High Level, Thematic Overview

Deep desire for respect and parity.

Code for America’s volunteer members and their work on the frontlines of technology and community development seek to be recognized as peers in importance, impact, and investment in relation to the members of the nonprofit organization and the work it performs on the national stage. This applies to Brigade and non-Brigade volunteers.

Appetite for community impact and democractic experimentation.

The Network community’s “DNA” is one that shows up for local community and community partners first and foremost -- both in terms of where we apply our skills and power and who we hold ourselves accountable to.

Through ReVisioning, we rediscovered our propensity and strong desire for democractic experimentation and participatory processes, illuminating a deep desire to model, practice, and continue to redefine accessible engagement and decision making.

Need for stronger spaces to organize talent pools in an interconnected network, learn from one another, and facilitate new relationships.

Through this recommendation, we will propose creating more formal and functional spaces where community leaders and Code for America peers work and learn together. This includes spaces and structures to distribute our volunteer and staff capacity effectively, enhancing how distinct programs relate to one another (e.g. Brigades, Community Fellowship, GetYourRefund), and enriching our capabilities by providing trainings and a curriculum that defines and operationalizes our values and craft as a Code for America community.

Desire for stronger frameworks and guidance to respond to community-led interests and drive impact, and resourcing those efforts.

As a network, we need more resources, guidance, and frameworks on identifying and responding to community needs -- locally and nationally. This will also require additional human resources, financial resources, and new mechanisms for distribution of those resources that reflect our priorities and values. We aim to pilot new democratic decision-making practices within the Network, and create new fundraising streams through models of Network membership and partnership.

Need for clearer roles, responsibilities, decision-making, and support structures.

A key component of equitable practices is to make the implicit, explicit. We need more explicit articulations of the roles within and across our community, responsibilities embedded within those roles, clarity of decision-making, and clearly articulated support structures to meet our needs. We anticipate this will also be a critical component of the implementation plan to bring the following recommendations to life.