Designing the Local Government Innovation Initiative

The Local Government Innovation Initiative is being intentionally developed through discovery rather than around a predetermined set of programs or services. The objective is to help Penn State develop a stronger understanding of Pennsylvania local government that informs a practical, responsive, and sustainable approach to future support.

Multiple Perspectives Shape the Initiative

Penn State Outreach is gathering and analyzing information from four complementary sources in parallel. This allows us to make informed, holistic decisions about the initiative’s future direction based on practitioner experience, strategic guidance, institutional capability, and external evidence.

Founding Advisory Council members will provide insight that helps Outreach understand both the challenges facing local governments and the practical considerations that should inform potential responses. This will help us interpret practitioner findings, challenge assumptions, identify areas requiring deeper inquiry, and consider what the collective information may mean for the initiative’s direction.

SPN members will help Outreach better understand the needs, challenges, and opportunities facing local governments; identify and validate priorities; and assess how potential services, resources, and approaches might translate into practice. Practitioner input will be gathered through a sequenced discovery process that includes a questionnaire, two surveys, and targeted, facilitated discussions.

Penn State Outreach will work with other University faculty, staff, and units to explore and document existing expertise, resources, programs, and infrastructure applicable to the service of Pennsylvania’s local government. These findings will be analyzed as part of the larger discovery phase to help determine how to best leverage current Penn State capabilities in building the initiative.

National benchmarking of established, university-based institutes, centers, and public-service models that support local governments and public-sector professionals provides an additional source of information. Lessons from other institutions, including successful approaches, challenges encountered, and models that have evolved over time, can help Penn State ask better questions and make more informed decisions as it considers what an approach designed specifically for Pennsylvania might look like.

Discovery Process and Timeline

As information is gathered through the Founding Advisory Council, Strategic Practitioner Network (SPN), Penn State’s internal capability assessment, and national benchmarking and external research, findings will be brought together for analysis and discussion. This iterative process allows one stage of discovery to inform the next and helps ensure that the eventual initiative is grounded in demonstrated need, informed by practice, aligned with Penn State’s mission and capabilities, and designed to provide meaningful value.

September — Understand

SPN Discovery Questionnaire
Gather practitioner experiences, challenges, knowledge gaps, and context.

October — Prioritize

SPN Survey #1
Identify and prioritize areas of need and opportunity.

October — Interpret

Analysis and Founding Advisory Council Discussion
Examine findings, challenge assumptions, and identify areas for deeper inquiry.

Late October/Early November — Explore

SPN Survey #2
Explore potential forms of support, delivery approaches, tools, barriers, and Penn State’s potential role.

November — Go Deeper

Targeted Practitioner Discussions
Probe significant findings, differences, tensions, and opportunities.

Late November/Early December — Integrate

Integrated Analysis
Bring quantitative and qualitative findings together to inform continued initiative design.

Designing the Local Government Innovation Initiative

Multiple Perspectives Shape the Initiative

Information Source 1: Local Government Innovation Founding Advisory Council

Information Source 2: Strategic Practitioner Network (SPN)

Information Source 3: Penn State Capability Assessment

Information Source 4: National Benchmarking and External Research