling effect oof proposed changes in public charge rules

De Blasio Administration, First Term (2014-2017):

New Program Models & Digital Products

Funded Baby’s First Year’s project, a landmark direct cash program studying the causal impact of poverty

Launched new cohort of CUNY ACE, replicating ASAP to improve graduation rates of bachelors degree students

Launched NYC Kids Rise as data and evaluation partner, leading to citywide expansion of universal savings accounts

Expanded NYCitizenship naturalization resources for immigrant communities to increase economic security with libraries and MOIA

Redesigned ACCESS NYC as user-friendly, mobile first, open-source product to help New Yorkers connect to benefits and services, eventually reaching 4 million users

Led research for MOCJ Jails to Jobs initiative and began development of related workforce training

Data Integration & Tools

Established data sharing partnerships to create a longitudinal database of integrated workforce data

Applied human-centered design to launch a more user-friendly, mobile-responsive interface for WorkerConnect

Built an integrated data platform to facilitate streamlined outreach, phone banking and door-knocking during citywide emergencies

Poverty & Equity Analysis

Developed City's first guidance for agency equity assessments and action plans used initially by ACS, DOHMH and DSS

Service Innovations

Launched first-in-nation municipal Service Design Studio focused on experiences of low-income residents

Released Civic Service Design Tools & Tactics

Joined GraduateNYC's College Completion Innovation Fund

National Influence

Selected by Harvard Government Performance Lab to advance data and evidence in policymaking

Matt Klein selected to join Results for America Fellowship

Organizational History

Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity created by the merger of the Center for Economic Opportunity, HHS Connect and Service Design Studio

Celebrated 10 year anniversary of CEO – “Using Evidence and Innovation to Address Poverty and Inequality”

New Program Models & Digital Products

Launched Growing Up NYC, a user-friendly digital guide to the City's children related programs and resources

Launched Connections to Care to integrate mental health supports in social services

Research & Evaluations

Used performance data to end Justice Scholars

Partnered with Thrive to manage high priority evaluations

Data Integration & Tools

Supported citywide effort to support data sharing and integration for street homeless case conferencing

Launched v1.0 of IntelliMatch, a privacy-preserving record linkage service to support cross-agency data matching and integration

Launched a new cross-agency data alert notifying an agency when their client may be in need of housing support

Poverty & Equity Analysis

Published Social Indicators Report to measure progress in addressing social conditions and reducing disparities

Service Innovations

Supported rollout of broadband at Queensbridge with user research to determine resident's priorities for digital resources

Incubated HOME-STAT, case conferencing and StreetSmart to improve outreach to street homeless

Launched NYC Behavioral Design Team with leading behavioral insights firm ideas42, completing dozens of projects through 2021

National Influence

Provided Testimony to Congressional Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking

Began representing NYC at Harvard Program on Municipal Innovation

Poverty research team continues to share leadership and expertise on poverty measurement with national audience at Stanford University conference

New Program Models & Digital Products

Saw Mayor de Blasio expand CUNY ASAP from 4,000 to 25,000 students based on NYC Opportunity evaluation findings

Designed the College Persistence Initiative, a series of behavioral science interventions with CUNY and ideas42 aimed at improving college persistence

Awarded $6M federal Social Innovation Fund grant for Connections to Care to integrate mental health and social services

Research & Evaluations

Used evaluation findings to end Justice Corps

Poverty & Equity Analysis

Published "Effects of Neighborhood Change" study documenting qualitative impact of gentrification

Helped Mayor de Blasio establish and track NYC's first concrete poverty reduction goal to move 800,000 out of poverty or near poverty by 2025

Service Innovations

Launched Designing for Financial Empowerment testing the use of service design in government

New Program Models & Digital Products

Launched the Rockaway Jobs Center, a place-based approach to employment services

Research & Evaluations

Lead the design and oversight of Pre-K For All multi-part evaluation

Published findings about how to connect subsidized work with disaster recovery

Data Integration & Tools

Partnered with DOE to grant Community Schools access to Worker Connect to better support families

Launched a new data service through the Worker Connect platform to support outreach to low-income families about the new Pre-K for All program

Poverty & Equity Analysis

Released first annual Charter-mandated Poverty Measure Report, documenting poverty conditions with NYCO-developed methodology

Service Innovations

Began hosting Code for America Fellows

Joined Change Capital Fund as a data and evaluation partner

Organizational History

Center for Economic Opportunity and HHS Connect join the Mayor's Office of Operations, moving out of the office of the DM for HHS