United States
Jim Ardis
112,883 (2017)
Anthony Corso
Engage residents and other stakeholders
Generate new sources of revenue
Improve internal government operations
Dedicated innovation team
Focus on measurement
Dedicated funding
Human resource support
Leadership from Mayor
Engagement with partners
Support from outside city administration
Peoria has developed a community engagement effort focused on building the innovation capacity of residents and other community stakeholders towards fostering the economic vitality of a neighborhood corridor. The effort, known as Help Shape West Main, began in the fall of 2017 and was based on the premise that the City did not always have the resources or purview to tackle community challenges alone, but did have the power to convene residents and stakeholders. The effort focused on "convening around doing" through the facilitation of new partnerships and testing of new, incremental ideas through those partnerships.
Note: The City Innovation Snapshot (PDF version) was produced in 2019 and some aggregate findings have been updated with the latest survey results below.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Peoria has an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to more than half of cities surveyed, Peoria approaches innovation capacity both from a holistic/macro level, as well as in specific policy areas.
Situated in the City Manager’s office, Peoria’s dedicated team for innovation is led by the Chief Innovation Officer (i-team Director) and consists of 3 staff members and 2 part-time interns.
Taking risks or testing new ideas
Data-driven analytics/public data management
Engaging residents in new ways
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
Organizational change within the municipality
Human-centered design
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Its innovation activities also include facilitating organizational change within the municipal administration; human-centered design; and rethinking the city’s approach to financing and partnerships.
Like 81% of cities surveyed, Peoria has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Peoria also invests in digital systems.
Peoria 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, and think tanks to collect and analyze data.