Driven by Innovation and Initiative? New York City Wants To Put You To Work Helping New Yorkers
The average New Yorker may have a strong opinion about their gentrifying neighborhood, but do they know how to easily find what budget-friendly city benefits–like SNAP or Rent Increase Exemption–they may be entitled to?
And how do the city-run programs operating in one’s neighborhood get funded, anyways? Which programs are most effective at helping those in need?
A small band of New Yorkers can answer these questions, and they may not be who you expect.
They are the apprentices and fellows of a unit in the NYC Mayor’s Office that’s run like a start-up: The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity).
Armed with Post-Its, research papers, and a spectrum of initial opinions on public service (ranging from skepticism to enthusiasm) these participants serve anywhere from a few months to a year of their time at NYC Opportunity. I interviewed ten of these apprentices and fellows, most at the end of their service, and will share their insights from working at an innovative government office like NYC Opportunity.
Different Backgrounds
When thinking of a civil servant, many may envision someone who has put in decades of service with little vision beyond their particular cog in the wheel of government, but NYC Opportunity’s apprentices and fellows pull from a range of experiences.
While studying economics and music composition in college, Max Pekarsky partnered with a friend to establish a composer’s orchestra, Explorchestra.
Explorchestra invited musicians from all backgrounds, encouraging many to continue playing and making music in college. How did that experience shape his work as a Product Manager Apprentice at NYC Opportunity, working with developers (devs) and designers on shared goals? Says Pekarsky,
I learned how to communicate my vision for a piece. Up there, as a conductor, your job is to empower the musicians around you. The conductor doesn’t make a sound. Similarly, a PM’s job is to empower the team.
It’s been ten years since Max started the orchestra and the organization continues to thrive. Meanwhile, Max is developing an internal product dashboard in his new role as a Dev Apprentice at NYC Opportunity that uses NYC Opportunity’s poverty data (available on Open Data) to help direct outreach resources to the places in the city that could most benefit from it.
Steven Aguilar is a mission-driven developer at NYC Opportunity who was initially skeptical about the quality of the technology he might find as a government worker, but was on the search for passionate co-workers after stints at a coding bootcamp and a local fashion start-up. According to Aguilar,
I was super skeptical coming into public service; I thought we’d be working with old technology. I was amazed at the innovation of this office. I really like the work we’re doing. I’m a mission-driven person. It helps me build stuff with passion and this is a mission-driven place. Reducing poverty is a mission I take to the core because I come from that socio-economic background.
Paulina Lopez Gonzales and Claire Breedlove both had international experience on their resumes when they arrived at NYC Opportunity as summer graduate fellows.
Breedlove had worked at a non-governmental organization (NGO) that communicated with the State Department to get aid to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
After being intimately involved in federal government and making the transition to city work, Breedlove says:
It means a lot to do work important to the neighborhoods in the city I care about. There’s a dynamic nature the city uses to solve problems. It’s good be connected to the place where I’m living and find points where I can make an impact.
Lopez Gonzales says that, as a Mexican, she “came with an interest in what structures here [in NYC] could be translated to the Mexican context.”
Oonagh Jordan, a year-long Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) fellow (a service done through Americorps), had more limited experience to bring to her fellowship, but says,
I really care about equity–every thought about my professional future is always connected to equity and reversing injustices. I like that the office is mission-driven. I’m almost always willing to come on any project, at any stage. Enthusiasm is my value-add.
Jordan says that while she struggled at first to master office protocols new to her like memo styling, “My team made it easy to move past these difficulties and learn from them. It’s not always what you come on with, but what you can give now.”
Innovation
NYC Opportunity is part of a larger movement in cities and civic tech to use data-driven processes and human-centered design (HCD) at city-scale to reduce poverty and increase equity.
One of five interrelated disciplines practiced by NYC Opportunity, the Service Design Studio (the Studio) crystallizes NYC Opportunity’s commitment to this movement.
The Studio’s mission is to make public services as effective and accessible for New Yorkers as possible. The Studio uses whatever tools are necessary to achieve its mission when working with other government agencies to help them improve their services, but it concentrates on bringing a human-centered design point of view that also relies on research and evidence.
Johnny Garces, a Summer Service Design Apprentice, says he is most proud of his work on the Studio’s Pathways to Prevention project with the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) Department of Prevention. ACS is the city agency in charge of NYC children’s welfare and also runs foster care.
The Pathways to Prevention project aims to increase the number of families who voluntarily seek services and prevent children from entering foster care. Prevention services may include: substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, evidence-based family therapy, and resources for education and job training. The Pathways to Prevention project allows community members and families to shape a client service, family-centered approach to prevention services.
Says Garces,
We have weekly meetings with ACS; that’s what it means to create a design culture. Coming in every week and trusting each other with our insights and observations. It’s what being an ally is all about. It’s how you make change from within.
Paula Daneze, also a Summer Service Design Studio Apprentice at NYC Opportunity, says of the innovation being done now at the Studio:
Design has been overlooked and taken for granted in the past. Now, it’s seen as a possible tool for solving complex problems in our communities and cities. This is a really good thing. Working at the Service Design Studio and practicing human-centered design means listening to the people who need public services the most. Now we’re making the effort to communicate with them, hear their problems, and fix them.
Iteration, or continually improving upon processes, is also a key aspect of innovation. Daneze says:
We share our process and its stages with stakeholders and teammates along the way. Before, as a graphic designer, I only showed the finished product. Here, process is important.
Initiative & Ownership
Because NYC Opportunity fellows and apprentices don’t file and fetch coffee but rather are contributing to real projects and evaluations, taking ownership and initiative on the job was a recurring theme in the interviews.
Yuka Fukuoka, a Summer Graphic Design Apprentice a the Service Design Studio says:
My ownership is a lot. It is beyond my expectations. I thought I would just be making social network advertising and templates for email. But I have a lot of ownership to make the branding, which is very surprising. This moment is very exciting. My ideas are respected by everyone–that’s the most exciting part. They respect me as a designer.
Oonagh Jordan felt like a full member of the team right away:
Within two weeks I was brought on to folks’ projects in a partner role. As a new person with little professional experience, to be trusted that much meant a lot to me. It gave me a sense of belonging.
Competence was assumed, says Paulina Lopez Gonzalez:
My favorite thing is that everyone comes in assuming you’re smart. There’s a real sense of, “Here’s what we want to achieve.”
Apprentices and fellows also appreciated the flat structure of NYC Opportunity. Johnny Garces found it eased his work:
The flat structure in the office was helpful. You can ask anyone for help. I can ask Product an Excel question. Cross pollination is a virtue here.
Paula Daneze’s notions about government being corporate and difficult were changed by the flat structure she found at NYC Opportunity:
It feels like a little startup. That changed my expectations. Matt Klein (Executive Director at NYC Opportunity) and Carson Hicks (Deputy Executive Director at NYC Opportunity) participate in meetings and events with us. They have power to make decisions and are closer to the mayor, and they are approachable and are really listening to our ideas.
Talents & Takeaways
Fellows and apprentices brought their diverse talents to their work and at the end of their tenure had much to offer back to NYC Opportunity. Bryan Jackson, a VISTA fellow shared:
Today was my last day and I had a lunch debrief with my direct supervisor, who asked for my reflections and recommendations for the fellowship and the office as a whole.
I was so honored that they valued my opinion on a large scale. I got to dive into a lot of different things and learn about the variety of processes and strategies used to manage programs. Without doing all of that I wouldn’t have been able to make that contribution.
And that’s really the point of the fellowship: to get fresh eyes on the office.
In their time at city government participants in the apprenticeships and fellowships learned about how the city works, what’s possible in the future, and about themselves as well:
I learn so much every day. One thing I’ve seen is the amount of thought and consideration that goes into everything we do. Everything we do is using taxpayer money, and we’re investing tax payer money. Everyone understands that. The amount of careful thought and consideration here speaks to that. From the planning stages for programs and evaluations to 140-character tweets, so much time and care is put into everything.
–Oonagh Jordan
Not being profit-driven is a huge change. Not having to justify every single thing you do with a focus on the bottom line allows more freedom to focus on what is right for our users. For example, the Product Dashboard will allow us to focus on neighborhoods with low ACCESS NYC benefits screener completion rates and high poverty. By identifying those areas, we can send [Training and Outreach Specialist] Ashley Cortez to do targeted outreach there.
–Max Pekarsky
I learned that NYC Opportunity is an agency that links between many actors. Sometimes it’s very traditional (e.g., funding). Many agencies come for connections.
–Claire Breedlove
I found I love dynamic moving pieces, parts of the process that are hard to quantify and you can’t apply numbers to. My work at NYC Opportunity helped me to feel like there was a place for my skill-set in government. It’s really helped with job searching. My response rate when applying to places I’m really interested in is so much higher.
–Bryan Jackson
Projects & Advice for Future Fellows and Apprentices
If you’re thinking of taking advantage of the chance to enter an innovative municipal government agency as a fellow or apprentice, read below for advice from recent participants as well as suggested areas to focus on at work. Taking initiative and asking questions were both encouraged.
Programs & Evaluation
My advice is to be extremely proactive and arrange meetings with people you want to know. Learn the breadth of the work that NYC Opportunity does. Being proactive is really important.
–Claire Breedlove
It’d be really cool if the next apprentice evaluated how to bring the teams together more. Particularly from the Service Design Studio, I feel like there’s so much we could learn from them–how their team works, how we can be more collaborative. Silos are still a problem! There’s opportunities for cross-agency collaboration. We could take steps within our own office to make sure we overcome silos on our own team.
My advice: Don’t be afraid of asking if you need help or support: ask for it! My experience is that everyone is incredibly smart, and helpful. They want everyone to do well and feel like they’re contributing. Especially for more junior people it might be a fear, but it’s unfounded.
–Oonagh Jordan
Product Management
I wish I had realized earlier on the value in taking initiative. A good way to do meaningful work is to find something broken and fix it.
–Max Pekarsky
Software Development
The next apprentice could work on accessibility for our platforms, which is something I worked on early on and something our team takes very seriously. My advice: start using screen readers and be able to see that there’s a diverse user base that need to have a good experience. All services should be available to all users.
–Steven Aguilar
Service Design Studio
It’s going to feel a little scary the first two weeks because there is a lot to learn, but eventually you’ll get everything. Be patient, and don’t freak out. You can always ask a lot of questions, our team members are very patient and eager to explain everything.
–Paula Daneze
Continue to iterate on the design process. As far as advice, take ownership of the project you’re doing. It’s YOUR project.
Some advice for someone in the same place as me, who is self-taught: do a lot of learning on the side. Complement your work with supplementary material. Get everyone on board, engaged, talking about process-making, user-mapping. I recommend five hours a week doing your own, self-started learning.
–Johnny Garces
Special Message to New Yorkers
I asked the apprentices and fellows what they would want individual New Yorkers to know about their office or job. A selection of their messages are below:
I would want NYC citizens to know how passionate people are about helping them. And to know the amount of joy it brings me to work in public service. I never thought I’d end up with this team. I love being around passionate people, and they’re fun. It amazes me the amount of passionate people that work in public service. Our team is amazing. It’s so diverse, which is what NYC is. Our team represents our city.
–Steven Aguilar
In general, the people who work in government do it for you (New Yorkers). Government isn’t the same thing as politics. There’s this sort of mustache-twirling view of politics. I’d like to be able to tell everyone government’s not that.
–Bryan Jackson
There are talented Tech teams building digital products; the websites aren’t just sitting there stagnant. A digital NYC is really happening.
–Max Pekarsky
We’re a change agent studio. We solve for agencies that solve for New Yorkers; it’s a real multiplier effect! ACCESS NYC, for example, works with 15 agencies. Then those 15 agencies affect their beneficiaries. Now those 15 agencies know the value of human-centered way of designing. We are change agents. We provide resources for agencies to be human-centered, to be 21st-century agencies.
–Johnny Garces
People are making an effort to improve your city for you. Everyone I work with really loves their job. They genuinely want to make a difference.
–Paula Daneze
People are genuinely committed to the work they are doing and trying to make the city a more just and equitable place. There are lots of barriers to this, but they never lose sight of the mission.
–Paulina Lopez Gonzalez
People are working hard to make it easier to navigate city government and make it fit within your own real life.
–Elizabeth Ferguson
Interviewer Reflections
Silos are often, and rightfully, cited as a block to getting things done in city government. Having the chance to conduct these interviews with my fellow apprentices and the fellows was a great chance to see past the artificial barriers between departments within NYC Opportunity.
Beyond them I found unique individuals who came to government with different, and sometimes opposing, views of what a municipal government’s capabilities and offerings were.
At the close, though, was the universal sense that everyone had evolved in their role, whether apprentice or fellow.
Sometimes it was a change of mindset regarding government services and their importance; the discovery of a niche where your skills are not just needed but valued; on-the-job growth in skills and insight paired with a renewed sense of individual competence that will be carried out either in or beyond government; or uncovering a shared sense of passion and mission amongst public servants.
In the current political climate, it is incredibly heartening to see government service shape people in positive ways.
Personally, crossing silos helped me understand the way the mission of the agency is carried out and increased my openness to volunteering for cross-agency projects. Participating in these across-silos projects has shown me the complexity of municipal government and politics (and the people involved), but I’ve also seen my co-workers rise to the occasion and throw the bulk of their skills and imagination into penetrating that bureaucracy so New York’s government can better serve all its people.
Seeing my co-workers tackle complex issues with verve and grace inspires me to do the same.
As I’m staying on as a Product Management Apprentice, I’m hoping to help with the onboarding of the apprentices as well as the fellows, which interviews revealed could be done better.
I hope this reflection on the experiences of apprentices and fellows will continue, perhaps annually, as it is valuable not only as a project that opens up silos but also as one that helps the office hear from those with fresh eyes and perspectives on our processes.
These things are invaluable to helping us see each other through to do our best work, inspire each other, and learn from each other and our stakeholders–all of which is necessary if we hope to open our eyes to the problems, big and small, the city faces so we can approach them together.
Contact Us
For anyone interested in joining the team at NYC Opportunity, please visit our Jobs page to see what apprenticeships and permanent positions are available. Apprenticeships are offered seasonally.
To learn more about the Americorps VISTA Fellowship, click here.
We thank our Founding Partner Citi Community Development for generous support. We are grateful for the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City’s partnership.
