Civic Bridge
Bridging the Public and Private Sectors on Critical Challenges
Civic Bridge recruits private sector professionals to volunteer their time to work alongside government employees on critical City issues. Pro-bono, private-sector support can increase the City’s capacity to identify and analyze pain points, provide agile and iterative solutions, as well as increase interest in cross-sector collaborations. Civic Bridge is a cohort-based program, the program builds off of the example set by a number of Cities such as Chicago’s Civic Consulting Alliance and San Jose’s Silicon Valley Talent Partnership.
Are you an industry partner interested in joining our Civic Bridge program?
Please contact us.
Are you a government employee interested in replicating our Civic Bridge program? Download our program blueprint PDF for detailed instructions on how you can launch Civic Bridge in your city.
Civic Bridge History
In 2015, MOCI piloted Civic Bridge with five private-sector teams. Volunteers used skills including data collection and analysis, visual interface design, and management strategy to help tackle problems like the surge in 911 call volume and how to search for affordable housing online.
In fall 2017, Civic Bridge expanded to include 12 challenges ranging from tackling how to increase Medi-Cal enrollment and retention of the homeless population to designing the permitting process for the newly opened Office of Cannabis.
In 2019, Civic Bridge expanded to include a new one-day model called Day of Service. Similar to the traditional 16-week Civic Bridge cohort program, Day of Service matched private sector volunteer teams with City Departments to tackle a civic challenge. During the course of one day, ten public-private partnership teams worked on ten unique challenges facing the City and its residents.
Case Study:
Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development + Google
A team of volunteers from Google helped the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) do user research and project scoping for a new digital public service that will let users search and apply for city-funded housing programs online, saving the project team time and money as they move to build the new service -- and produce a more simple, easy-to-use product. Browse the new affordable housing portal.
Why Join Civic Bridge?
For City Departments
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Access to unique skills and expertise
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Bring the benefit of new insights, approaches, methodologies and ongoing interactions with pro-bono teams to department staff
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Reduce reduce time and costs of delivering services to residents
For Industry and Nonprofit Partners
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Recruit and retain top talent
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Facilitate leadership development of high performers
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Build networks and learn to work with City Departments
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Cultivate public goodwill in the region where employees live
For Volunteers
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Apply your skills to a crucial challenge in your community
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Learn about local government
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Build lasting relationships with members of your team, Civic Bridge pro-bono team alumni, and city staff
Select Civic Bridge Partners
