March 31 marked the deadline for local governments to apply for the 2014 Fellowship. It also highlighted the incredible interest in Code for America and the work of our fellows; 49 local governments and one state applied for a coveted spot in our 2014 Fellowship Class. Over the past three months, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to speak 1:1 with government leaders in most all of these communities. I’m blown away by the passion, commitment, and vision of the civic innovators I’ve met. Further, it’s been incredible to see how some of them were inspired to apply for the Fellowship. Some heard about us from national news stories, others heard about us from their peers in other local governments or through our funders or former fellows, and several were introduced to CfA by individuals/entrepreneurs in the private sector.
While we’ll not disclose the applicants, I’m happy to share that the 50 include cities and counties across the United States and our Territories. Among them are some of the most diverse communities with populations from 18,000 to 1 million, and include the coldest and warmest places for our fellows to potentially experience during their travels to the partner governments.
Narrowing the field of applicants will be difficult. However we’re grateful to have the support of an esteemed panel of external constituents who will be assisting us and provide independent reviews of the applications. The panel includes institutional funders, former fellows, government leaders, and technologists. They will be helping our staff identify communities and projects where our fellows can impact citizens lives, improve government efficiencies and create sustainable change and innovation.
This exciting, but challenging phase of our selection process will conclude on May 15 with 10-12 finalists. Our 2014 Fellowship partner cities will be announced at the Code for America Summit on October 15.
Questions? Comments? Hit us up @codeforamerica.
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