Smart Cville announces fellowship to support grassroots civic projects

Smart Cville is calling for applications to its inaugural Civic Innovation Fellowship.

The fellowship will support Central Virginia residents seeking to improve the local community through innovative, community-led projects. This program seeks to turn more grassroots ideas into action by giving aspiring  civic leaders additional layers of support for nascent ideas. This year’s fellowships will provide additional support to innovators working on equity related issues or who come from historically underrepresented groups.

“At Smart Cville, we believe civic innovation is an incredibly powerful tool for community empowerment. Our best ideas as a community come from residents themselves.  In order to intentionally foster civic innovation for equity-related projects, we’ve developed this program to help give civic innovators the space, network, and support to realize success,” said Lucas Ames Founder of Smart Cville.

Applicants can be individuals from grassroots community organizations or advocacy groups.  They can also be community organizers, residents, or neighborhood leaders. All are welcome to apply but we will prioritize civic innovators from underrepresented backgrounds or who are working on equity-related issues. Projects do not need to be tech or data related, but participants should be open to how tech and data can support their goals.

Each fellow will get workspace at the Center for Civic Innovation, a core team of supportive advisors, expert-led training workshops, a cohort of peers also working to improve the community, a project showcase event, and access to UVA professors and students who can support tech or data needs.  Those working on an equity related issue or who come from a historically underrepresented group are also offered a $1,000 stipend to support the project.

Applications are due on December 20, 2019 and can be found along with more information at http://cci.smartcville.com/fellowship.html

Smart Cville is a 501(c)(3)-designated, non-profit organization.  It promotes the use of technology and data to help communities find innovative solutions by facilitating the exchange of ideas between civic institutions and citizens.  Learn more at http://www.smartcville.com.