November 17, 2016Op-ed

Medium: The Story Behind Working in Local Government

by Maia Jachimowicz

Local/ Local Government Fellows/ 2016/

It was a sweltering hot day in Philadelphia and I was driving an old Ford Taurus up North Broad Street with a carload of colleagues and a trunk full of books. We were on our way to deliver summer books to children at a U.S.D.A.-funded summer meals site as part of the mayor’s Fun Safe Philly Summer reading drive.

We had a plan for our arrival: we would assemble a makeshift card table, prepare reading assessments for the children, and organize book bundles for distribution. But before we could even unload the books from the car, we were bombarded by children (and parents) incredibly eager to take part in our reading program. Several children were so excited they ripped open their book bundles and sat down on the curb to start reading right away.

This is one of countless memories I have of my time working in city government and one example of why I dedicated nearly eight years to public service in Philadelphia. I wanted to introduce effective public policies to improve outcomes for residents. In the case of our summer reading program, research shows that one effective way to stem summer learning loss is to continue to expose children to level-appropriate reading materials in the summertime paired with a caring adult who can help guide them through these materials. By using research and evidence to inform our program design, we improved the likelihood that our summer reading program had the strongest possible impact.

I am still working to introduce effective public policies in my role with Results for America. I am fortunate to work with 15 passionate and forward-thinking local government leaders from across America in an effort to lead their governments toward advanced stages of data-driven, evidence-based policymaking. In addition to providing a curriculum with some of the cutting-edge data-driven strategies in use today, RFA ensures that local government leaders possess the necessary soft skills to effectively communicate the importance of using data and evidence to inform policy decisions.

Here below are the stories of Results for America’s Local Government Fellows, what inspires them to do their work and what keeps them motivated.