Partnership Spotlight: 3 Cross-Sector Partnerships from This Week

EY announces partnership with sheworks!

HR TECHNOLOGIST

The multinational professional services firm EY, a Concordia Patron Member, just announced a partnership with SheWorks!, the cloud-centered tech platform aimed at providing women access to job opportunities. Through this partnership, EY hopes to strengthen the SheWorks! network and platform, which will in turn make flexible and remote job opportunities more accessible to women worldwide. Silvina Moschini, Founder & CEO of SheWorks!, said the collaborative efforts of the two organizations are aimed at building “a future of work with inclusion and impact in mind.”

WHY IT MATTERS: SheWorks!’s mission is to help companies drive diversity by connecting them with an international pool of professional women, while providing the right tools to hire, monitor, and manage teams. EY is committed to building a better working world, with increased trust and confidence in business, sustainable growth, development of talent in all its forms, and greater collaboration. The combined missions of the two organizations would significantly advance the professional world towards a more gender diverse and flexible future. As remote jobs become more common thanks to a fast-evolving technology landscape, companies have the ability to hire qualified employees across geographical borders. A business model such as SheWorks! not only provides these companies with the right tools to find and hire such employees, but also offers women a unique variety of flexible job opportunities that may not be as accessible in their local areas.

Nasa fdl leverages public/private partnership to push new boundaries of space science with artificial intelligence

sETI INSTITUTE

The NASA Frontier Development Lab (FDL) has announced it will apply artificial intelligence to four key space challenges: finding a way to predict solar weather, astrobiology, space resources, and exoplanets. FDL is an AI/machine learning research accelerator powered by a public/private partnership between NASA, the SETI Institute, commercial leaders in AI, and pioneers in the private space industry. It serves as a fascinating example of how public/private partnerships can yield momentous results. Hosted at the SETI Institute, the NASA FDL program pairs researchers from the space sciences with data scientists for an intense and concentrated eight-week program, supported by leaders in AI, such as Intel, Google, and IBM and key players in the private space, such as SpaceResources.lu, Lockheed Martin, and more.

WHY IT MATTERS: Public/private partnerships provide means for an organization, or—in this case—an AI learning research accelerator, to achieve ends that would have been inaccessible when tried independently. Partnerships such as this are crucial, as pioneers in space exploration and artificial intelligence are collaborating to push the boundaries of humanity’s role in the universe. NASA’s cooperation with the private sector and its coaligning of both resources and missions are bringing forth significant advances in space exploration, contributing to mankind’s ever-evolving knowledge of our world.

public-private partnership improved conditions at nycha buildings 

METRO NEW YORK

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has frequented news headlines of late due to issues spanning from management problems, the use of lead paint, and overall poor housing conditions in its properties. A pilot study by the Citizens Housing & Planning Council (CHPC) found that NYCHA properties that transferred their management to public-private partnerships saw significant improvements. In 2014, Triborough Preservation Partners, a joint venture between NYCHA, L+M Development Partners and Preservation Development Partners, took over the properties and brought in $80 million for repairs.  CHPC was approached by NYCHA in 2015 to evaluate the pilot study. It compared data from the Triborough buildings to a set of control group properties similar in size, resident demographics, and location but operated solely by NYCHA. During the study period, the Triborough buildings received 2,109 work orders — a significantly lower amount than NYCHA-operated buildings, which saw 12,023 work orders during the same period. Emergency repairs were fixed at a rate of 73% in the pilot group, compared to 47% in the control group. Day-to-day management within the pilot buildings was also more responsive.  All of these changes led to residents feeling safer: 65% of residents in the pilot buildings responded saying they felt very safe, compared to 37% of residents in the NYCHA control properties.

WHY IT MATTERS: Public-private partnerships serve as a means for agencies such as NYCHA to receive financial resources they need to operate and function properly. These funds directly improve the conditions of the housing authority and in turn, the quality of life for its residents. As Jessica Katz, executive director of CHPC, concisely put it: “The injection of financial resources has been a game-changer for the families living in these buildings.”