CCI is a community-based innovation ecosystem where residents, businesses, local governments, and academia tackle our region’s challenges. We support civic innovation that leads to a more equitable and sustainable community.

A Note from the ED: People and Projects

The fellowship program is in full swing and it is exciting to see the progress everyone is making on their projects.

Outcomes from the fellowship will look different from project to project. Some fellows entered with an idea and are using the program to hone their problem statement, secure the systems to collect data, and may end with the design process complete - ready to build their intervention at a later stage. Other projects came with those steps complete, but are learning how to access institutional support so they can build a coalition with a government partner, or integrate academic theory with practice by partnering with UVA. For some, the goal is to convert the project from their personal ownership to something that belongs to the community.

All of the projects involve learning how to access and harness technology for the public good. The fellowship's cornerstone is to be Public Interest Technology (PIT) in practice. As defined by New America, PIT "adopts best practices in human-centered design, product development, process re-engineering, and data science to solve public problems in an inclusive, iterative manner—continuously learning, improving, and aiming to deliver better outcomes to the public."

When I began my role at CCI and was asking community members and partners about our role in PIT, two things were recurrent. 1) Our community needed a program to cultivate people who had great ideas on how to solve the problems we face and train them on PIT, and 2) there needed to be an entity able to nurture projects from idea to fruition so the iterative process could go full circle.

The fellowship program is a person-centered endeavor, developed to empower problem solvers in our community. Some of these projects will not come to fruition. During the fellowship, they will instead discover their hypothesis was wrong or the intervention plan was flawed. But the person has gained skills in data and engineering, undergone the project design process, expanded their network, and will be empowered to tackle future challenges. The fellow is at the center of our work. An output of that, though, is building projects to be inclusive and sustained. In the course of the fellowship, we've gathered the data supporting the intervention plan and can offer a solution to the community. However, the fellow may be graduating from UVA and will not be around to see their project through to implementation. In the past, research projects like this lost their traction. Through the fellowship, students work with community stakeholders to ensure inclusive and accessible design, so the community can see projects through when people move in and out. And CCI is here to help along the way, as projects move out of the fellowship and into our coalition management pipeline.

With our fellowship underway, I hope you will explore the projects and consider getting involved with one that speaks to you. We are looking for coaches and volunteers, and of course, your donation goes a long way in supporting both people and projects for a maximum impact on our community through Public Interest Technology.

- Christie Taylor, CCI Executive Director

Fellowship Update

CCI has kicked off its 2021 Fellowship program! We are excited about the amazing projects our fellows are working on and are eager to support them. One form of support that we offer is bi-monthly meetings. These meetings are not just a way for us to check in with the fellows but are also a way for us to help connect the fellows with community leaders and organizations that can boost their projects and support them. 

The first meeting was a meet and greet where we came together, discussed each project, and started to get to know each other. It was great a great opportunity to learn about everyone as individuals and teams. This meeting helped to build excitement for the projects and we were pleased to see the different teams connecting and supporting one another. 

The goal of our second meeting was to bring focus to the projects and to start connecting fellows with local organizations whose help can strengthen their projects. Brian Johns of Virginia Organizing spoke at the meeting and discussed Social Entrepreneurship with the group. We were excited to see how the fellows responded to his engaging and inspiring talk.

We would like to thank Brian Johns of Virginia Organizing for speaking, as well as the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library and PVCC for providing a meeting place for these Fellowship meetings. We could not achieve our goals or support these fellows without their help. 

Fellowship Funding

The CCI Fellowship program wouldn't be possible without support from the New America Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN). Take a look to find out more about their work and then consider getting involved with our Fellowship program.