Milton Dohoney Jr.: Innovation, engagement builds in Phoenix
The City of Phoenix, Arizona sent a large team to the Alliance for Innovation’s 2019 Transforming Local Government (TLG) conference to not only pick up an important award, but because they needed a few pointers on what makes the event a success.
The Phoenix team was led by assistant city manager Milton Dohoney Jr. At TLG 2019, the city picked up an Outstanding Achievement award for its private-public partnership with Major League Baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers, while also presenting details of an inter-disciplinary approach to addressing homelessness at a local level.
The Phoenix Way: Raising the Bar for TLG 2020
Assistant city manager Milton Dohoney Jr. shared his thoughts on both achievements with Municipal World CEO Susan Gardner, as well as his excitement for the fact Phoenix will be hosting the 2020 TLG conference (May 5-8, 2020).
“We have been very impressed with the job that the Reno host committee has done. One of the reasons we brought so many people here was so we could get a real good look at how the conference itself was organized,” Dohoney said. “But also, to really get a good feel for the logistics of what’s expected when we host next year. We are going to raise the bar because that’s the Phoenix way.”
PHX C.A.R.E.S.: Combined Approach for Combating Homelessness
In addition, Dohoney discussed the PHX C.A.R.E.S. (Community, Action, Response, Engagement, Services) program, shared in a presentation by his team at the Reno event. The initiative takes an interdisciplinary approach to dealing with the challenges of homelessness in Phoenix. The initiative blends city departments together – police, social services, and others – while partnering with some external social service agencies to connect people to housing and other services that they need.
Dohoney said the project has already benefited more than 700 people. This was achieved by listening to and connect with those impacted by homelessness and those working to overcome it.
The city listened to “what the needs are of the homeless individuals, but also … what our stakeholders were telling us,” he said. “We need to be humane and deal with it from a community perspective. No city government can solve homelessness; no single individual can either.” MW
✯ Municipal World Insider and Executive Members: You might also be interested in the article: Growing relationships on a better public engagement model. Note that you can now access the complete collection of past articles (and more) from your membership dashboard.
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