Q&A
Development process and prioritization of childcare services in MyCity
0:15:11
·
4 min
Matthew Fraser explains the development process of MyCity, focusing on the prioritization of childcare services. He describes the challenges faced by families seeking childcare subsidies and how MyCity aims to improve this process.
- The development started in January 2022, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and economic challenges
- Childcare was identified as a critical need for getting people back to work
- The previous process for obtaining childcare subsidies was complex and inefficient
- MyCity's development involved collaboration with state and federal partners to ensure compliance
- The project aims to create a common framework for identifying people, places, and businesses across city systems
Matthew Fraser
0:15:11
Sure.
0:15:11
So when you look at when we started the process, We stepped in in January of 2022.
0:15:18
Just reminding council of the climate at that time, we came in off the hills of COVID and in fact we were looking at potentially another shutdown at the time Citi's job numbers were down.
0:15:28
And we had a task ahead of rebuilding not just the business community, but getting people back to work.
0:15:34
One of the things that we saw as a critical need for those that have families.
0:15:39
Getting back to work is something that would be difficult to do without having access to childcare in some meaningful way.
0:15:45
So what we did was we took a look across the city services and made a determination on what we would prioritize.
0:15:51
And when we looked at child care in particular, the process to get subsidized child care was abysmal.
0:15:57
They required a paper form that you'd have to send to 1 of 3 separate agencies, and then those agencies would then make a determination.
0:16:03
And And
Jennifer Gutiérrez
0:16:04
I'm sorry to interrupt.
0:16:04
This is just to clarify.
0:16:05
This was family seeking childcare that would qualify for a subsidy.
Matthew Fraser
0:16:09
Correct?
0:16:09
That is correct.
0:16:10
Okay.
0:16:10
That is correct.
0:16:10
That would qualify for today.
0:16:12
They would have to send it to 1 of 3 separate agencies.
0:16:14
Those agencies would then make a determination.
0:16:16
And if you applied to the wrong program, you would get a rejection letter that would require you to submit a paper form again.
0:16:22
So then when we looked at that process, it was very simple to see, like, it was something that was critical critical for the economic vitality of New York City, so we determined to go in that direction.
0:16:33
Now in doing that, one of the reasons why we picked that as a test case because it gave us the capability not just to see what it would be like working between agencies, but also what it would look like working across partners that extended beyond the city.
0:16:45
So in order to get the 1st phase of this done, it required work not just with New York City but New York State and also with our federal partners to make sure that we were compliant with all regulatory requirements.
0:16:55
And we were able to do that within a year span, which is which brought us the 1st phase.
0:17:00
As we enter into the 2nd phase, one of the things that we we wanted to ensure was that we not only continued to build, but we gave agencies the capability to build with us at the same time.
0:17:11
So we work so we're currently focused on building a common services portal.
0:17:15
And what that common services will do, it'll basically mean for anyone that's interested in integrating a system into the MyCity umbrella, authentication, the way you log in to a system will be the same across all systems.
0:17:28
It'll have a common framework for how data is stored.
0:17:31
One of the things that we have, and that's that's the tragedy is there's a lot of data within the cities and state.
0:17:38
But there's not much context applied to that data.
0:17:41
So if I look at how an agency looks at a person, there isn't a common understanding between all agencies of how we identify a person, a place, or a business.
0:17:51
And because of that, when you try to use the city's data and maximize that those touch points to see how we can further enrich them, because of that complexity, it makes it very difficult to do so because we don't have a common understanding of what those things are.
0:18:04
So this this phase that we're currently in establishes a framework that says, this is how we identify people going forward.
0:18:11
This is how we identify buildings going forward.
0:18:13
This is how we identify business going forward across the entire city.
0:18:17
And now that gives us the capability to reach through all of the systems that exist and start to weave together a picture of what those interactions looks like between those that interact with government, both from an individual, a business, or a property perspective.
0:18:31
And that phase this current phase will give us the ability to springboard other agencies that are building systems to integrate into this common framework, which will make delivery much faster.
0:18:41
So the thing for us is that we wanna make sure that as we deploy, We continue to build services that are not only important to New Yorkers, but we build them in a coherent way so that they can continue to layer on top of each other versus building individual things and trying to link them together later.
0:18:58
This is one of the reasons why most large application development efforts when they get off the ground, they start building a system, someone's building something else, and then they have to spend 1,000,000 of dollars to integrate those 2 things together.
0:19:08
Mhmm.
0:19:09
So we're trying to avoid all that in this current phase.
