Innovations in American Government
Nation's Top Ten Innovative Government Programs Named
An Awards Program of the Ford Foundation and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government: Federal, State and Local level Programs Each Awarded $100,000.
Rehabilitating prostitutes and johns in San Francisco, creating incentives to speed industry product recalls, confronting criminals with their victims and creating consensus among feuding landowners and environmentalists, are among 1998's ten most creative and effective government programs receiving the prestigious Innovations in American Government Awards. Each of the programs will receive $100,000 to promote the replication and expansion of their work.
Sponsored by the Ford Foundation and administered by the Kennedy School of Government in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government, the awards are given to federal, state and local public sector initiatives. Today's selection caps a year-long assessment of 1,400 applicants with the winners graduating through academic, policy and site reviews. The selection of the winners follows presentations by 25 finalists before a prominent group of public policy experts and former government officials. Chaired by David Gergen, editor-at-large of U.S. News and World Report, the selection committee includes former members of Congress, former mayors, journalists and specialists in public policy.
"Many of government's most creative programs are now so familiar that we forget that their origins were experimental," said Susan Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation. "From the GI bill to the Internet, our government has created many new ways to fulfill our nation's potential. These ten Innovations Award winners remind us that despite the media's frequent contention to the contrary, government paves the way for much of our country's success."
The selection committee recognized three federal programs, four state, one city and two local initiatives.
"No program in America is as effective as this one in revealing the imagination and dynamism of so many public leaders in tackling the country's domestic challenges," said Gergen. "Once again, the Innovations in Government awards has recognized ten great models for the future."
Three of the programs focused on criminal justice:
The State of Vermont for Reparative Probation brings non-violent criminals before their victims and related community members to make amends for their crimes.
New York State Unified Court System's Center for Court Innovation allows for administrative experimentation to establish new courts that are tailored to meet the needs of their communities.
San Francisco District Attorney's First Offender Prostitution Program breaks the pattern of re-arrest for prostitutes and johns and helps prostitutes build new lives.
Two health-related programs recognized by the selection committee were:
Buncombe County (NC) Medical Society Project Access, which provides near-universal health care to indigent and low-income families through an organized physician volunteer system, and
The State of North Carolina's Smart Start, which provides a state-wide initiative to ensure that children arrive at school healthy and ready to learn by age five.
Awards went also to two education programs:
State of California Puente Project, a post secondary program to help under served students open the doors to higher education, and
New York's Edwin Gould Academy, a unique residential foster care facility that provides youth with a consistent environment that emphasizes both academic and personal development.
The federal programs honored today were:
The Consumer Product Safety Commission for Fast Track, a cooperative program with manufacturers that cut the time to recall unsafe products in half;
The U.S. Navy for developing Best Manufacturing Practices, a groundbreaking quality improvement program which results in cheaper, better products by leveraging buying power to promote the sharing of confidential best practices among vendors;
USDA's Forest Service for Northern New Mexico Collaborative Stewardship program which balances the needs of people, business and the ecosystem through a unique federal-local partnership to resolve age-old disputes over land use.
More information on the Innovations in American Government Awards, including the application for the 1999 awards competition, is available at the Innovations in American Government Web site: www.ksg.harvard.edu/innovations/ or by calling 617/495-0558.
The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.