City of Providence
Leading the most robust public engagement process in Providence’s history
Challenge
With roughly $166 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, the City of Providence faced an enormous problem: how to distribute these funds in a manner that brought relief to those hit hardest by COVID-19 and address long-standing issues exacerbated by the pandemic.
Approach
SCS's approach engages a wide range of community organizations and leaders to ensure diverse and inclusive public engagement and successful implementation of community-driven recommendations, as well as leveraging project management and budget analysis expertise to bolster efficient and equitable city governance.
Outcome
The most robust public engagement process in the City of Providence’s history and a set of spending recommendations dubbed the “Providence Rescue Plan” genuinely represented the people’s will which the City of Providence could take to the Council. SCS led five community engagement sessions, facilitated two business roundtables, managed 13 public meetings of the Task Force in compliance with the Open Meetings Act, and collected over 1,100 surveys (both digitally and in-person) from a population roughly matching the racial and ethnic demographics of Providence. We planned to accomplish this over a year; instead, we completed it all in just over three months.
Services Rendered
Project Management, Public Engagement, Web & Graphic Design, Report Writing, and Content Development