Strength in collaboration: Empowering communities through partnerships in TOPC
Local governments across the country face a common set of challenges: how to effectively engage communities, identify sustainable solutions, and ensure those solutions truly reflect the needs and voices of residents. Often, these efforts fall short due to a lack of trust, insufficient resources, and limited mechanisms to incorporate diverse perspectives. These gaps stall progress and deepen cycles of disengagement.
The TOPC (The Opportunity Project for Cities) framework offers a bold solution to these challenges. By equipping all stakeholders, from governments to community organizations, with the resources, structures, and guidance necessary to elevate all stakeholders as equals, TOPC empowers communities to co-create solutions alongside local governments. This framework ensures that participation is accessible and meaningful by compensating residents for their time and expertise. By addressing systemic barriers to collaboration and fostering mutual accountability, TOPC transforms traditionally extractive processes into genuine partnerships. Two of the most foundational TOPC objectives are to “Increase public servants’ capacity for community-centered digital innovation” and “Improved government legitimacy” through earning the community’s trust.
At its core, TOPC creates a symbiotic relationship between all participants. In turn, residents gain avenues to interface effectively with government agencies, ensuring that their voices influence decision-making and that outcomes remain rooted in community needs. This collaborative approach aims to build trust, strengthen relationships, and set the foundation for long-term success that extends well beyond the program.
The TOPC program leverages resident connections through the engagement of community partners. Community partners are a fundamental part of the program framework as they are the facilitators and connectors to residents on the ground. The experiences of the community partners in Macon-Bibb and Akron showcase how these benefits manifested in practice, offering powerful lessons in community-driven change. Through their stories, we see how dynamics of trust, creativity, tools and structures, and investment came together to overcome entrenched challenges and foster sustainable, equitable solutions.
Key learnings from Macon-Bibb and Akron
Key learnings from Macon-Bibb and Akron
Through the experiences of the community partners in Macon-Bibb and Akron, four key lessons emerge that highlight the transformative potential of the TOPC framework: building trust through collaboration and action, equipping partners with meaningful tools and structures, investing in strong partnerships, and engaging experts alongside community voices. These lessons are not just theoretical principles but lived realities shaped by the successes and challenges of engaging residents as they navigated complex issues.
Lack of trust has been a longstanding issue between governments and their residents. When Macon-Bibb joined the TOPC program to address systemic challenges in business permitting, they saw an opportunity to further develop and deepen trust with the communities they serve and represent.
For Erin Keller, Chief of Staff and VP at NewTown Macon, a participant of TOPC for two years running, the program allowed for a community partner to play an active role. Erin and NewTown acted as collaborators responsible for actions and decision-making. NewTown Macon was responsible for conducting research and actively bringing resident expertise to the table, allowing them to shape the final product. Erin also regularly participated in meetings, attending weekly calls to ensure that all stakeholders worked toward common goals; trust was not just an abstract ideal but a tangible outcome.
“When you work together, you get things done, and when you get things done, you begin to trust each other,” Erin explained. The TOPC process encourages a cultural shift, allowing community partners to participate in the program as partners instead of advisors actively. As a result, trust continues to be built through consistent, collaborative efforts with communities that lead to action.
In Akron, Joe Scalise, Director of Housing Services at United Way of Summit & Medina, shared a story underscoring the value of resident participation with diverse perspectives in building trust. During a community engagement session in 2023, an older resident voiced strong opposition to an initial proposal. As a resident, she felt the city often disregarded her voice because she would share her discontent. The TOPC program, in contrast, allowed her to voice her opinions freely, welcoming her diverse opinions as fundamental to the process of addressing the housing crisis.
Joe recalled, “She (the resident) had a lot of experience, and while, on the one hand, her voice could be volatile to the group, on the other hand, it was valuable, having her be able to get comfortable and participate all the way through and give us insight as to what it was like to experience housing insecurity.”
Her contributions not only strengthened the outcomes of the project, but as a resident, she felt like a collaborator adding creative value to the solution being created by the City of Akron.
Guidance: By focusing on clear, collective actions that lead to resident input and cocreation, you can build trust between stakeholders and create a foundation for long-term collaboration.
One of TOPC’s most empowering aspects is its ability to equip community partners with the tools and structures to take meaningful action. By providing a structured framework and a clear curriculum, the program ensures that participants identify challenges and have the support they need to address them effectively.
For Erin Keller and the Macon-Bibb team, her second year of participation became a turning point. Armed with insights from their initial efforts, they pushed back against government tendencies to overanalyze without taking action. “They knew there was an issue, and instead of continuing to put a Band-Aid on it, they used this opportunity to actually fix it,” Erin explained.
This could only take place with a structured curriculum that brings the team together on a regular basis, providing points of interaction for accountability. The team leveraged the regular meeting space to push back on newer ideas and instead focus on developing the tool from the last iteration of the program. This allowed an already exciting tool for residents to be developed further instead of rushing to build a new tool without proper resident input.
TOPC’s structure and tools proved equally instrumental for Joe Scalise in Akron. With a clear framework, Joe from United Way of Summit & Medina was able to intentionally bring diverse voices to the table for key points in the program. Tools were provided to engage residents in research and solution testing properly. Joe found the tools ensured everyone’s perspectives were heard and equitably integrated into the decision-making process. By creating a space where stakeholders felt empowered to contribute, TOPC turned dialogue into actionable outcomes.
Guidance: By providing community partners with the tools and structure to address challenges directly, you ensure that the solutions you foster are actionable, inclusive, and impactful.
Partnerships are not just a financial investment but also represent an investment of effort, energy, and mutual accountability. This investment requires dedication from a project manager to take teams through challenging times. This can be personified by the work of the TOPC coach (someone who facilitates and coaches the TOPC framework) to steer the program.
In Macon-Bibb, this was evident through the continuous guidance provided by CPI representatives, such as Lily Payton, whose dedication and momentum drove the program forward. Their unwavering commitment inspired the Macon-Bibb team to stay engaged and trust the process, demonstrating the ripple effect of a strong partnership.
As Erin explained, “Lily was absolutely fantastic, and having the right people as project managers is huge. Having the right people in general can make or break a project. The fact that we had the right project manager both times was incredible- I think maybe we were spoiled! It made the process work really, really well between the Macon-Bibb team, Google.org Fellows and Googler volunteers, and CPI. I don’t want to imagine what it would have looked like without that synergy. When you have the right people on the bus, results are often going to come.”
Investment also extends to compensating residents for their time. In Akron, Joe Scalise highlighted how this investment enabled Akron to engage residents who brought invaluable lived experiences to the table, ensuring their voices were heard and respected.
For Erin Keller in Macon-Bibb, the impact of compensation was particularly significant for small business owners in Macon-Bibb, who often face financial constraints that make unpaid participation unsustainable. Compensation alleviated this burden, enabling more equitable involvement and strengthening collaboration.
TOPC was able to provide these resources through its partnerships with organizations like the Knight Foundation. “One of the best things Knight has done for this community is connecting every aspect of it to national resources that support what we’re doing here. That kind of support is absolutely invaluable,” Erin explained.
Guidance: By investing time, effort, and resources into partnerships, whether through compensation, guidance, or shared accountability, you sustain momentum, and inspire collective commitment to success.
The TOPC program fosters an authentic, collaborative environment where external expertise and local knowledge come together to build impactful solutions. This approach not only empowers local governments and communities with technical insights but also exposes experts to fresh perspectives and methods outside their usual experiences. For Google.org Fellows and Googler volunteers, participating in TOPC provided a unique opportunity to learn directly from residents, community partners, and local government officials.
TOPC was a gateway to understanding product development through a lens of social impact rather than traditional business needs. Nikhil Prem, a program manager supporting Macon-Bibb 2024, reflected, “TOPC is very focused on impact- e.g. how you measure it, how you drive it. It helped me think about problem-solving not just in the business context but also how to develop solutions for underserved communities- which is not trivial, and it’s something that really needs to be included at every stage of the product development process.”
Collaborating with local governments gave Google.org Fellows and Googler volunteers providing technical support first-hand insight into the challenges of building technology that works within complex civic environments. From navigating policies to addressing operational structures and resident needs, the process required adaptability and precision.
As Jordan Mess, a product manager for Miami-Dade in the 2024 TOPC program, explained:
“Getting up close and personal with relevant policies, operational structures, and resident perspectives is essential to creating something usable. We learned that change in government contexts can be iterative yet still impactful.”
This collaborative learning extended to the local partners as well. Joe Scalise, who worked closely with Google.org volunteers, emphasized the value of this cross-pollination of knowledge:
“I’m not a tech guy, but listening to their conversations, I picked up things I didn’t know before. I started to understand how their feedback turned into a product. It was somewhat amazing.”
The TOPC program ensures that technical experts, government officials, and community partners work side by side, creating a reciprocal learning experience. By bringing these diverse perspectives to the table, the program not only develops practical digital solutions but also builds lasting connections and deeper understanding among all participants.
Guidance: By enabling experts to support, advise, and collaborate with local governments and residents, you can foster innovation grounded in real-world contexts. Both experts, governments, and residents benefit from a symbiotic relationship that understands their work beyond their own expertise.
Looking ahead
The stories of Macon-Bibb and Akron highlight the transformative power of partnerships built on trust, collaboration, intentionality, and meaningful investment. In addition to building trust, communities must be empowered with the right tools and frameworks to engage meaningfully. TOPC demonstrates that when diverse stakeholders—residents, community partners, governments, and tech experts—work together, they can create solutions that are not only innovative but also deeply rooted in the lived realities of the communities they serve. These partnerships go beyond addressing immediate challenges; they build lasting trust, drive sustainable change, and strengthen communities.
By intentionally empowering community partners to take the lead, valuing and compensating residents for their expertise, and equipping governments with the tools to act decisively, TOPC bridges gaps that have traditionally hindered progress. The program’s framework is more than a model—it’s a roadmap for fostering resilience and inclusivity, ensuring that every voice is heard and every stakeholder has a stake in the outcomes.
TOPC’s success offers a powerful example for municipalities, community organizations, and tech partners striving to create meaningful collaboration. By embracing a similar approach, we can begin to address systemic challenges by enabling collaboration through varying perspectives and embedding community into co-creating solutions. Together, we can create a future where collaboration is the cornerstone of stronger, more inclusive communities.
If you are a municipality seeking to better connect with your community, a tech partner looking to ground innovation in real-world needs, or a community partner ready to empower residents, consider embracing the principles of the TOPC framework. You can learn more about the framework by checking out our toolkit!
TOPC Resources
Explore the full range of TOPC resources, from in-depth reports to practical toolkits, all designed to help local governments and community partners harness public data, build digital solutions, and drive lasting impact.
📚 TOPC Project Resource Library
A collection of case studies, tools, and best practices to support community-centered innovation.
Explore the Resource Library
📊 TOPC Reports
TOPC Report 2023 – Insights from the latest program cycle, showcasing key takeaways and impact.
TOPC Report 2022 – A look back at previous learnings, challenges, and successes.
📝 Articles on TOPC in Action
Strength in Collaboration: Empowering Communities Through Partnerships in TOPC – A practical look at how trust, tools, and partnerships create lasting community impact.
The Heart of TOPCities – A deep dive into the vision, data-driven results, and real stories behind TOPC’s success.
Cool Commute: A Digital Solution for Climate Resilience in Miami – How local data-powered solutions are addressing climate challenges.
Climate Resilience Requires Equitable Access to Quality Green Jobs: How Saint Paul is Making Strides – Building a workforce for a more sustainable and inclusive future.
🔹 TOPC Toolkit
Our tried-and-true 2024 TOPC toolkit and our newly updated 2025 TOPC toolkit– both comprehensive resources for local governments to transform public data into digital tools that address pressing challenges while equipping participants with skills in tech, design, and data use.
These resources offer a practical roadmap for local governments, community partners, and tech teams looking to drive digital innovation while strengthening communities.
Start exploring and take action today!