Civic Consulting Alliance<\/a>, which in recent years has helped to bring an annual average of $19 million in pro bono services to city, county, and state governments, as well as leading nonprofits and civic groups. Although the specific design of a partnership and scope of projects varies, the alliance focuses on generating maximum impact in six to eight weeks.<\/p>\nPew identified an early pilot project with PFD, which sought external support to help to address the shortage of paramedics within its ranks. The department reported having roughly 200 active paramedics, while it needs more than 330 to effectively handle the approximately 900 to 1,000 emergency medical services (EMS) calls it receives every day. In addition, PFD\u2014like fire departments throughout the country\u2014is not just responding to fires but also facing an increasing demand for emergency medical services. Recognizing EMS workforce shortages as a widespread challenge that affects jurisdictions throughout Pennsylvania and the nation, Pew partnered PFD with Accenture, which helped design a scalable solution tailored to local needs.<\/p>\n
Drawing from over 35 stakeholder interviews and 18 hours of collaborative workshops, Accenture supported the department by co-developing a program framework informed by that key stakeholder input along with national best practices.<\/p>\n
Dana Jackson, an assistant managing director II with PFD, said the framework that Accenture developed with the city is \u201cpositioning us well for implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re building a paramedic apprenticeship pathway to stabilize EMS staffing and open doors for Philadelphians,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cPro bono assistance helped us organize research and options; we\u2019re moving through city processes to evaluate next steps with a focus on public health, equity, and a fair, supportive career path.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The deliverables also included envisioning apprentice workforce opportunities, with new pathways for different populations, including those who participate in current PFD youth programs. While not endorsing any specific organizations or services, the city emphasized that the engagement from the private and nonprofit sectors was useful in planning support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis required engagement across the board, with the mayoral administration and other key people who are part of running the city getting buy-in to move from milestone to milestone, getting everyone on the same page,\u201d said Nahomie Louis, a managing director at Accenture.<\/p>\n
What have we learned from this pilot project?<\/p>\n
Philadelphia\u2019s private sector has significant applicable expertise, with plenty of pro bono teams ready to assist city government and nonprofit organizations. City government departments and their private sector partners have provided positive feedback, and there is strong demand throughout city government for more pro bono projects.<\/p>\n
In reviewing various approaches to public-private partnerships, Philadelphia civic leaders have often looked toward Chicago\u2019s Civic Consulting Alliance as a promising model to replicate. In that example, an intermediary has a critical role to play in cultivating a partner roster, matching government agencies with the right partners, scoping and overseeing projects, establishing data sharing or other agreements, and providing ongoing implementation support. All of this is good news for the future of public-private partnerships in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Elinor Haider is the senior director, Philadelphia program, and Patrick Morgan is a senior officer with the Philadelphia research and policy initiative at The Pew Charitable Trusts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philadelphia\u2019s business and civic sectors have a wide range of capabilities to offer the public sector. Health care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[43337,1165,43338,3831,16876,33161,43339,3975,69,71,70,23121,294,43336],"class_list":["post-86645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-advance-health-and-well-being","tag-article","tag-elinor-haider","tag-health-care","tag-katie-martin","tag-local-policy","tag-patrick-morgan","tag-pew-charitable-trusts","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-research-and-policy","tag-public-safety","tag-restoring-the-planet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}