Civic Design Fellowship
The Civic Design Fellow is a paid 4-month program that takes your interest in democracy as a design problem to the next level by working at the Center for Civic Design team on an independent project exploring an aspect of elections, civic design, or civic engagement. The Civic Design Fellowship is offered by invitation.
About the Fellowship
The Civic Design Fellowship is offered to people with experience in a civic design adjacent field, from UX design to work in government or advocacy, who can bring a unique perspective to a project in civic design or civic engagement.
The fellowship will focus on an independent project that addresses a topic that is complementary to or extends the work of CCD. The work might be represented in a research report, a website, or work in another medium.
Fellows’ activities will be based on their projects, but might include:
- Conducting their own independent project. You’ll propose a topic during the application process. Then, we’ll help you refine the idea and plan the project. You will have staff support through planning, implementation, and final report. And you’ll leave the Fellowship with a completed project for your civic design resume.
- Work with the CCD team may take many forms, depending on the topic of the fellowship, but might include being part of an existing project, collaborations with CCD civic designers, or setting up brainstorming or workshops with the team
- Join our regular team-life meetings and contribute to internal conversations. We use this time to discuss projects and civic or election-related news, tackle design challenges together, and try out new ideas.
Robert Pérez, 2022
In 2022, Robert joined CCD for 4-months where he led an independent research project on bilingual youth voters in San Mateo County, California.
In a series of moderated interviews, he set out to hear stories from bilingual citizens about their experiences to discover pain points and barriers to accessing voter registration information, civic engagement, and the next steps in the voting process.
Mark D’Ostilio, 2020
In 2020, Mark came to CCD through the Penn State Nevins Fellowship. To support voting by mail in the pandemic, he researched state laws as we adapted our templates for local election offices. He also assisted with usability testing, learning it as a new skill.
His project used his degree in criminology to explore how easy it is for people leaving prison to know whether they are eligible to vote. He found that missing or hard-to-understand information can also be a barrier to voting. His report includes a profile of 4 states, with recommendations, and sample web pages with the types of information people need to understand their rights.
Why the Center for Civic Design
Elections are the centerpiece of democracy. Center for Civic Design works with voters, elections offices, and advocacy groups to make elections work better and invite participation for everyone.
We are focused on making it easier for everyone to vote. Our work helps voters who face historical barriers, speak other languages, have disabilities, or don’t read well, solving wicked problems to make it easier for voters to vote the way they intend.
We are nationally recognized. Our best practices for election design are used across the country. We research, design, and implement new approaches to the voter experience, from registering to vote to ‘curing’ a mistake on a mail-in ballot. We also create tools and templates for states and advocates so that those groups can build their civic design capacity.
You get to work with great people. We bring together many diverse backgrounds, design and research skills, and insights from many academic disciplines to work together to make a difference.