Office of Strategic Initiatives & Innovation
Port St. Lucie’ s innovation work featured on global stage
Deputy City Manager and Chief Innovation Officer Kate Parmelee was invited to serve as an alumni speaker at the 10th class of senior leaders of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a world-class program that strengthens mayoral leadership and local government across the world.
Kate joined Chief of Staff Rogelio Biazzi, of the City of Rosario, Argentina, to speak to senior leaders representing 46 cities from 15 countries. The City of Port St. Lucie shared strategies that improved how our local government works and how we move our residents’ chief priorities forward, including access to green space through the Naturally PSL initiative, developed through innovation learnings through the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins and the Centre for Public Impact.
Through Naturally PSL, we engaged more than 1,000 residents, who generated more than 1,000 ideas. We’ ve also designated 744.4 acres for future green spaces and places, along with 41.4 miles of trails— including 20.3 miles currently in planning. Eight new parks are in planning or have recently opened, and we’ re developing neighborhood green spaces across the City.
We also launched the Naturally PSL Conservation Corps to support resident-driven environmental stewardship. And, through the Naturally PSL Green Land Bank and Naturally PSL Community Trust, we’ ve acquired more than 280 acres of land to date.
This work shaped how our City Hall is building the foundation we need to lead across every challenge and opportunity we face, and deliver on the issues that matter most to our residents.
Recent grant awards
City departments work collaboratively through the Grants and Advocacy Team led by the Strategic Initiatives and Innovation team to support funding for City priorities in alignment with the Strategic Plan. The following grants were recently awarded:
• FL Office of the Attorney General, VOCA: Funding in the amount of $ 220,328 to support the salary, benefits for our three victim advocates within our Victims’ Assistance Unit to continue providing services to crime victims.
PSL
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