Baton Rouge, La. — September 15, 2022 — Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced today that the City-Parish has received the Center for Digital Government’s 2022 Government Experience Award. The award annually showcases and recognizes innovative projects and experiences for government agencies across the U.S.
The City-Parish received the award for its Citizen Data Academy: On Demand (CDA) video series, designed by the City-Parish Department of Information Services and launched in 2021. The CDA equips residents with tools and guidance to access and leverage the City-Parish’s extensive open data and analytics resources. In addition to Baton Rouge, only ten municipal projects earned this recognition in 2022, including much larger cities like Detroit, New York, Plano, Texas, and San Jose, Calif., among others.
“Our City-Parish team is committed to equipping our residents with the technologies, tools, and resources they need to implement data-driven decision making in their daily lives — and our Citizen Data Academy: On Demand does just that,” said Mayor Broome. “This innovative program works to meet residents where they are and eliminate barriers for residents to access the wealth of resources our City-Parish maintains and operates. It is incredibly rewarding to see our programming and staff be recognized nationally for this work as an example of all we do to serve the residents of East Baton Rouge Parish.”
The comprehensive series of instructional, self-paced videos is organized into four modules to direct residents to the topics that interest them most. Current modules include an Introduction to Open Data, which guides users through the City-Parish's open data initiative; a Community Planning module featuring maps, tools, and dashboards involving land development and local community conditions; a Living in Baton Rouge module featuring lookup tools and resources to help residents understand and engage with data that impacts daily quality of life; and a City-Parish Government module, which includes applications designed to enhance transparency into daily City-Parish operations, spending, and major capital programs.
The Citizen Data Academy repository currently houses over 20 videos on the City-Parish website and YouTube, and will continue to expand as the City-Parish’s open data platform grows.
The annual award is given by the Center for Digital Government, which has recognized state and local governments exhibiting best practices for over 20 years. The City-Parish will be recognized on Sept. 15 at the GovX Summit and Government Experience virtual award ceremony.