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. |
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Making a Difference: A New Model for Civic Innovation |
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We recently published a white paper, Making a Difference: A New Model for Civic Innovation. The following is an excerpt from the paper. |
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Why Innovation
We live in a remarkable time, where significant breakthroughs, particularly in medical science, are becoming commonplace. In 2020, we witnessed something that had never been done. Vaccines can take years, if not decades, to become commercially available. Still, we developed, tested, and delivered millions of vaccine doses for a novel virus in less than a year. Over the last few decades, we have seen pockets of innovation worldwide that helped reduce poverty and disease and enabled living standards to rise. We have also seen amazing innovations in technology with the proliferation of smartphones, artificial intelligence, and robotics during this time.
We’ve seen innovation work. We understand it is essential as it gives us a better chance to figure out what works, increasing the likelihood that our efforts and investments will deliver greater impact. But innovation can be elusive and not easily replicable, particularly in the civic arena.
We still struggle with poverty, affordable healthcare, housing, education, and climate change in our communities, making little progress in many areas. We need to explore whether there is a new model for innovation specifically designed for the civic space and focused on the people and issues in our local communities. We envision a new model for civic innovation that combines innovation within local government with an active social entrepreneurial environment that together creates a thriving ecosystem capable of sustaining meaningful change. At the Center for Civic Innovation, we’ve dedicated ourselves to figuring out this new model that will deliver long-term, measurable impact in our community. |
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Welcoming Our Work-Study Team Member: Julia Eskew |
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We are pleased to welcome Julia Eskew to the team as our Program Assistant. |
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Julia is a 4th year Global Studies major at UVA with a specific focus in public health and healthcare policy. Maternal mortality both in the United States and across the globe is her area of interest, and she is excited to hone her skills concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion through the Center for Civic Innovation. She has been so impressed with the CCI and how it implements innovative solutions in addition to producing informed community leaders. This partnership engages and informs her about how local issues can mirror power structures and tensions across the globe. |
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2021 Fellowship Kicks Off! |
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Our 2021 Civic Innovation Fellowship kicks off later this month! We're thrilled by our cohort of fellows and look forward to working with them over the next several months. Stay tuned for updates as they progress through the program. Meet the fellows and read more about the fellowship program. Want to be involved? We're currently seeking coaches to help guide our fellows to success. |
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Book Review: The Data Detective by Tim Harford |
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We recently published a review of The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics by Tim Harford. |
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"Good statistics are like a telescope for an astronomer, a microscope for a bacteriologist, or an X-ray for a radiologist. If we are willing to let them, good statistics help us to see things about the world around us, and about ourselves – both large and small – that we would not be able to see in any other way." |
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The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics, by Tim Harford, is a remarkable book about using statistics to see and understand the world. He does not attempt to teach the reader statistics, but steps back and takes a broader view about how statistics help us understand our world.
Harford, an economist and prolific communicator, is a gifted storyteller, effectively weaving tales together to teach us lessons that broaden our understanding. In the BBC 4 radio program More or Less,1 he “explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life.” In his popular podcast, Cautionary Tales, Harford tells “true stories about mistakes and what we should learn from them.”2 And as a prolific author, he has written popular books such as The Undercover Economist, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure, and Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy.
Harford divides the book into ten lessons, which fall into two broad categories: 1) understanding ourselves and 2) understanding how the statistics world operates.
Read the rest of the review. |
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Wondering why you're receiving this email? Over the past several months, our organization has been transitioning from Smart Cville into the Center for Civic Innovation. As a subscriber to the monthly Smart Cville newsletter, we’ve brought you along with us into this exciting new phase in the life of our organization. The newsletter looks a little different now because our name and logo have changed, but you can expect updates on our ongoing projects as well as new initiatives as we step into our new role working to empower problem solvers in our community. |
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