Code for Charlotte is a brigade of the national non-profit Code for America. Both organizations are dedicated to raising awareness and demonstrating the value of open data, open source, and open government.
The City of Charlotte was one of ten cities selected for a 2014 Fellowship, an extremely selective program that pairs technologists with governments across the country. One of the selection criteria for the fellowship is citizen engagement around these values– usually in the form of a brigade. So when the fellowship was awarded, we sprung to life! Our first meeting was in January on 2014, and we’ve grown to over 200 civic hackers since. We are one of the fastest growing brigades in history, and already one of the largest overall.
Our Mission
Through its volunteer corps, Code For Charlotte represents an innovative, knowledgable technical resource for the City. As technology becomes more vital in every governmental and administrative role, the demand for IT services is increasing faster than the City government can hire qualified employees. IT projects are challenging in any environment, and government IT has even tighter constraints. All citizens benefit from better technology, via expanded or improved service levels.
Code for Charlotte’s goals are the following:
– Help the City achieve better outcomes from its IT budget.
– Build a platform where City employees and engaged citizens can find each other to develop projects.
– Incubate civic startups capable of serving the needs of the City and other governments.
– Guide policy discussions at the local level regarding technology issues.
