Collection

I Want You (for Government Work)

Solutions Journalism Network

Created by Tyler McBrien, Council on Foreign Relations

Just like corporations and non-profit organizations, governments run on people power. While popular imagination frequently paints state, local, and national governments as monolithic bureaucratic machines, government employees in fact play key roles in crucial efforts to solve large-scale social problems like food insecurity, homelessness, and access to public education (despite often being underpaid and overworked). Government leaders around the world have realized that they are only as good as the people who work for them, and better solutions can be uncovered when partners are recruited from within the communities they represent. 

The solutions in this collection highlight how governments are building more dynamic workplaces, creating spaces that are more supportive of diversity, and generally encouraging constituents to hold public offices to a high standard.