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Code for America is a
non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers s ...
, non-political 501(c)(3)
organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is an legal entity, entity—such as ...
founded in 2009 to address the widening gap between the public and private sectors in their effective use of technology and design. According to its website, the organization works to improve government services for all, starting with those who need them most. The motto of the organization is: In a TED talk in May 2022, the organization's CEO
Amanda Renteria Amanda Andrea Renteria (born November 15, 1974) is an American former body woman and CEO of the nonprofit organization Code for America. She previously worked as a political aide in the roles of National Political Director for Hillary Clinton ...
said: Renteria has seen that the millions of people who rely on government welfare services are often discouraged from seeking them out, frustrated by long lines and unnecessarily complicated processes. Therefore, she is helping develop human-centered technology that "respects you from the start, meets you where you are and provides an easy, positive experience." She details the four factors that hinder effective delivery of government benefits and explains Code for America's plan to bring user-centric, digital-first social services to more than 13 million Americans and unlock 30 billion dollars in benefits for low-income families. A large population of American citizens in poverty are not connected and exposed to these government resources that they are eligible for—almost $60,000,000,000 worth of potential benefits for these people in need remain unclaimed every year, while Code for America has raised nearly $16,000,000. Additionally, just 1 in 6 homes report a lack of sufficient food for children. The organization began by enlisting technology and design professionals to work with city governments in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in order to build open-source applications and promote
openness Openness is an overarching concept or philosophy that is characterized by an emphasis on transparency and collaboration. That is, openness refers to "accessibility of knowledge, technology and other resources; the transparency of action; the per ...
,
participation Participation or Participant may refer to: Politics *Participation (decision making), mechanisms for people to participate in social decisions *Civic participation, engagement by the citizens in government *e-participation, citizen participation ...
, and efficiency in government, and now works with state, county, and federal government to spread the principles and practices of "delivery-driven government." It has grown into a cross-sector network of public sector change agents and a platform for " civic hacking". The Code for America Brigade Network includes 80+ brigades across the country committed to volunteering in their local communities. Code for America also runs a Community Fellowship where brigade members work within local government to help improve digital services. Today, Code for America has 3 branches of program areas: health, criminal justice, and workforce development.


Founding and history

In 2009, the founder
Jennifer Pahlka Jennifer Pahlka (born 27 December 1969) is the founder and former Executive Director of Code for America. She served as US Deputy Chief Technology Officer from June 2013 to June 2014 and helped found the United States Digital Service. Previously ...
was working with O'Reilly Media at the Gov 2.0 Summit in
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. A conversation with Andrew Greenhill, the Mayor's Chief of Staff of the City of Tucson, sparked the initial idea for Code for America, when he said "You need to pay attention to the local level, because cities are in major crisis. Revenues are down, costs are up—if we don't change how cities work, they're going to fail." The two began discussing plans for a program that eventually became Code for America, "a one-year fellowship recruiting developers to work for city government". With support from web entrepreneur Leonard Lin, Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, and technologist Clay A. Johnson, among others, the organization was launched in September 2009. ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' described Code for America as "the technology world's equivalent of the
Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...
or Teach for America". The article goes on to say, "They bring fresh blood to the solution process, deliver agile coding and software development skills, and frequently offer new perspectives on the latest technology—something that is often sorely lacking from municipal government IT programs. This is a win-win for cities that need help and for technologists that want to give back and contribute to lower government costs and the delivery of improved government service." ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' described Code for America as "a new nonprofit project... which aims to import the efficiency of the Web into government infrastructures" and "
ries Ries is the German word for a unit of paper ream, derived from the Arabic word ''rizma''. The term can refer to: Geography * Nördlinger Ries, a large circular depression in western Bavaria, Germany. * Ries (Graz), a district of the city of Gr ...
to make working in government fun and creative". Code for America launched the international civic technology organization, Code for All, in 2012. By 2017, Code for Canada, which is modeled somewhat on Code for America, was established. In 2018, in partnership with
George Gascón George Gascón (born March 12, 1954) is an American attorney and former police officer who is the district attorney of Los Angeles County. A member of the Democratic Party and a former Republican, Gascón served as the district attorney of Sa ...
, District Attorney for
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, Code for America's Clear My Record software was applied to automate searching for
cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...
-related criminal records eligible to be expunged after California voters passed Proposition 64, the
Adult Use of Marijuana Act The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) (Proposition 64) was a 2016 voter initiative to legalize cannabis in California. The full name is the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act. The initiative passed with 57% voter approval and be ...
, in 2016. On April 3, 2019, Judge Samuel K. Feng signed off expunging more than 8,000 convictions using the software; officials in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
and in
San Joaquin County San Joaquin County (; Spanish: ''San Joaquín'', meaning " St. Joachim"), officially the County of San Joaquin, is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 779,233. The county seat is Stockton. San ...
have announced that they will use the software for the same purpose in 2019.


Leadership

Besides the Chief Executive Officer and Founder, there are several members in the Code for America Leadership Team. * ''Chief Communications and Marketing Officer'': Arlene Corbin Lewis * ''Director of Client Success'': Elena Fortuna * ''Chief Revenue Officer'': Emily Tracy * ''Chief of People, Equity, and Operations'': Leslie Campbell * ''Chief Technology Officer'': Lou Moore * ''Chief of Staff:'' Ryan Ko * ''Deputy Chief of Staff'': Yasmin Fodil


Events


Fellowship Program and its projects

From 2011 to 2016, Code for America connected city governments and web professionals through the Code for America Fellowship program. The first year of the fellowship program began in January 2011. Twenty fellows were selected from 360 applicants, resulting in a 5.6% acceptance rate.
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
, and
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
were the four cities selected to participate in the 2011 program. On January 4, 2012 Code for America began its second year fellowship program with 26 fellows and eight cities: Austin, Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, Macon, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Santa Cruz. The 2016 Code for America fellowship program ran in partnership with six cities: Kansas City, Missouri; Long Beach, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City, New York; Salt Lake County, Utah; and Seattle, Washington. Each city partnered with a team of five web programmers or
designers A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
selected for the fellowship. Over a period of 11 months, the fellows and city government collaborated to develop a
web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serv ...
to solve a civic problem identified by the city in their project proposals. The completed software applications are released as open-source for any city government to use or adapt. The inaugural 2011 fellowship program launched four projects in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
,
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, and
Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
. Each city partnered with a team of three web programmers or
designers A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
selected for the fellowship. Over a period of 11 months, the fellows and city government collaborated to develop a
web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serv ...
to solve a civic problem identified by the city in their project proposals. The completed civic applications were released as open-source for any city government to use or adapt. In 2011, CFA coders developed an "Adopt a Hydrant" website, so that volunteers in Boston could sign up to shovel out fire hydrants after storms. The system has now been implemented in Providence, Rhode Island, Anchorage, Alaska, and Chicago. Honolulu created a similar website, "Adopt-A-Siren", for its tsunami sirens. In 2012, fellows at Code for America created Honolulu Answers, a web application that provides simple, to-the-point answers to citizens' questions. The web application was populated with citizen input at a write-a-thon, which became a unique model for civic engagement. Both Honolulu Answers and the write-a-thon model have since been redeployed in a dozen cities around the world, including as Oakland Answers and Durban Answers. In 2015, fellows at Code for America designed GetCalFresh.org, to streamline the
CalFresh CalFresh is the California implementation of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp program, which provides financial assistance for purchasing food to low-income California residents. Benef ...
application process. In California, 40% of people who are eligible for CalFresh, the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, were not receiving benefits. California has the second lowest participation rate in the country. Although an online application is available in California, it can take up to an hour to complete, is more than 50 web pages long with more than 100 questions. It also doesn't work on mobile devices, despite the fact that most low-income people rely on smartphones for access to the Internet. GetCalFresh takes an average time of 11 minutes to complete and, as of 2016, was being used by 9 counties to help over 1,000 people. In addition, it leverages mobile phone access among applicants to encourage questions and answers, all over text. Current efforts are focused on scaling this solution. In 2018, Code for America launched a new Community Fellowship program in which members of its volunteer Brigade network pair with government in their local communities to help improve services for vulnerable populations over the course of 6 months. The first Community Fellowships were in Austin, Asheville, Honolulu, and San Jose. In April 2018,
The Audacious Project The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative between TED and non-profits that convenes funders and social entrepreneurs in order to scale solutions to the world's most urgent challenges. In 2018, The TED Prize was recast as The Auda ...
, a collaborative funding with several philanthropic organizations across the nation. The project was funded by TED along with the help of groups such as the
Skoll Foundation The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 1999. The total assets of the foundation (includi ...
,
Virgin Unite Virgin Unite is the working name of The Virgin Foundation, the independent charitable arm of the Virgin Group. Created by Richard Branson and Virgin employees in September 2004, Virgin Unite pools volunteering efforts from across the Virgin G ...
, The Valhalla Charitable Foundation, ELMA Philanthropies, the Science Philanthropy Alliance, and many more. The primary goal of this endeavor was to improve America's social safety net and help citizens bear the benefits of government services. Their goal was to unlock a grand total of $30,000,000,000 worth of benefits. Code for America was 1 of 10 recipients of the funding among other nonprofit organizations in the United States


Successful Remote and Distributed Work in Uncertain Times

Just days after the world shut down and logged online because of COVID-19, Code for America held a virtual event to educate citizens on how to safely interact with the government and stay proactive and successful during the pandemic. Code for America hosted guest speakers and volunteers from organizations such as: *
18F 18F is a digital services agency within the Technology Transformation Services department of the General Services Administration (GSA) of the United States Government. Their purpose is to deliver digital services and technology products. Overv ...
* U.S. Digital Service * Nava Public Benefit Corporation * Truss Meetings consisted of ways to * Hold meetings productively online * How to collaborate with other groups * Receive advice for managers, managing vendors * Stay mentally and physically healthy The virtual event was recorded and is accessible on https://codeforamerica.org/events/successful-remote-and-distributed-work-in-uncertain-times/


Reimagining 911 (9th Annual National Day of Civic Hacking)

* Code for America states that as the 911 government emergency response line is one of the most interactive between citizens and the U.S. government, it is essential that the response team sends appropriate help, as they state that a response team is never 'one-size-fits-all.' The goal of Code for America's event, in collaboration with Transform 911, was to garner thousands of volunteers to evaluate years of data from the 911 emergency response team to create various types of projects to reach their goal of making emergency response 'truly human-centered.' * At this event in September 2021, Code for America began by holding a panel of board members of Tucson Police, Transform 911, and Code for America to discuss the importance and accessibility of the nationwide emergency response hotline, and how it strives to be completely 'human-centered.' Then, over 1,000 volunteers and committee leaders split into groups to conduct several case studies, data analysis, and prototype projects.


Code for America Summit 2022

* Code for America Summit 2022 was an in-person and online event with a theme of 'building the path forward together.' Their 4 pillars of change were: ** Service Design + Delivery Policy + Administration Operations + Management People Power + Community ** That is, Code For America strives for change and improvement in government systems with these annual summit events. As Code for America recognizes the plans for change to be more equitable and efficient laid out by the government, the yearly summit seeks to make these plans a reality. Through guest speakers, breakout and networking sessions, keynotes during this two-day conference, Code for America was able to network changemakers from all around the world.


Partnerships


Big Companies, Corporations, and People

Code for America operates with financial support from a set of corporate sponsors and individual donors. Among these are foundations led by
information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...
leaders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is an organization established and owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with an investment of 99 percent of the couple's wealth from their Facebook shares over their lifet ...
, respectively formed by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
co-founder
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
and
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Further primary supporters include the
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
,
Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser ...
, Knight Foundation, Luminate,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is an American philanthropic organization. It is the largest one focused solely on health. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the foundation focuses on access to health care, public health, health equity, ...
,
Share Our Strength Share Our Strength is a national organization working to end childhood hunger and poverty in the United States. Share Our Strength holds culinary events, solicits individual donations, and uses social media to raise funds, which are then used to ...
,
Skoll Foundation The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 1999. The total assets of the foundation (includi ...
, Rockefeller Foundation, United Way Bay Area, and the Walmart Foundation.


State Partnerships

Code for America and the city of Austin, Texas joined forces in 2012 to tackle common city problems. 15 states have claimed and planned to partner with Code for America in hopes of fulfilling their goals. In May 2022, Code for America announced their first collaboration with 4 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana) through the "Safety Net Innovation Lab." This first cohort of states was funded over $100,000,000 by
The Audacious Project The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative between TED and non-profits that convenes funders and social entrepreneurs in order to scale solutions to the world's most urgent challenges. In 2018, The TED Prize was recast as The Auda ...
and Blue Meridian Partners. These investments are in efforts to create public benefits more accessible to all and provide a "social safety net" for every and all Americans. Their goal was to unlock $30,000,000,000 worth of benefits for citizens. Each state had its own baseline / theme for improvement: * California: ** In collaboration with the
California Department of Social Services The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) is a California state agency for many of the programs defined as part of the social safety net in the United States, and is within the auspices of the California Health and Human Services Agency ...
, Code for America promotes the 'SNAP' outreach method for public benefits, aimed specifically at those without knowledge and/or literal access to them. * Colorado: ** In collaboration with the state of Colorado, Code for America seeks to simplify online applications and ways that citizens can access basic needs such as childcare, healthcare, food, and cash assistance. ** For example, after research, it was concluded that the main source for information for housing for Colorado residents is the website HousingBoulder.net. As the website was presented as overwhelming and intimidating for a majority of users, Code for America worked to revamp the page to make it far more straightforward and engaging for citizens to use and seek public benefits that they may have missed out on. * Connecticut: ** In collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Social Services, Code for America networks out to these citizens who can not access public benefits and gathers feedback on what they are experiencing. Then, the two will re-evaluate and improve ways to hear from Connecticut residents. For this partnership, the main area of improvement is food assistance. * Louisiana: ** In collaboration with the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, Code for America plans to improve promotion of 'SNAP' outreach for citizens. Similar to Colorado, they will seek to simplify application processes. And similar to Connecticut, the main area of improvement is food assistance.


Other work


MNbenefits

MNbenefits is a specific initiative branch of Code for America that to help citizens specifically of the state of Minnesota. Throughout the duration of MNbenefits, Code for America, in parternship with the Minnesota government, has achieved an 80% reduction in the time taken to apply for the governmental benefits in Minnesota, processing a total of 25,000 applications. Users report that it took them a mere 12 minutes to complete an application versus an hour prior to the renovation. Their main 'safety net benefits' were food assistance, cash programs (Diversionary Work Program, General Assistance, MN Family Investment Program, MN Supplemental Aid, Refugee Cash Assistance) emergency assistance, housing support, and child care.


GetCalFresh

GetCalFresh is another specific initiative branch of Code for America that unlocks benefits for California citizens in every single county in California. It is the bridge between these underrepresented citizens and the governmental program
CalFresh CalFresh is the California implementation of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp program, which provides financial assistance for purchasing food to low-income California residents. Benef ...
, California's version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The main purpose of GetCalFresh is for California citizens to receive monthly benefits and funding to help people buy food. As of the year 2019, GetCalFresh was able to help more than 6,000,000 receive the benefits they were missing out on. From January to February 2022, the GetCalFresh team scored a 76% on the CSAT(Customer Satisfaction Score)


getCTC.org

getCTC.org is an online tool to help taxpayers reap the benefits of their tax credits. It was originally announced in 2021 to simplify tax-filing for low to middle-income workers in order to claim their tax credits they have been missing out on. According to the 2018 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, 22% of taxpayers did not claim their earned income tax credit, totaling up to $7,000,000,000 worth of unclaimed benefits. During a 10 week trial of this tool in 2021 a total 115,451 households were able to claim $440,000,000 worth in their now claimed benefits. As this is an ongoing program, Code for America seeks to help even more citizens get they benefits they deserve.


Active brigades


See Related Articles

Civic technology Companies
Civic technology Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supportin ...


References

{{reflist


External links


Code for America
official website
Changing Government and Tech with Geeks
Nick Bilton, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', July 6, 2010
How an Army of Techies Is Taking on City Hall
Anya Kamenetz, ''
Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...
'', November 29, 2010
Remaking Government in a Wiki Age
Chrystia Freeland/''
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...
'', ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', August 18, 2011 Foundations based in the United States Transparency (behavior) Politics and technology Open government Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco Open government in the United States Charities based in California