Bloomberg Philanthropies Partners with La 27e Région to Expand Innovation Teams in France
Paris, Mulhouse, Dunkerque and the Occitanie Region Named Awardees
Funding and Partnership with La 27e Région Builds on Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Commitment to Support More Innovative and Effective Local Governments Worldwide
NEW YORK, July 11, 2017 – Bloomberg Philanthropies today announced the expansion of its Innovation Teams (“i-teams”) program to 10 local governments within France, including the cities of Paris, Mulhouse, and Dunkerque, the Occitanie Region, and six additional cities to come. The program helps city leaders drive innovation, change culture, and tackle big problems – from economic development to citizen engagement – to improve the lives of the people they serve.
“Each day, more and more local government leaders look to innovation for better ways to address their most pressing challenges,” said James Anderson, the head of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation Programs. “Relying on data, open innovation, and strong project and performance management, the expansion of the i-teams program will help local government leaders throughout France tackle tough challenges and improve residents’ lives.”
Through this partnership, Bloomberg Philanthropies is providing a $1.4 million grant to La 27e Région, a French not-for-profit public innovation organization that aims to make France’s public sector more inventive, agile, and suited to the needs of citizens. These funds will be used to provide training, technical support, and peer-to-peer learning to the 10 cities establishing i-teams.
The French cities will join the 20 city governments already participating in the Bloomberg Philanthropies i-teams program, including Tel Aviv, Israel, which is creating new solutions to revitalize neighborhoods; Detroit, MI, which is reducing gun violence; and Boston, MA, which aims to increase the availability of affordable housing. The expansion of the program to France reflects Bloomberg Philanthropies’ continuing commitment to advance the global government innovation field and spread best practices.
“More and more cities, in France and around the world, are in search of new approaches to face complex challenges: housing, poverty, environment, education, and more,” said Stéphane Vincent, Executive Officer of La 27e Région. “This program supports the launch of their own Innovation Labs to experiment with new ways to help build public policies, new services, and new working cultures. Our partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the i-team cities is an amazing opportunity to inspire each other, to work on shared challenges, and to build a movement of transformation.”
Participating French cities will identify key city employees who will work in teams to learn new methods to investigate complex local challenges, design solutions with clear goals, rigorously measure progress and results, and share those results with cities in France and around the world.
The i-teams program is part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation Program, which equips mayors and other city leaders with the tools and techniques they need to solve urban challenges and improve citizens’ lives.
Grant-funded i-teams are currently operating in Albuquerque, NM; Anchorage, AK; Austin, TX; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Centennial, CO; Detroit, MI; Durham, NC; Jersey City, NJ; Long Beach, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Mobile, AL; Minneapolis, MN; Peoria, IL; Seattle, WA; Syracuse, NY; Be’er Sheva, Israel; Jerusalem, Israel; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Toronto, Canada.
Key Facts About the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Teams Program:
- Innovation Teams use creative and collaborative data driven problem solving skills to help cities tackle challenging problems in new ways.
- To date, i-teams have tackled 50 different problems for their cities and developed 200 corresponding solutions. For example, young families living in Tel Aviv struggled to stay in the city due to the high cost of living. To reduce the burden on families, the team implemented city-funded education centers and mandates for developers to increase childcare facilities city-wide. Additionally, in Mobile, over 2,000 homes are blighted, and over 13,000 homes are within 150 feet of blight, dragging down property values and creating havens for crime. To improve the financial and emotional well-being for the residents, the i-team worked with housing code enforcement officers to geo-locate blighted properties, help landlords improve properties before they become blighted, and implement legislation so the city can more quickly improve blighted properties.
- To date, i-team cities have secured $81 million in additional public and private sector funding to advance their work. For example, Syracuse received $750,000 in state funding after their i-team identified and implemented innovative technologies to improve aging city infrastructure.
For more information about i-teams, please visit: https://www.bloomberg.org/program/government-innovation/innovation-teams/.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies
Bloomberg Philanthropies works in over 120 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s charitable activities, including his foundation and his personal giving. In 2016, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $600 million. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter.
Media Contact
Rebecca Carriero, rebeccac@bloomberg.org, +1 (212) 205-0182