San Mateo, CA – The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, recognized today Innovate Your State’s Fix California Challenge as part of the 2017 Bright Ideas in Government initiative. The Fix California Challenge is part of a cohort that includes programs from all levels of government — school districts, county, city, state, federal agencies, and tribal nations, as well as public-private partnerships — that represent the next horizon in government work to improve services, solve problems, and work on behalf of citizens.
The Fix California Challenge is a crowdsourced competition to find ideas to improve the State of California. The challenge launched in Spring 2015 and has received over 500 ideas, 1,300 comments and 8,100 votes from people all over the state and the nation. To date, five challenge entries have been selected as winners, one of which was the California Legislative Transparency Act which qualified for the 2016 California State Ballot and passed this past year. More details on the challenge and challenge winners can be found here and at www.FixCal.org.
“These programs demonstrate that there are no prerequisites for doing the good work of governing” said Stephen Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in American Government Program at the Ash Center, “small towns and massive cities, huge federal agencies and local school districts, large budgets or no budgets at all — what makes government work best is the drive to do better, and this group proves that drive can be found anywhere.”
This is the fifth cohort recognized through the Bright Ideas program, an initiative of the broader Innovations in American Government Awards program. For consideration as a Bright Idea, programs must currently be in operation or in the process of launching, have sufficient operational resources, and must be administered by one or more governmental entities; nonprofit, private sector, and union initiatives are eligible if operating in partnership with a governmental organization. Bright Ideas are showcased on the Ash Center’s Government Innovators Network, an online platform for practitioners and policymakers to share innovative public policy solutions.
Visit the Government Innovators Network at innovations.harvard.edu for the full list of Bright Ideas programs, and for more information regarding the Innovations in American Government Awards.
For more information, contact:
Innovate Your State
650-727-5629
Daniel Harsha
Associate Director for Communications, Ash Center
617-495-4347
About Innovate Your State
Innovate Your State is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that is dedicated to educating and encouraging public participation to fundamentally improve government. Innovate Your State bridges private sector innovation and ingenuity with policy and government to improve the lives of constituents through a “Venture Governance” approach. Innovate Your State hosts impactful projects and events with the goal of improving government and governance outcomes. Entrepreneur empowerment, investor access, and government leader education are central to organizational activities. For more information, visit www.innovateyourstate.org.
About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence in governance and strengthens democratic institutions worldwide. Through its research, education, international programs, and government innovations awards, the Center fosters creative and effective government problem solving and serves as a catalyst for addressing many of the most pressing needs of the world’s citizens. For more information, visit www.ash.harvard.edu.