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Code for America

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Code for America
Founder(s)Jennifer Pahlka
EstablishedSeptember 2009
CEOAmanda Renteria[1]
EndowmentPrimary sponsors
Location
San Francisco, CA
Websitecodeforamerica.org

Code for America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2009 with the aim of bridging the gap between the public and private sectors in their use of technology and design. The organization's mission is to enhance government services, with a particular focus on those in need.[2] The organization's non-partisan and non-political nature ensures that its activities are focused solely on improving the effectiveness of government services.

The motto of the organization is:

We’re people-centered problem solvers working to improve government in meaningful ways.
We’re a passionate, mission-driven team who believes government at all levels can and should work well for everyone. Get to know the people showing that it’s possible.

— Team Code for America[3]

In a TED talk in May 2022, the organization's CEO Amanda Renteria said:[4]

We deploy human-centered technology, the kind that respects you from the start, meets you where you are, and provides an easy, positive experience.

— Amanda Renteria[5]

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.[4] 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."[4] 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.[4]

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.[6] [citation needed] 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 in order to build open-source applications and promote openness, 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".[7]

The Code for America Brigade Network includes brigades across the country committed to volunteering in their local communities.[8] Code for America also runs a Community Fellowship where brigade members work within local government to help improve digital services.[9] Today, Code for America has 3 branches of program areas: health, criminal justice, and workforce development.[10]

History

Code for America building in San Francisco

In 2009, the founder Jennifer Pahlka was working with O'Reilly Media at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington, DC. 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."[11] 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".[11] 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.[11]

The Washington Post described Code for America as "the technology world's equivalent of the Peace Corps 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."[12]

The New York Times described Code for America as "a new nonprofit project... which aims to import the efficiency of the Web into government infrastructures" and "[tries] to make working in government fun and creative".[13]

Code for America launched the international civic technology organization, Code for All, in 2012.[14] By 2017, Code for Canada, which is modeled somewhat on Code for America, was established.[15]

In 2018, in partnership with George Gascón, District Attorney for San Francisco, Code for America's Clear My Record software was applied to automate searching for cannabis-related criminal records eligible to be expunged after California voters passed Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, 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 and in San Joaquin County have announced that they will use the software for the same purpose in 2019.[16]

In 2021, Code for America employees announced their intention to form a labor union affiliated with Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 1010.[17] Code for America initially retained the law firm Jackson Lewis to lead negotiations; after criticism over the firm's anti-union record, they were replaced by Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith as part of an agreement to voluntarily recognize the union. Negotiations began in spring 2022 but broke down in early 2023 over the size of the bargaining unit.[18]

In February 2023, Code for America announced layoffs and plans to disband its Brigade Network over the coming year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on volunteerism. Individual brigades would no longer be able to take advantage of Code for America's services as a fiscal sponsor.[19]

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[20]
  • 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.[21]

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.[22] Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Seattle were the four cities selected to participate in the 2011 program.[23]

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.[24] 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.[25]

Each city partnered with a team of five web programmers or designers selected for the fellowship. Over a period of 11 months, the fellows and city government collaborated to develop a web application to solve a civic problem identified by the city in their project proposals.[26] The completed software applications are released as open-source for any city government to use or adapt.[27]

The inaugural 2011 fellowship program launched four projects in Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.[23] Each city partnered with a team of three web programmers or designers selected for the fellowship. Over a period of 11 months, the fellows and city government collaborated to develop a web application to solve a civic problem identified by the city in their project proposals.[22] The completed civic applications were released as open-source for any city government to use or adapt.[21]

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.[28]

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 application process.[29] 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.[30] 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 does not work on mobile devices, despite the fact that most low-income people rely on smartphones for access to the Internet.[31] 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.[30] In addition, it leverages mobile phone access among applicants to encourage questions and answers, all over text.[32] 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, 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, Virgin Unite, 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 [33]

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:

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/

Code for America's Open Access Hackathon

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.' [34]
  • 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.[35]

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[36]
    • 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.[37]

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 leaders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, respectively formed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.[38] Further primary supporters include the Ford Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Knight Foundation, Luminate, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Share Our Strength, Skoll Foundation, 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.[39] 15 states have claimed and planned to partner with Code for America in hopes of fulfilling their goals.[40] 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 and Blue Meridian Partners.[41] 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, 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.[42]
  • 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.[43]

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 partnership 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 [44][45] (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.[46] It is the bridge between these underrepresented citizens and the governmental program CalFresh, 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.[45] From January to February 2022, the GetCalFresh team scored a 76% on the CSAT(Customer Satisfaction Score)[47]

getCTC.org

getCTC.org is an online tool to help taxpayers reap the benefits of their tax credits.[48] 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.[49] As this is an ongoing program, Code for America seeks to help even more citizens get they benefits they deserve.

List of brigades

As of November 2022, the following U.S.-based brigades were affiliated with Code for America:[50]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Who We Are". Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  2. ^ "About Code for America". Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  3. ^ "About us". Code for America. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d Renteria, Amanda (2 May 2022). "A bold plan to transform access to the US social safety net". Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  5. ^ "Code for America". Code for America. Archived from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  6. ^ "Code for America". luminategroup.com. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  7. ^ "What We Do". Archived from the original on 24 January 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  8. ^ "The Code for America Brigade Network | Code for America Brigade". brigade.codeforamerica.org. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  9. ^ "Code for America Announces 2019 Fellowship Program". govtech.com. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  10. ^ "Skoll | Code for America". Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  11. ^ a b c Kamenetz, Anya (29 November 2010). "How an Army of Techies Is Taking On City Hall". Fast Company.
  12. ^ Wadhwa, Vivek (16 December 2011). "Code for America: An elegant solution for government IT problems". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 20 December 2011.
  13. ^ Bilton, Nick (6 July 2010). "Changing Government and Tech With Geeks". The New York Times.
  14. ^ "Code for All". 23 November 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  15. ^ Sawhney, Gabe (5 April 2017). "It's time for Code for Canada". Medium. Code for Canada. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  16. ^ Lee, Dave (29 April 2019). "An algorithm wipes clean the criminal pasts of thousands". BBC News.
  17. ^ Schiffer, Zoe (4 August 2021). "Code for America employees are unionizing". The Verge. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  18. ^ McKenzie, Lindsay; Jones, John Hewitt (17 September 2021). "Code for America's union negotiations break down". StateScoop. Washington, D.C.: Scoop News Group. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  19. ^ Freed, Benjamin (7 February 2023). "Code for America to sever financial ties to its local brigades". StateScope. Washington, D.C.: Scoop News Group. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  20. ^ "Our team". Code for America. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  21. ^ a b "Code for America Chooses 20 Developers as Fellows". Mashable. 2 November 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  22. ^ a b "Code for America Fellows to Work with City Governments". Government Technology. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  23. ^ a b "Hacker Driven Code for America Kicks Off Today". Fast Company. 5 January 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  24. ^ "codeforamerica.org/2012". 2012. Code for America. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  25. ^ "The 2016 CfA Fellowship | Code for America". Code for America. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  26. ^ "Code for America Fellows to Work with City Governments". Government Technology. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2011. [verification needed]
  27. ^ "Code for America Chooses 20 Developers as Fellows". Mashable. 2 November 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2011. [verification needed]
  28. ^ Raja, Tasneem (June 2014). "Is Coding the New Literacy?". Mother Jones. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  29. ^ "GetCalFresh.org". getcalfresh.org. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  30. ^ a b "CalFresh". Code for America. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  31. ^ America, Code for. "California counties make it easier to apply for CalFresh - Code for America". Code for America. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  32. ^ "Code For America Improves CalFresh Application via SMS". www.twilio.com. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  33. ^ America, Code for. "Code for America Receives Landmark Investment Through The Audacious Project to Transform America's Social Safety Net". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  34. ^ "2021 National Day of Civic Hacking". Code for America. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  35. ^ "2021 National Day of Civic Hacking". Code for America. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  36. ^ "Code for America Summit 2022". Code for America Summit. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  37. ^ "Code for America Summit 2022". Code for America Summit. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  38. ^ "Our supporters". Code for America. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  39. ^ "Code for America | AustinTexas.gov". www.austintexas.gov. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  40. ^ Constructive. "Code for America". Blue Meridian Partners. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  41. ^ "Code for America unveils first states in Safety Net Innovation Lab cohort". GCN. 18 May 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  42. ^ Center, Harvard Ash (8 August 2018). "Code for America and Boulder, CO Partner on "21st Century Civic Engagement" (Part II)". Challenges to Democracy. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  43. ^ America, Code for. "Code for America Unveils First Cohort of State Partners to Launch Effort Transforming Nation's Social Safety Net". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  44. ^ "MNbenefits: Apply for benefits in 20 minutes or less". mnbenefits.mn.gov. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  45. ^ a b "Code for America uses conversational support to show up with empathy for their clients". www.intercom.com. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  46. ^ "Apply for California Food Stamps Online | GetCalFresh.org". www.getcalfresh.org. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  47. ^ "How Code for America Built a Client Success Strategy Using Empathy". Medallia | Customer Experience and Employee Experience. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  48. ^ "Code for America tests digital access to a key tax benefit". FCW. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
  49. ^ "Non-filers Can Use GetCTC to Get Your Child Tax Credit – Get It Back". Retrieved 21 November 2022.
  50. ^ "Find your local Brigade". Code for America Brigade Network. San Francisco: Code for America. 15 November 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  51. ^ "Code for Frenso to Open Fresno cleanup". openfresno.github.io. Open Fresno. 29 June 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  52. ^ https://sfba.social/@opensourcesanjose/110702353798227143
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