Case Study: Santa Monica's Office of Civic Wellbeing boosts block parties and neighborhood connections with CityGrows

Santa Monica's Office of Civic Wellbeing boosts block parties 5x with CityGrows

The City of Santa Monica's Office of Civic Wellbeing faced the challenge of low neighborhood engagement and a cumbersome, paper-based application process for block parties. This arduous system was a significant barrier to residents who wanted to connect with their neighbors, with only four block parties occurring in a community of nearly 100,000 people. To address this, they partnered with the vendor ClearForms (formerly CityGrows) to digitize their workflow.

ClearForms implemented an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly online application system that streamlined communication and automated notifications for city staff reviewers. This solution made it simple for applicants to get neighbor approval via a shareable link. As a result, Santa Monica saw a dramatic increase to over 35 block parties in the year after implementation, a more than fivefold growth. Importantly, ClearForms enabled this increase without requiring additional staff time to manage the higher volume of applications.

Santa Monica's Office of Civic Wellbeing