The Duggan administration, thanks to a $100,000 grant as a participant in the JP Morgan Chase City of Service program, will be getting a new “Chief Service Officer.”
According to information provided to the media today, here are details on the new position:
The Chief Service Officer role is instrumental in building the city’s capacity to address its most pressing challenges. The role serves as a champion for citizen volunteers, a voice for the mayor, a partner to city agencies, and a conduit for businesses and community groups.
The first Chief Service Officer will be Victoria Kovari, who previously served as General Manager for Mayor Mike Duggan’s Department of Neighborhoods.
“Chief Service Officers are force multipliers, forging relationships and engaging partners across sectors to help local government address their city’s most pressing problems,” said Cities of Service Executive Director Myung J. Lee in a statement. “The support from JPMorgan Chase will enable us to help Detroit, Miami, and Phoenix partner with residents to tackle some of their cities’ major challenges, including hunger, school success, and urban blight.”
The statement goes on to share that in Detroit, Kovari will leverage the strength of the Department of Neighborhoods to coordinate all community engagement and volunteering activities in the city, aiming to reduce blight and prevent crime. She will lead the city’s efforts to further engage Detroit’s citizens, including partnering with neighborhood leaders, clergy, youth, educators, and small business owners to determine which volunteering initiatives will have the greatest positive impact on quality of life in the city.
Other cities awarded grants for a Chief Service Officer from the bank’s $450,000 program are Miami and Phoenix.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who we now know his nonprofit consulting firm, Bloomberg Associates, is advising Detroit’s administration) founded Cities of Service in 2009 along with 16 other mayors from across the nation as a nonprofit organization to supports mayors and city chief executives.