Gilbert Feeding Families Food Drive Pancake Breakfast

Today was the Gilbert Feeding Families Food Drive Pancake Breakfast. Apparently, this summer the Town of Gilbert sponsored a Food Drive in partnership with the United Food Bank, and the town exceeded their goal of 73,000 meals and collected 114,000 meals! Great job Town of Gilbert. This morning, the municipal offices of Gilbert scheduled the Gilbert Feeding Families Food Drive Pancake Breakfast "(since the town municipal office was the winner of the breakfast challenge!)." Kudos to the City Manager, Patrick Banger, on being the pancake chef! Delicious!

Four Weeks and Counting

Mayors Ambassadors Forum

 It's been four weeks since I started my internship at the Town of Gilbert! Can you believe that? Where does the time go? Well, as they say, "Time flies when you're having fun" and let me add "busy". Since, I have arrived I have written an a policy brief on E-cigarettes, went to a slew of meetings and city events, and networked with various city employees and officials. Now, I am working with the Gabe Engeland and Andi Welsh, the Assistants Town Manager, concerning the recent findings from the Town of Gilbert's Human Service Needs Assessment. 

The Town Council requested a Human Service Needs Assessment to discern the human services available and the gaps within the community. The purpose was to give the town an idea of improvement areas and recommendations to ensure the safety and prosperity of all the citizens in Gilbert. I'm currently reading the 118 page report, which you can find here at the town's website: Town of Gilbert Human Service Needs Assesstment

My desk

Basically, the assessment found that the groups in critical need are (in order of need):
1)Families (and individuals) in crisis
2. Mental health and substance abuse treatment services
3. Low/moderate income individuals and families
4. Elderly/seniors
5. Homeless individuals and families
6. Special needs individuals
7. Youth
8. Immigrants
9. Culturally diverse individuals and families

The recurrent needs found in all these groups were: 
1. Centralized resource for information and referral
2. Safe, affordable housing
3. Affordable, accessible transportation
4. Access to basic necessities
5. Accessible health care to meet needs  

Say hello to my little friend!

The assessment found that while the Town of Gilbert (population of 220,000+) is filled with affluent, well-educated, family oriented citizens, there are 14,000 citizens living below the federal poverty level  in need any number of the aforementioned services. This does not even include other groups concerned low income, the elderly, the uneducated, and a slew of other groups in crisis. The recommendations range from enlisting the help and funding human service providers, health care centers, religious organizations, and nonprofit organizations to promoting existing services to the citizens in need. There other recommendations that I find very interesting: 

Spicy Chicken Pizza at Flordino's for Kurt's Birthday

1) Provide training for staff in areas of cultural diversity to provide services to culturally diverse citizens
2) Encourage volunteerism and reduce the social stigma of being in need
3)Build and mobilize neighborhoods to help citizens in crisis
4) Revisit the council decision to reduce general fund contributions to human service needs

Andi and Gabe have mentioned I will help in some aspect concerning the human needs assessment. What that is exactly, I won't know until later on this week (to be continnued...)

Meeting with my advisor...dun dun duuuuuuun!

Ok. So it's not that scary, but I was pretty freaked out at the time I went ot see my advisor, Stephanie Alvery. Basically, I need to know if I was heading down the current career course for my desired profession: 1) Become a Museum Director of an American Indian Museum 2) Work in the Nonprofit/Public sector as a Director working with American Indian Communities.

Now, I'm already in my second year of graduate school and I noticed the MPA-NP concentration program places more emphasis on public administration rather than nonprofit administration, and I was wondering if I had made the career move. Do I stay in the MPA program or do I switch over the Nonprofit Studies program which is not under the Public Affairs school of ASU. Stephanie and I sat down to talk about my career goals and we came to the conclusion that I should stay in the MPA program for the following reasons:

1) If I plan to work for a museum like the Smithsonian (which is public partnership museum) then knowing the ends and outs of public administration is an added benefit rather than a disadvantage
2) I'm more marketable with a dual degree rather one degree in one specific area. Therefore, I can work in both sectors if needs be.

So all in all, everything smoothed over and I'm right where I belong.

Town of Gilbert: Faith Summit

Today, the Town of Gilbert hosted its annual Faith Summit event. The purpose of the event was to encourage religious leaders to build new partnerships, understand the current needs and state of the Town of Gilbert, and coordinate outreach efforts to fulfill the human service gaps within the community.  Mayor John Lewis is a huge advocate for enlisting the help of religious organizations to fulfill and promote the needs of the community. My area of interest is community engagement and partnerships. I believe fostering and maintaining community partnerships is the perfect way to advocate social change while meeting the needs of the community. While attending this function I couldn't help but remember the words of nonprofit advocate and author, Peter Frumkin.

In his book, On being Nonprofit, Frumkin states, “Nonprofit and voluntary organization respond to the deeply rooted need of individual to be of something bigger than themselves. As an antidote to atomistic individualism, nonprofit and voluntary activity…brings people out of their isolation and puts them in touch with others who share their concerns interests. The connections…can be used to respond to community concerns, needs, and demands" (Frumpkin, 2005). 

Priest from Sri Venkat Kshetra Dham

Therefore, by engaging religious organizations, citizens are able to express their faith into action, while delivering services to those in need that the either the private or public sector cannot provide. This event was definitely frumkin's words being put into action. Here was a public entity engaging with nonprofit organizations to build trust, solidarity, and social capital, and then translating that trust and civic engagement directly into community action. 

The Mayor along with the Town of Gilbert Mayor Town Council, Chief of Police and Fire, and Town Manager presented a needs assessment and current state of the Town of Gilbert to religious organizations, so they might help in building a sustainable community for all the citizens of Gilbert. 

Meet Gilbert’s Native American Management Intern

The Town of Gilbert posted a bio on their town website. I'm such a goober! Check it out.

Meet Gilbert’s Native American Management Intern

Office of Intergovernmental Relations

As of yesterday, I have been interning at the Office of Intergovernmental Relations for two weeks. How time flies! The first day is always the scariest, but since I have been here Leah, Heather, and Kurt have been nothing but wonderful. On my first day, Leah gave me an introduction of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and I was astounded by wide array of issues the department covers as well as the amount of work they tackle on a day-to-day bases. 

The mission of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations "is to build, foster, maintain, and facilitate meaningful and strategic relationships on behalf of the Town both internally and with local, regional, state and federal organizations, agencies, groups, and individuals". Meaning they represent and promote the concerns of the Town of Gilbert by building and sustaining cooperative partnerships with other public, private, and nonprofit organizations. They work closely with the Mayor and Town Council on public policy and other legislative matters that concern the public safety and well being for the citizens of Gilbert. 

As I mentioned before, Leah, Heather, and Kurt have all been an absolute gem to work with. I can see that I will have much to learn from them during the course of my internship.

Public Policy and Legos

Heather, Leah, and I sat down to discuss a couple of projects that I could work on during my internship. I was most interested in the e-cigarette issue that has many municipalities perplexed on how to handle this relatively new public policy issue. As I told Leah and Heather,  I'm very interested in taking the knowledge I have gained at ASU and putting it into practice during my internship with the Town of Gilbert. Right now, I am taking a Public Affairs class which focuses on policy research and analysis of government decisions, so I'm excited to see how public policy works on a local level.

Public policy, in a nutshell, is how the government implements law into action on an administrative level. On the state level public policy includes a wide range of potential action-allocating and spending money, establishing and administering guidelines and standards, creating departments/agencies and hiring qualified staff, designing tax incentives and subsidies, and even determining illegal behavior. Public Policy encompasses a wide range of issues with implications that affect everyone.

I see policy as the building components like Legos. As, a kid, I loved playing with Legos and fascinated that all these brightly colored bricks could create anything I wanted depending on the time and imagination I put into the project. Same with policy. There are several components that go into making law and then implementing that law into policy. Every step to creating effective policy is challenging, time-consuming, and filled with roadblocks and setbacks. For me, I love looking at all those tiny bricks that make up policy-deconstructing, analyzing it, and then putting it back together again.

So, it is just to say that policy, whether on the federal, state or local level, affects everyone and everything we do. The coffee I'm drinking is affected by public policy in many areas from international commerce, food regulation to homeland security. The internet I'm using is regulated by the Federal Communication Commission. The car I used to get to work is regulated by Arizona emission standards. Even my 4-day work week which was set by the town council is an example of local public policy. It is astonishing to think that's just a small part of all the policies surrounding and influencing my life at this very moment.

There is so much more I could write about this subject, but I have work that needs to be done. Until next time. -B

Open Data Roadshow: Transparency, Trust, and Empanadas

Today, I attended the Open Data Roadshow at the Mesa Arts Center. The event focused on using technology to increase transparency in local government. According to Garrett Jacobs, Code for America's Government Coordinator, open data is "the preview of making data freely available to the public to use as they wish without restriction in a machine format."  Open data allows the public and government employees easy access to open data for the benefit of sharing knowledge and enhancing public awareness of city operations and public policies. The Open Data roadshow highlighted local city government initiatives  (Phoenix/Tuscon) that implemented open data portals, application, and/or tools to enhance city operations, build public trust, and provide better customer service.

Technology has changed the way governments do business and connect with their citizens. Open data is an important tool to building public trust by increasing transparency in government operations and services. Open data also benefits staff efficiency by making documents easy to obtain and work orders easy to track. In addition to increasing government efficiency, Open data can influence economic development by reducing strain on request for records such as building permits, civilian complaints, budgets, and service requests.

I found all the information presented at the roadshow intriguing and insightful from a policy perspective. By implementing Open data strategies and programs, government officials are to make better decisions for their communities. Open data could be a valuable resource to shape the direction of public policy and help policy makers decide the best course of action for their communities.

On a side note, after the presentation they served tasty empanadas.

Down to Buisness

Second day on the job, but before I start, I just want to post this delicious picture from lunch yesterday with Kurt and Eric (Traffic engineer for the Town of Gilbert). We went to this place called Masa Sushi on Gilbert and Guadalupe. Check out the size of those sushi rolls! GIGANTIC! Most inexpensive ($11) and tasty lunch deal I have seen in a long time! I'm definitely going to eat here again!

Now, down to business. Yesterday and today was filled with meetings, meetings, and more meetings. After a nice presentation by Leah about the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, I had a chance to sit in on a Maricopa Association of Government (MAG) meeting with the Town Manager, Patrick Banger. MAG is a council of governments who serve to develop "long-range planning and policy development" for the Phoenix metropolitan area. They cover a wide array of issues from transportation, air quality, and human services. The meeting covered efforts to facilitate economic development relationships with other local and national governments, plus focus areas imperative for the Town of Gilbert to build a viable and sustainable economy: Higher education, innovation, advanced manufacturing, technology, etc. Very informative!


Later on that afternoon, I attended a Flinn Foundation meeting with Heather and the Mayor of the Town of Gilbert, John Lewis. Mayor Lewis teaches a public administration class at MCC, so we picked him up right after his class concluded. I've never heard of a mayor teaching a community college class while he was working as the town mayor. The Mayor was very cordial and open to answering any questions I had about the Town of Gilbert and his position as Mayor.

The Flinn Foundation luncheon was to bring awareness of the importance of Bio science industry and STEM education in the Valley. Their goals are to "focus on forming an entrepreneurial hub, turning research into practice, developing bio-talent, connecting research with health care delivery and commercialization, and enhancing the state’s “collaborative gene”. The Flinn Foundation's Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee meeting highlighted the importance of  building collaborative relationships between educational, private, and political organizations to achieve a common goal.

As you can see, the second day in and I'm off to a great start.

Welcome to the Town of Gilbert

Yá'át'ééh! Hello! My name is Brooke Wheeler. 
I recently became the American Indian Management intern for the Town of Gilbert's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. I have to say, I'm pretty excited to be here. Most of my experience has been in the nonprofit sector more specifically in the museum field. I just recently finished an internship with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian this past summer and I have also interned with the Sitka Historical Society Museum in Sitka, Alaska; the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tempe, AZ; the National Archives in Washington, DC and Seattle, WA; and the Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. My goal is to eventually work for the NMAI to build partnerships between tribal/federal governments and the museum.

Since, this internship with the Town of Gilbert will be my first experience working with a local municipality, I look forward to learning as much as I can about local government, intergovernmental relations, and building upon the skills and knowledge I will need to foster collaborative relationships between public and nonprofit organizations. My goals are to build upon my coursework at ASU through the real work experience working at the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; understand the dynamics of public policy from idea to implementation; and understand various ways different municipalities address social issues and community needs.

As I said, I'm really excited to intern at the Town of Gilbert. My internship supervisors are Leah Hubbard, the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Heather Wilkey, the Management Support Analyst for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. I also work with Kurt Sharp the Special Assistant to the Mayor. They have been nothing but delightful and accommodating. I received a warm welcome from the all the staff and everyone I have met so far. Plus, check out my office!! I was astonished by the sheer size and lovely decor.

Just as a side note, I love photography, so I most likely will post pictures of my day-to-day meetings, desk work, lunches, and other fun experiences here at the Town of Gilbert.

Anyhow, I have much more to write but I must jet to a meeting (Yes!). I can't wait to start my internship and engross myself in all that there is to learn here at the Town of Gilbert.