NEW ORLEANS – The City of New Orleans has been selected as a finalist for the City Accelerator, an initiative of Living Cities and the Citi Foundation that works with cities to help accelerate the adoption of innovative practices to improve the quality of life for residents.
Nearly 57,000 individuals are currently enrolled in the Greater New Orleans Community Health Connection (GNOCHC), a Medicaid waiver that provides coverage to working-class residents in Orleans, Plaquemines, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes. If selected for the City Accelerator, the New Orleans Health Department (NOHD) will further identify and engage these individuals in utilizing preventative care services—thus improving the overall health outcomes for the region.
“As a city, we want to use innovative techniques that help ensure all residents are taking part in our community’s revival” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “From murder reduction to blight, we have been recognized for the ways we’ve engaged residents to improve service delivery and achieve results. Now, with City Accelerator’s help, we want to engage our city’s most vulnerable populations to ensure every child and every family can have a fair shot at a happy, healthy life. The City Accelerator will give us a chance to continue improving the way we do business and to show the nation and the world the new New Orleans way. But, we can’t do this alone. We need the public’s help. Please show your support and pride for the city of New Orleans.”
As a part of its proposal, the City of New Orleans has developed a pitch video that is available on Governing Magazine’s website along with the videos of other finalist cities. Public feedback on the videos is taken into account as a part of the selection process.
Charlotte Parent, director of the New Orleans Health Department, said “Civic engagement is a critical part of public health: a healthy community is an engaged one. The City Accelerator is an opportunity for the Health Department to refine the ways that we engage with the residents we serve. With the City Accelerator’s support, we hope to improve health outcomes in New Orleans by helping residents better understand ways to access life-saving health services. This, in turn, will help reduce the overall health care costs for everyone in the New Orleans community.”
New Orleans has been selected as a finalist for the City Accelerator’s second cohort, which focuses on civic engagement with an emphasis on creating more inclusive processes that better harness and utilizes the knowledge and ingenuity of city residents toward solving today’s complex urban problems. Other finalists include Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Seattle. The first cohort of the City Accelerator brings together Louisville, Nashville and Philadelphia to develop innovative ways to promote economic opportunity.
Up to five cities will be selected for participation in this cohort of the City Accelerator. If selected, New Orleans will receive support over the course of an 18-month project period to implement an innovation guidebook that highlights how leading practices can be concretely adapted, invitations to periodic convenings to learn from other cities and leading practitioners, and access to coaching, technical assistance and implementation resources to advance strategy and overcome barriers.
The mission of the nationally accredited New Orleans Health Department (NOHD) is to protect, promote, and ensure the health of all who live in New Orleans. NOHD aims to serve New Orleanians as a 21st century health department and a model for the nation, capable of improving population health through data-driven decision making and policy development.
Living Cities harnesses the collective power of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions to develop and scale new approaches for creating opportunities for low-income people and improving the cities where they live. Its investments, research, networks, and convenings catalyze fresh thinking and combine support for innovative, local approaches with real-time sharing of learning to accelerate adoption in more places.
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. They invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant cities. The Citi Foundation's "More than Philanthropy" approach leverages the expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill their mission and drive thought leadership and innovation.
Through Friday, April 3, 2015, the public is encouraged to support the City of New Orleans’ pitch by watching and leaving a rating and/or comment on the video seen here
