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Kingsport using $100,000 prize to spread word about education initiatives

KINGSPORT — Kingsport’s winning a major award last week from Harvard University for its higher education initiatives is not the end of the story, city officials say. In fact, the work between the Model City and Harvard has only just begun.

The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard selected Kingsport as one of the winners of the 2009 Innovations in American Government Awards.

The $100,000 award was for Kingsport’s higher education initiatives over the past 10 years, starting with the Educate and Grow scholarship and continuing to the Regional Center for Applied Technology and the Academic Village concept.

Last week, Mayor Dennis Phillips said the award did not signal the end, but rather “the middle of what’s going to come in higher education in Kingsport.”

Indeed, that appears to be the case as Morris Baker, grant writer for the city, explained that the $100,000 has to be used to disseminate the information behind the city’s higher education program. In other words — getting the word out on how and what Kingsport did over the past 10 years to promote and advance higher education opportunities for its residents.

“Harvard is supposed to get with us in the next couple of weeks and actually coach us through the dissemination of our program,” Baker said. “(Harvard) wants to show the nation how you can be innovative in government, and with us it’s in higher education, so they’re going to come back (with suggestions).”

First up will be a series of videos about the six winners’ programs — $30,000 of Kingsport’s prize money has been allocated for the production of these videos, Baker said.

The first one — a two-minute video about Kingsport’s program — has been completed and is available for Kingsport to do with as it wishes. The video briefly explains some of the things Kingsport did with higher education, with interviews from several city and community leaders about the city’s work.

“They gave me a DVD copy of the two-minute video, and I’d say we’re going to use it to tout Kingsport’s accomplishments and what possibilities exist,” Baker said, noting the video should be on Kingsport’s Web site in the coming days.

The $30,000 will also go toward another, more in-depth video — a 12- to 15-minute one — that could be aired on Sam Waterston’s show on PBS — a program called “2009 Visionaries.” In years past, previous Innovations award winners have had their videos appear on the White House official Web site.

As for the remaining $70,000 of the award, Baker said it has yet to be determined how the money would be spent, noting the money would be used to spread the word about Kingsport’s program.

“One of the ideas being kicked around right now is doing an economic development/education/work force development conference in Kingsport (next summer) — a nationwide conference,” Baker said. “Other things that have to be done is a delegation from Kingsport is going back to Harvard at least twice, to teach a class on our project and host a small public forum at the Kennedy School of Government.”

Both of these then would be the impetus for a case study, which Harvard is planning to commission on Kingsport’s higher education initiatives, Baker said.

“Harvard has picked out the top innovative programs government has done, and they want to take and show other municipalities what innovation is,” Baker said. “(Other cities) can look at what we have done, not replicate it in its entirety, but take bits and pieces. Harvard wants to show other cities it can be done.”

According to the Ash Institute, a recent survey of past Innovations winners found that 87 percent of respondents stated that winning the Innovations Award had a substantial impact on program credibility, expansion efforts and continued success.

Seventy-eight percent of past award-winning IAG programs have been replicated in other jurisdictions.