During the early days of the pandemic, you couldn’t escape the word “pivot”. Every person and every business was pivoting and readjusting daily practices. City of Philadelphia employees were no different. As City workers moved to remote work, they were coming up with solutions to keep up with the “new normal.”
To continue to foster changes in municipal operations, The City created the Operations Transformation Fund (OTF). The OTF is a $10 million investment in internal City projects.
What is the Operations Transformation Fund?
The Operations Transformation Fund (OTF) supports creative solutions to make practices and processes within city government more efficient and more equitable. City departments submitted almost 100 ideas, and a committee reviewed and selected from the applications. The two cohorts selected to be funded represent 28 departments. They are implementing 29 projects over the course of two fiscal years.
The OTF is overseen by an advisory board led by the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). The advisory board ensures the projects improve services for residents, support equity, and increase efficiency. Philadelphians can track projects by using the OTF Project Dashboard.
What is the OTF Project Dashboard?
One of the unprecedented components of this project is its commitment to transparency and accessibility to the public. Today CAO launched The OTF Project Dashboard and Progress Report. The dashboard is available online and gives the public access to view monthly updates and track the progress of each project.
CAO supports City departments in their efforts to transform service delivery and provide people-centered solutions with measurable and equitable outcomes. The OTF Project Dashboard gives the public access into how the City is progressing on these critical projects and how we measure success.
How is it going so far?
After completing two funding cycles, the OTF has awarded $9.38 million in grant support. The OTF provides technical assistance and support to City departments to help figure out logistics of launching and sustaining projects. Feedback from project teams indicates CAO’s help has been valuable as they put in place their initiatives.
As of September 2022, 83% of OTF projects are on schedule. The OTF Project Dashboard will update monthly to reflect project progress. As implementation continues, CAO will track additional metrics on the Dashboard. CAO will also continue to release bi-annual progress reports on the OTF.
