San Diego, California, is well known for its year-round sunny weather and beautiful beaches, but it should also be known as a leader in GIS. For decades, local government agencies have benefited from leading-edge GIS applications, which has been good for the third most populous county in California with nearly three million residents in 2001.

In the late 1990s the County of San Diego consolidated several departments, including the Department of Health Services, the Department of Social Services, Aging and Independence Services, the Veterans Service Office, and others, into one large Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA). During this consolidation, mapping was occasionally used to help with the strategic plan. From this consolidation, HHSA's management became aware of the potential value of GIS in the field of health and human services, and they adopted the goal of establishing an enterprise GIS within HHSA.

Over the past several years, HHSA implemented a number of programs that have changed how it serves the public. The programs are geared toward reinventing HHSA to increase efficiencies and optimize performance so it can do the best possible job serving customers and producing results.

In this vein, in 2000 HHSA released a request for proposals to conduct a GIS needs assessment and, after an extensive evaluation, awarded the contract to Esri. Working together, they identified needs and goals and evaluated the best way to implement an enterprise GIS and utilize available data and technical resources. During this process, many areas were identified within HHSA that might benefit from GIS including initiatives such as health and wellness, crime prevention, self-sufficiency, and fiscal stability.

The team of HHSA and Esri identified a set of requirements for the county's proposed new Web site. The site was funded by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and was originally created to help clients of the CalWORKs "welfare-to-work" program, helping them become self-sufficient and providing temporary assistance for needy families. Quickly, however, the scope broadened and the goal focused on empowering residents to find employment, job training, medical services, child care, transportation, and a plethora of other services.

By July 2001, HHSA and Esri began to build a Web-based application that would serve information to the general public more efficiently and from a single, Web-based location-now called emPowerSD (www.empowersd.com). HHSA and Esri Professional Services staff built the site with cutting-edge uses of ArcIMS and RouteMAP IMS technologies. ArcIMS provided a common platform for exchanging and sharing GIS resources over the Internet.

This platform also integrated other agencies' information including the YMCA/Childcare Resource Service for child care facility data; San Diego Workforce Partnership, Inc., for employment data; San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) for public transportation routes; and SanGIS for San Diego basemap data. RouteMAP IMS provided the Internet-based site locator application that quickly generates driving directions and adds find-and-route mapping capabilities to the Web site.

"The project supports reform efforts that have shifted the welfare focus from entitlement to temporary assistance, from dependence to self-reliance," says Joan Zinser, deputy director of the Strategic Planning Division, HHSA. "We coupled GIS with Internet tools to create the Web site emPowerSD, so that anyone can find out information about child care, employment, transportation, health care, and other services available by area."

How It Works

The Web site was made public in May 2002 and features an intuitive interface and a wealth of information accessible with a few clicks of a mouse. Search for Service presents a wizard-like interface that allows users to query 15 to 18 map layers (schools, day care facilities, potential employers, etc.) by address, ZIP Code, map location, school name, or service name.

Once search candidates are found, users are able to zoom to selected features for more information and create driving directions to those particular locations. View County Data allows users to turn layers on and off, zoom to locations, identify features, and print a map.

For example, a teen mother who wants to complete her education can use emPowerSD to find child care services located near her school. By picking the reference point of her school and selecting how far she is willing to travel to obtain child care, she can find services within the selected radius of her high school. She can also read information about individual child care centers in the area she has chosen as well as create a route map that shows the way from her house to the child care site and to school.

In another example, CalWORKs clients can look for a training program within a five-mile search radius of their homes. Using emPowerSD, they can find training sites in the area of choice, and if none are available the search can be expanded. The user can locate the site of a job training facility on the GIS map, for instance, then click on it and the name, address, and phone number appear.

Employment opportunities can also be located. A user can click on the employers button on the legend and select a category from a drop-down list of nine types of employers from finance to agriculture. The user can easily print the information using the easy-to-find print button. The user can also check a map layer to locate bus stops and routes around both training facilities and potential employment locations.

"The Web site was produced with the client in mind," says Alice Weed, GIS coordinator, County of San Diego, HHSA. "Esri Professional Services staff carefully considered user needs first in developing the site. Taking input from the user needs assessment, they developed a truly intuitive site with language alternatives and extensive online help. The end result is a Web site that anyone, regardless of previous computing skills, can use to help them locate services they need."

An Award-Winning Web Site

The emPowerSD Web site has been lauded both internally within San Diego County government and externally among other government agencies. Indeed, emPowerSD received honorable mention from the 2002 Best of the Web contest organized by the Center for Digital Government. The center is a national research and advisory institute providing government and industry leaders with decision support, research, and services to help them effectively incorporate new technologies in the twenty-first century. The Web site was also featured at the 2002 Esri International User Conference and the 2002 URISA National Conference. A press launch was also created involving Esri, YMCA/Childcare Resource Service, and San Diego Workforce Partnership, Inc.

"The response within our agency has been overwhelmingly positive," says Weed. "We're now giving presentations to other government agencies, reaching out to community organizations and showing them how they can use it as a tool. Everyone who sees it is very excited about the potential.

"In addition, we're getting traffic from other Web sites that now link to emPowerSD," adds Weed. "This is the first of many interactive mapping applications that you will see by the county."

For more information, contact Alice L. Weed, San Diego County (e-mail: Alice.Weed@sdcounty.ca.gov), or Jim Herries, Esri Professional Services (e-mail: jherries@esri.com), or visit www.empowersd.com on the Web.