DEPARTMENT: Office of Innovation
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Brian Dillard, Chief Innovation Officer
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT:
Briefing on the CivTechSA program
SUMMARY:
Briefing on the CivTechSA program
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
CivTechSA is a partnership between the City of San Antonio's Office of Innovation and Geekdom, a local coworking space and leader in the startup and tech ecosystem in San Antonio. The program's mission is to connect students, entrepreneurs and the tech community with the City to solve community challenges and grow civically-minded tech talent. There are four pillars to the program that build on each other:
1. 6-12th Grade: CivTechSA empowers teachers to bring civic engagement, govtech and entrepreneurial principles into their classrooms to inspire students to give back to their community and consider entrepreneurial careers.
2. University Students: CivTechSA partners students from a variety of disciplines with City departments to help solve challenges as part of their coursework. City staff provides the data, observations, guidance needed to help students build innovative solutions. Geekdom connects the students with business mentors and provides other opportunities to build their ideas into self-sustaining startup companies.
3. Entrepreneurs: CivTechSA hosts a variety of workshops and events where entrepreneurs can solve civic challenges in a short period of time and build their knowledge of City government, municipal partners and entrepreneurial principles.
4. 16-week Residency: Companies and startups have the opportunity to embed in City departments for 16 weeks to develop custom solutions to address City challenges. Departments have the option to procure a technology tool at the end of the 16-week Residency.
ISSUE:
CivTechSA is a unique program that seeks to connect and develop our student, entrepreneur and tech communities while tackling City challenges. Goals of the CivTechSA program are to: expand the C...
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