Strong leadership supporting the program
By the nature of our program – introducing a different culture and new approaches to problem solving – we rely on strong leadership from our partners to support the program when we hit bumps in the road. Strong leaders will publicly support the Code for America program and gain broad support for the program from city leadership.
Flexibility and allowance for emergent outcomes
During the residency phase the fellows will connect with and learn from the city. They will conduct extensive research throughout the month of February and build their product hypothesis and eventual designs on that research. This requires flexibility and openness to the variety of possibilities and apps that will result. Research coupled with interviews with city leaders and the community generate impressive emergent outcomes that lead to very powerful tools.
Community involvement in the process
Strong community involvement is essential to sustaining the impacts of our fellowship program in the city. Sometimes a project sponsor may not be a city hall staffer, rather a community group or resident — this often helps to ensure a apps sustainability within the city. An engaged and supportive community helps to ensure that Code for America’s impact remains long after the fellows leave and the official partnership with the city has ended.
Planning for longer term sustainability
The fellowship program will result in a number of various outputs throughout the year. Some of those outputs will be applications. The city needs to create and implement an adoption and sustainability plan for the applications. This will require significant planning, and in some cases additional funds for hosting the and/or on-going maintenance of applications. Some other outputs of the program, such as new development processes, may require continued outreach with the community for user research and testing. Sustainability is challenging and it’s something that we will address throughout the fellowship program.
City leaders’ time commitment
The Code for America fellowship is a partnership that requires city leaders to dedicate time to the program. The two primary roles in the partnership, primary contact and project sponsors, can require anywhere between 5 and 10 percent of one’stime during the program. For project sponsors the time commitment could be limited to only three weeks, or as long a six months, depending on the nature of the project.
Funding for the fellowship program
Code for Americas funding model is based on partner cities contributing a portion of the total costs of the program. Currently, foundations and other donors fund the remaining program costs. This allows cities to pay only for the actual costs of the fellows (stipends, benefits, and travel). City teams include three fellows at the participation fee for a city is $180,000, an additional $60,000 is required for each additional fellow.
To cover the additional program costs associated with the fellowship, cities are required to identify potential local funding sources to cover the remaining program costs.
Commitment to reuse
The hard work of the fellows and city partners should benefit other local governments across the country. We expect that they city partners participate in Civic Commons and assist in spreading applications to other cities.
