The Smart Chicago mission is to improve lives in Chicago through technology. Our three areas of focus are access, skills, and data. We’ve naturally formed work around health, education, justice, support of an overall ecosystem for civic innovation.
Health
Smart Chicago’s multiple health initiatives provide equipment, training, and information that allow residents to take action to improve their own health. We are strong advocates for promoting open data practices in the healthcare field.
Education
We are part of multiple projects where we serve as educators for youth to learn about technology and open data. We also act as a liaison to provide resources to tech providers for technology education and skill-building.
Justice
Smart Chicago’s work around justice covers access to data, youth-led tech, and websites that delve into published and unpublished datasets about incarceration.
Ecosystem
Smart Chicago provides programs and convenings on supporting the development of the civic innovation sector of the technology industry. We also create our own applications that make lives better in Chicago through technology. Here’s a chapter of the Code for America book, “Beyond Transparency” that lays out the Chicago civic innovation ecosystem in some detail.
Special Initiatives
This area covers a wide range of programs & collaborations that span a wide range of our work.