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Technology Leader Chosen as City’s First Community Technology Advocate

Seattle’s Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller has hired civic technology leader Candace Faber to be the City’s new Community Technology Advocate.

New Civic Technology Advocate for Seattle, Candace Faber

When not working on internal projects, Candace Faber will be the public face of Seattle IT in the civic technology community. She will reach out and engage with the local community on open data and other public technology projects.

Other assignments will also include overseeing the Digital Equity initiative/Digital Equity Action Committee, working with City departments to shape open data and civic technology projects, representing the City of Seattle to the open data and civic technology community and organizations.

Faber brings an impressive resume to the new position. Since 2013, she has worked in Seattle as a strategy consultant and project manager, leading efforts such as Hack the Commute, Hack to End Homelessness, and the Washington Technology Industry Association’s FullConTech. As the Government-Community Liaison for Open Seattle, she has worked closely with Seattle’s open data program, local technology firms, and the developer community to support our local civic technology ecosystem. She will continue and expand this work as the City’s new Civic Technology Advocate.

Previously, Candace was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, serving at the U.S. embassies in Russia, Poland, Belarus, and Afghanistan, and on the global e-Diplomacy team. Candace holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Washington.

#NationalRadioDay A Success in Seattle

Did you know Seattle has seven new, hyper-local radio stations to serve individual communities and voices that may not always be heard?

Several low-powered FM stations gathered at the Central Library Plaza to celebrate National Radio Day.

Many people braved a drizzly Thursday on August 20, 2015 for National Radio Day. It was a celebration of seven stations that are either on the air in Seattle or soon will be. It’s estimated that 90 percent of Seattle neighborhoods will be in the broadcast area of at least one of the new stations, and that many areas will be able to tune in to two or more.

These stations give students a chance to find their voices, learn about storytelling and present content that may not be heard anywhere else.

Programs represented included Rainier Valley Radio, Hollow Earth Radio, KSPU and more.

2015 Technology Matching Fund Grants

STEM programs, community radio stations, English language and literacy training, job finding assistance, expanding and upgrading computer labs for disadvantaged kids and low-income seniors, the recipients of the 2015 Technology Matching Funds grants have projects as diverse as their backgrounds.

Councilmember Bruce Harrell thanks the TMF grant recipients for coming to Seattle City Hall.

Part of Seattle’s commitment to digital equity, the Technology Matching Fund provides grants annually up to $30,000 for technology projects. City dollars are matched by the community’s contribution of volunteer labor, materials, professional services, or cash. The next grant deadline will be in March, 2016. The Technology Matching Fund seeks to improve digital equity by connecting populations that have limited access to technology, empowering residents with digital literacy skills, building capacity for diverse communities to use technology for civic participation.

This year the City awarded grants to 22 local nonprofit groups. Some projects include:

Kids from the Big-Brained Superheroes Club and Seattle Chief Technology Officer Michael Mattmiller

The Big-Brained Superheroes Club will provide a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program for youth from Yesler Terrace, ages 8 and up.

The Coalition for Refugees from Burma will use the funds to purchase new laptops and provide basic computer literacy courses for newly arrived refugee adults, conduct trainings for parents of school aged youth to support their children’s education, and offer enrichment programs to engage youth with high-tech concepts and careers.

Seattle’s Millionair Club plans to expand the current computer lab from 8 workstations to 32 to become a Workforce Development site and provide job safety training, financial literacy, and online educational opportunities.

Sound Care Child Solutions wants to provide tablets for classrooms in 30 Sound Child Care Centers and train teachers how to use them, share with parents on devices, and translate into the home language of the family.

Miriam Zmiewski-Angelova from Sound Child Care Solutions. Her son Nashoba approves of the grant.

If you have a local nonprofit and want more information on Technology Matching Funds grant you can go to the Community Technology website, read Brainstorm e-zine or follow Community Technology on Facebook or Twitter @diginclusion. This year half of the recipients had never received grants before. Maybe you can be one of the many success stories.

Best of luck to all of the nonprofit recipients. We look forward to seeing the lives you enriched through your programs.

Technology Matching Fund Success Story: UW Women’s Center’s Making Connections

As we come up on awarding the 2015 Technology Matching Fund grantees on Wednesday, July 15 in the Council Chambers, we thought it might be a good idea to look at success stories from 2014.

Seattle CTO Michael Mattmiller awards a $14,399 Technology Literacy and Access grant to the UW Women’s Center in 2014.

The University of Washington’s Women’s Center’s Making Connections (MC) Program received a Technology Literacy and Access grant for $14, 399 to “provide enriching educational and character-building experiences for underrepresented Seattle-area high school girls to achieve in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).”

Making Connections group at Google in April, 2015

In the 2014-2015 academic year, MC served over 105 students from 23 high schools in the greater Seattle area. In addition to new computers at the center, other components of the program include mentoring, tutoring, career exploration, and founding a local chapter of the national “Girls Who Code” program to support MC students who want to pursue computer science.

Making Connections (MC) also provided opportunities for students to explore careers in STEM fields, which focus on providing a better understanding of what different companies (Boeing, Microsoft, Google, etc.) are like to work at through hearing first-hand from managers and employees themselves.

“The most important experience of this event was hearing/networking with the Google employees. You learn so much from their past experience to better prepare yourself for your future. I now know that I can still explore different careers, and still have time to find my passion. Also, it was great to see what the Google company has to offer,” said one student who went to Google to participate in a hands-on activity where students could make their own designs for a product.

MC student with mentor from Microsoft during Microsoft Job Shadow in November

Mentoring is another core element of the MC program that offers students the ability to work one-on-one with a mentor who can provide them academic, professional, and personal guidance as they prepare for life after high school. Mentors have served in a variety of different fields and include college students, working professionals, and even former Making Connections students who want to give back. Mentors meet one-on-one with their mentees each month, and are up-to-date on resources that can assist their students.

The Technology Matching Fund provides
awards of up to $30,000 in matching funds to community projects which increase technology literacy, provide access to computers, the Internet, and other information technologies; and increase civic participation in the use of technology.

As mentioned above, the 2015 Technology Matching Funds will be awarded July 15 in the Seattle City Council Chambers.