More About Us

What's in a Name?

The name, Sustainable Civic Solutions, reflects our focus:

Sustainable This word means that we are focused on solutions that endure. Such solutions have a design that inherently and naturally allows for increased adoption, data integrity, scale, and evolution, resulting in increased civic value over time.
Civic This word emphasizes our focus on civic problems that relate to individuals' lives in their neighborhoods, and which would benefit from shared municipal solutions. We believe this space is currently underserved.
Solutions This word emphasizes our focus on holistic and systemic solutions. There is no presumption that the answer will be purely technological. We understand that the best solutions will need to consider "soft" factors, like people, organizations, and politics, and "hard" factors, like processes and technology.

The Principles that Guide Us

Our work is guided by a set of important principles:

Technology is Only a Lever All too often, it is said that the "solution" to a problem is to "build an app for that". Too often, the approach is to have a "solution in search of a problem". We believe that technology is never the end goal. It must be implemented only where it meaningfully improves things, sustainably, with a deep understanding of the "soft" aspects of the problem. This said, we believe that technology, used properly, is a powerful lever that can encourage consistency, discipline, and transparency.
Create Shared Solutions that Scale Our intention is to create and support solutions that are designed from the ground up to meet the needs of all constituents who share the same problem. Designing such solutions requires deep expertise, since all current and future individual needs must be understood, anticipated, and generalized in order to create a truly sustainable "future proof" collective solution. This kind of rigorous approach is essential for efficiently leveraging the scarce resources available in the civic space.
Be the Platform Only We aspire to provide solutions that are "platforms" upon which constituents can operate and collaborate more effectively. We will facilitate and empower civic organizations while still allowing them to maintain their uniqueness. For example, we might provide shared tools to enable organizations to better manage their client relationships without limiting each organization's way of working. Put another way, we intend to be the platform, not the "content".
UI is not UX All too often, "user experience (UX)" is equated with the visual "user interface (UI)" for a particular user population and task. We recognize that the notion of user experience must broadly encompass the total experience of all users over time. We strive to prioritize overall usability over mere visual appeal.
Use Data Judiciously All too often, solutions grow in complexity and scope without any real idea of how they are actually used, and by whom. We believe it is therefore essential to thoughtfully build in "instrumentation" and data feedback loops from the very beginning. This said, while we believe data is essential, we recognize that qualitative analysis of it is as important as quantitative.
Start Small, Partner, and Iterate Our initial focus will be on the most promising opportunities, working with non-profit partners, starting with limited scope. The goal will be to quickly verify the purported benefits and gain feedback to feed future iterations. This approach is about speed and efficiency. Great attention is needed in order to get the agility benefits of starting small while still accommodating all eventual collective needs.
Be Diverse, Inclusive, and Nonpartisan It is imperative that civics embrace absolutely everybody, without bias. We believe fundamentally that diversity results in better outcomes. We work with partners who espouse these principles to create solutions that promote them.
Remain Independent Our loyalty is to society at large, and our "profit" is the net positive impact achieved. We are therefore organized as a non-profit, and we set our priorities accordingly.
Engage Government Strategically By developing collective solutions, we recognize that we may gain the participation and data to eventually engage government entities in beneficial fact-based policy changes, partnerships, and funding. These are important future opportunities and responsibilities. But, government engagement is complicated. Therefore, absent a strong government sponsor, we prefer to begin by solving immediate problems collectively with civic partners "at the ground level".

Partners, Further Reading, and References

Our work is informed through work with other organizations, their missions, and their research.

The Westside Coalition, of which we are a member, who represent the majority of social service organizations in West Los Angeles.
MITGOV/LAB, notably this article which cogently articulates important principles in applying technology to civic problems.
Professional volunteer organizations, like US Digital Response and Executive Service Corps, who recognize the value of applying deep expertise to complex problems.
General technology volunteer organizations, like Code for America that work to engage a broad variety of individuals in civic challenges.

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