MIAMI—Sept. 23, 2014— Code for America today announced a new partnership with the Miami-Dade County government for the 2015 Code for America Fellowship Program. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is investing $75,000 to support the launch of the program in Miami.
The official announcement was shared with more than 850 attendees at the annual Code for America Summit in San Francisco, where Code for America also announced partnerships with six other local governments.
The Code for America Fellowship pairs local governments with teams of mid-career, civic-minded technologists for one year. The governments and fellows explore answers to local challenges by engaging with the community, building applications and testing the results. Over the past four years, the fellowship program has produced more than 55 Web apps with 30 municipal governments and 103 fellows.
“It is a privilege for Miami-Dade County to be Code for America’s first government partner in Florida. This collaboration will drive a more open government, stimulate economic development and improve the delivery of regulatory services to our community,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez said. “Code for America is an organization that has successfully advanced these capabilities through technology and innovation, and the organization will be an important partner in our ongoing work to make Miami-Dade County more open, transparent and efficient.”
“Forging strong partnerships between entrepreneurs, technology innovators and government can make a major impact in Miami,” said Matt Haggman, Knight Foundation program director for Miami. “It will both enhance the county government’s ability to connect with residents and open new paths for people to shape the future of our city as a place where ideas are built.”
In Miami, Code for America will assemble a team of three fellows for 11 months of service to help address core civic issues. The fellowship will begin in January 2015, with a month-long training session in San Francisco, following which fellows will travel to Miami to take on a residency with local government. During the residency fellows will work with officials and residents to identify specific government challenges and devise ideas to solve them. They will then start developing technology solutions to tackle these challenges. Projects will be presented in October 2015 at the Code for America Summit.
Over the last four years, Code for America Fellows, in partnership with local governments, have developed a growing portfolio of products, tools and standards. In 2014, Code for America began a pilot program to deepen and integrate health-related projects. The governments selected for the 2015 fellowship will build on prior learnings in health, economic development, procurement, public safety and justice.
“We are thrilled to announce the cities and county that will participate in our 2015 fellowship. Each of these has a remarkable commitment to applying modern tools and approaches to meeting the needs of the community,” said Bob Sofman, chief program officer at Code for America.
“By working in an iterative, user-centered, data-driven approach, the fellowship program strengthens key capabilities within local government and communities. Well beyond the fellowship, we see city staff continuing to design services for and with the community, make data meaningful, and make better technology choices,” said Luke Norris, director of government relations for Code for America. “The fellowship shifts the way cities think about, and use, technology to deliver public services.”
Code for America chose seven governments for the 2015 program from a pool of 40 applicants. In addition to Miami-Dade County, cities chosen for the program include: Albuquerque, N.M.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Somerville, Mass.; Vallejo, Calif.; and West Sacramento, Calif.
The nonprofit selected them for their dedication to providing government services to their communities in innovative, open ways.
Support for Code for America Fellows forms one part of Knight Foundation’s efforts to invest in Miami’s emerging innovators and entrepreneurs as a tool to build community, while fostering talent and opportunity. Over the past 18 months Knight has made more than 80 investments in entrepreneurship in South Florida.
About Code for America
Code for America is a national non-profit that believes government can work for the people, by the people, in the 21st century. In collaboration with communities, companies, and government, we build open source technology and organize a network of people dedicated to making government services simple, effective, and easy to use. More at www.codeforamerica.org.
Code for America receives generous support from Omidyar Network, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Google.org, the James Irvine Foundation, and many other foundations, corporations, and individual donors that support our national and local programs.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.KnightFoundation.org.
Contacts:
Jaime-Alexis Fowler, Code for America, [email protected]
Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677, [email protected]