Highlights from 2019
The South Bend Department of Innovation & Technology’s biggest moments from this year
In celebration of another year of innovation, data, and human-centered technology in South Bend, our team wanted to share our favorite moments from 2019.
A New CIO
Our team onboarded a new Chief Innovation Officer this January, Denise Linn Riedl. Denise came to us from Chicago where she worked for City Tech, leading digital inclusion, smart city, and data collaboration projects.
Santi Garces originated the CIO role here in South Bend. To absorb the full history of how Innovation & Technology was formed under his leadership here in South Bend with Mayor Pete Buttigieg, read our story here.
More Data and Transparency
February saw the launch of the new South Bend Transparency and Performance Page. It’s a centralized landing place leading to all our of SB Stat materials (aka our City’s performance management program), open data, and open documentation.
We also did a refresh of the Police Transparency Hub in partnership with SBPD. Take a tour of the new Hub here, including a new complaints dashboard as well as a new crimes dashboard. Also new to the Police Transparency Hub in 2019 was the release of the City’s police recruiting data. For a full breakdown on what that data means + how to analyze it, read more here.
311 Turned Six!
The 311 team is on the frontlines of City service delivery. They are the heart of our Innovation & Technology team — always serving and aiming to understand residents’ needs and experiences.
Unpacking the Future of Work with the University of Notre Dame
One of the most memorable moments of 2019 was when local and national partners convened in South Bend for the first ever Future of Work Conference. The City of South Bend joined Brookings, MetroLab, Citi Foundation, and academics and leaders from across the country to discuss how technological changes will impact our workforce and the nature of work.
Better Government, Better Services
Our team doesn’t work alone. We collaborate with other city departments, helping them leverage data and technology to improve resident services and internal processes. Here’s just a few examples:
- A new app co-developed with the Code Enforcement Department to support rental safety inspections in South Bend
- A data analysis in partnership with the Fire Department’s community paramedicine pilot that proved the value of expanding the program in 2020
- Through the SB Academy Program, our team led process improvement workshops which helped SBPD, permitting teams, and other City departments map out new ways of streamlining work
A Beta City for Better Mobility
Embracing our identity as a Beta City, South Bend started a new phase of our with with the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge: Commuters Trust. Commuters Trust is a new model to improve transportation options in mid-sized cities, leveraging partnerships with core local employers to help hourly wage workers. The new model is supported by a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
In 2019, we hired Aaron Steiner to lead this effort for South Bend. He built a team, expanded local partnerships, and launched a new phase of pilots to test multimodal transportation-as-a-benefit packages for hourly workers at Notre Dame and Beacon Health.
Big Steps for Access & Digital Inclusion
Innovation & Technology’s Infrastructure Team worked throughout 2019 to connect a majority of City facilities to Choice Light, our region’s dark fiber network born from a compelling public-private partnership.
Recognizing that better infrastructure for City services is only part of our city’s access needs, our team also partnered to forward digital inclusion and training programs. We continued to support SB CLICK sites across the city as well as Bendable, a new lifelong learning platform for residents. Also, one of the best moments of the year was our partnership with PCs for People, Mobile Beacon, and the South Bend Community School Corporation to give away 150 free computer + wifi hotspot bundles to local families ahead of the holidays.
The Grand Opening of the South Bend Technology Resource Center
The opening of the Technology Resource Center (TRC) this year was perhaps one of the best memories of 2019. The space will not only house offices of Innovation & Technology staff, but will also host local technology training and collaboration programming in our region. Read more about the grand opening here.
“The Technology Resource Center is an invitation for residents, national partners, and local institutions to learn and problem solve with the city. From smart sewers to lifelong learning applications, the city has long benefited from co-building innovative solutions to our most pressing challenges. We look forward to seeing what exciting projects arise at this collaboration hub.” — Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Since its opening in November, the TRC has already hosted coding classes for youth, data bootcamps for job seekers, internal software training for City employees, PC refurbishing events for local families, and other technology training and leadership events.
More to come…
Next year we hope to continue to make strides in open data, training, and technology co-design with our residents. We also plan to partner with our City peers to improve internal systems and processes and leverage data for better public programs!
Follow our work on this blog on on Twitter. Happy New Year from our team to yours!
