Two federal programs take home innovations awards

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are among 10 agencies at the federal, state and local levels honored with $100,000 prizes in the annual Innovations in American Government awards program.

CDC won for its PulseNet program, designed to quickly remove disease-ridden food from places where it might be consumed by the public. The agency partners with the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture in the program, which includes a sophisticated network of public health laboratories in 26 states, Los Angeles County and New York City.

The PulseNet program has sped up the process of identifying foodborne bacteria, such as E.coli, listeria and salmonella, from an average of three days in 1996 to one in 1998. Reports of such bacteria are submitted to a central CDC database. If the computer matches up identical strains from separate labs within a short period, an alert is send to all labs warning of a possible foodborne disease outbreak.

Had the program been in place in 1993, it could have prevented more than 500 people from getting ill from an E. coli outbreak in the western United States.

HUD was honored for its Continuum of Care program, which has revolutionized the nation's approach to homelessness. Through a coordinated, community-based program, HUD now offers not only emergency shelter to homeless people, but also outreach and assessment, transitional housing and permanent housing.

The program has helped 14 times more people move from the streets to shelters to self-sufficiency compared to the unorganized approach used five years ago.

Winners of the Innovations in American Government Awards, run by the Ford Foundation, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and the Council for Excellence in Government, were chosen from a pool of 1,600 applicants whittled down to 25 finalists.

The programs "are making a huge difference in the lives of American citizens," said David R. Gergen, chair of the selection committee.

Ford Foundation president Susan V. Berresford said winners demonstrated unique problem-solving approaches, clever use of technology, collaboration with nongovernment entities, transfer of good business practices and an eye for finding overlooked groups.

Besides HUD and CDC, the other winners of the Innovations Awards were:

• Behavioral Health System, County and City of Philadelphia
• Cangleska, Inc., Oglala Sioux Tribe, Kyle S.D.
• Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program, New York City
• Electronic Bond Bidding Initiative, Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Rehabilitation Subcode, state of New Jersey
• Texas School Performance Review, state of Texas
• Toxics Use Reduction Program, commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Wisconsin Works, state of Wisconsin