Innovation is helping to:
Improve service delivery
Anticipate and manage future challenges
Improve internal government operations
Critical success factors:
Focus on measurement
Leadership from Mayor
Support from outside city administration
Grand Rapids
United States
Mayor
Rosalynn Bliss
Population
196,455 (2016)
Innovation Website
Lead Innovation Officer
Becky Jo Glover
Spotlight on innovation in Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is the first city to sponsor their own Civic User Testing group within all levels of service delivery, digital forms development and affordable housing scenario building. The city has extended its learnings from the Mayors Challenge prototyping to all areas with economic development and customer service.
Note: The City Innovation Snapshot (PDF version) was produced in 2019 and some aggregate findings have been updated with the latest survey results below.
Vision and approach to innovation capacity
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Grand Rapids does not have an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to more than half of cities surveyed, Grand Rapids approaches innovation capacity both from a holistic/macro level, as well as in specific policy areas.
Policy areas that Grand Rapids is focused on
Policy areas by number of cities
Grand Rapids utilizes 7 different innovation skills or roles
Innovation roles by number of cities
Situated in the City Manager’s office, Grand Rapids’ dedicated team for innovation is led by the Director for Customer Service.
Terms Grand Rapids most associates with innovation
Grand Rapids' most common innovation activities
- 1
Taking risks or testing new ideas
- 2
Data-driven analytics/public data management
- 3
Engaging residents in new ways
- 4
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
- 5
Organizational change within the municipality
- 6
Human-centered design
- 7
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
How is innovation funded here?
Like 19% of cities surveyed, Grand Rapids does not have dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Top sources of funding
Grand Rapids has no reported sources of funding.
Activities being funded
Grand Rapids does not fund any specific activities.
47 cities
Launching or sustaining a project
79 cities
Idea generation & brainstorming
51 cities
Investing in digital systems
36 cities
Investing in physical infrastructure
30 cities
Paying for services
How is innovation measured?
Grand Rapids has developed partnerships to promote its innovation capacity with other public agencies, private firms, not-for-profit organizations, and city residents/resident associations.
To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with the private sector, academia, think tanks, and philanthropy to collect and analyze data, as well as with other cities.