Civic Innovation Lab, in Partnership with the Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti, Announces Challenge:LA

LOS ANGELES - June 8, 2015 - PRLog -- In partnership with the Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Mayor’s summer-long #techLA initiative, Civic Innovation Lab is proud to announce Challenge:LA - a civic-focused innovation challenge designed to tap into the ingenuity of citizens to solve some of the most pressing social and civic challenges in Los Angeles.

The Summer 2015 challenges focus on transportation, water conservation, and community engagement. Starting today through September 20th, citizens are able to submit projects they think will help move the needle on these pressing public issues. Challenge:LA finalists will be considered in a final judging round in October when grand-prize winners will be announced during the #techLA conference, culminating Los Angeles’ Innovation Week. The winners will be eligible to participate in the next phase of the Lab, Accelerate:LA, a civic accelerator program run by Civic Innovation Lab and designed to encourage the sustainability of each solution and create real impact. More details about Accelerate:LA will be released in October 2015 along with the winning project announcements.

Since Civic Innovation Lab launched last September, civic tech continues to be an emerging force for good. “More and more people are becoming familiar with the term Civic Tech as the movement grows here in Los Angeles. We believe the best definitions emphasize outcomes, going beyond tech for tech’s sake. We’re looking for technology that has the power to reduce barriers to citizen engagement, enhance our quality of life, and make our local and regional government more effective,” said Kat Karimi, Director of Civic Innovation Lab.

Civic Innovation Lab was created to ensure that all citizens, not only developers and programmers, are engaged in how technology improves our public lives and makes government more efficient and accessible. We recognize that experts in policy, urban planning, social justice, and citizens at large may be the best suited to develop solutions that lead to measurable impact in the public sphere. To this end, our programs aim to engage anyone with a project that addresses a critical social or civic need and connect them to public sector experts and citizens with the appropriate tech skills in order to prototype solutions.

“We also know that to get real traction and develop civic tech that works, it needs to happen through a facilitated process that involves engagement and testing over time,” said Elizabeth Stewart, Advisor and Cofounder of Civic Innovation Lab. “While hackathons can jumpstart the process that lead to lasting solutions, we aim to create civic infrastructure that brings expert citizens, the tech community, and government together in a process to yield measurable civic and social impact.”

Visit www.civicinnovationlab.la to learn more.

Challenge:LA is made possible through a partnership between The Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti and Civic Innovation Lab.

Civic Innovation Lab is made possible in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Controller’s Office, Hub LA, Learn Do Share, LA2050, LAEDC, Bixel Exchange, and Microsoft.