New fellowship program looks to help policymakers improve civic tech
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The initiative will provide state and local governments insights on how to improve online tools and services for their residents.
Lengthy online forms, burdensome identity verification requirements and complicated website designs are often a challenge for residents trying to tap into government services. A new program looks to help state and local governments improve the service delivery and accessibility of government resources.
The Innovation and Incubation Fellowship, an initiative from the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, will work with subject matter experts and practitioners in the fields of data, design, technology and policy to research and test civic technology solutions to make government services, like safety net programs, easier for residents to enroll in and engage with, said Lynn Overmann, executive director at the Beeck Center.
The fellowship, announced last week, will last 12 to 24 months for participants. Overmann said the center will work with three fellows at a time.
“Everyone knows we live in a modern age where people expect to have the government meet them where they are, which is often online,” she said. People “expect the services they get from their government to be as easy to apply for as everything else they apply for online in their lives.”
One participant has already been announced and will work with state agencies to help link underserved teen moms with benefits programs. Maya Uppaluru Mechenbier, who previously served as a project lead for the U.S. Digital Service, plans to help agencies build integrated benefits applications to help new moms access social services more easily, Overmann said.
“When governments work well, people get the services that they need in ways that currently aren’t happening,” she said.
Mechenbier’s work could also entail working with university partners and residents to inform how agencies could effectively build their benefits systems, such as by implementing automatic enrollment for babies into benefits programs, Overmann said.
The Innovation and Incubation Fellowship builds upon the work of other Beeck Center programs like the Digital Services Network and the Digital Benefits Network, which help state and local governments improve digital services for residents. But Overmann said that government participants report that there are still gaps and unmet needs in communities because they are under researched.
Ultimately, Overmann said the fellowship aims “to bring people into the center to spend a year or two exploring innovative, new ways to tackle those problems.”
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