Recommended reading and context on Priority Action Areas: Reflecting on 2020 Priority Action Areas
What are Priority Action Areas?
Priority Action Areas are places where the Code for America Network can have an outsized impact if we focus our collective power and energy on a specific project, resource, or topic area.
2021 Priority Action Area Selection Process
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Complete: Phase 1: Sparking Ideas & Interest: December - January: Submit ideas for 2021 Priority Action Areas & vote on your favorites
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In progress: Phase 2: Narrow the Selections: End of January: Refine the submissions & vote among top ideas
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Starting soon: Phase 3: Make a Selection: Early February: The National Advisory Council officially selects the 2021 Priority Action Areas, using each prior round of voting to guide the decision.
In addition to the selection process of new Priority Action Area(s) to focus on in 2021, NAC will be choosing 1-2 Priority Action Areas from 2020 to de-prioritize to mitigate capacity. Read more about capacity for Priority Action Area focus here.
Phase 2: Vote Now
Using the results from our Pol.is discussion on 2021 Priority Action Areas, the Network Team has refined the most popular ideas to a list of five potential Priority Action Areas. The ideas that were excluded from this voting were either too broad to qualify as a Priority Action Area, or were not in the realm of being a project or resource that Brigades could replicate. We have reworded and combined some of these submissions for clarity’s sake, too.
Here are the top items. Please vote for your top choice for a 2021 Priority Action Area:
- Housing: Make tenants rights information more accessible. So many states have laws and rights that very few people understand or are aware of.
- Safety Net: Find ways to improve safety net services like LIHEAP, WIC, SNAP and TANF in each state.
- Web accessibility: Let’s create a curriculum and guide for Brigade members and leaders to both use on our own projects and to teach others.
- Safety net: Tools for the most marginalized to get and keep valid identification (supports access to benefits and voting rights).
- Policing: Auditing police budgets and union contracts, or other policing projects in partnership with communities of color, policy experts, and municipalities.
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