Become part of a cohort of 135 Fellows throughout California, Colorado, and Washington making an impact in local communities!
Need help with a sustainability or social impact project in your community? Apply to receive support from a Fellow!
CivicSpark helped introduce the trials and tribulations that local governments and other agencies face to address climate adaptation, housing insecurity, or access to transit. The journey brought me into the field of city planning and demonstrated the importance of learning how policy interacts with the built environment and has given me a more holistic understanding on how to be solutions-oriented in addressing these issues.
Emmanuel Lopez - Associate, ECONorthwest
CivicSpark 2016-17 Fellow
The projects [our fellow is working on] are important for the County’s success in designing and implementing climate action strategies. They are also significant components in broader thinking about long-term sustainability. Without our CivicSpark fellow, these significant pieces of work would be several years out for their completion.
Sally Seymour
Sustainable Napa County
We are not all ‘kids who just graduated from college’, we are young professionals looking to introduce our skills and talents to a field about which many of us are passionate. We are looking to get a strong foot in that door. The times when CivicSpark helped to foster those kinds of opportunities, such as being able to participate at the California Adaptation Forum or the SEEC Forum or even meeting in professional environments, are the times I appreciated most.
Arya Moalemi
2015-16 Fellow, Southern California Region
CivicSpark has been invaluable to the successful launch of our building energy transparency requirement…Collaboration of the CivicSpark Bay Area team has enriched our program through new perspectives and best practices from other cities. It has been a great experience for all involved.
Billi Romain, Sustainability Program Manager, City of Berkeley
CivicSpark Project Partner
It’s nice knowing that a running theme that binds us is AmeriCorps’ mission: Get things done. It certainly feels like that when we can congregate and reflect on the work we’re doing in our own region, and share that with other fellows.
Kriselda Bautista
2014-15 Fellow, Sierra Nevada Region
The CivicSpark fellowship opened the door for me to the worlds of environmental planning and water efficiency. I was able to combine those two worlds into my current position, water conservation planning. CivicSpark prepared me to successfully launch my career.
Hannah Braun - Water Resources Analyst, Maddaus Water Management
CivicSpark 2017-18 Fellow
CivicSpark has been excellent, because it pairs you with local leaders. It has been a huge professional development experience. It is the ultimate way to dive in head first without hitting your head on the bottom.
Trevor Wilson
2015-16 Fellow, Central Valley Region
Serving as a CivicSpark AmeriCorps fellow has shown me that we have the power to make an impact in the communities around us. Helping staff members of water agencies master leak detection in underground pipeline is just one project I’ve been involved in, and just one project will result in a very large amount of water and energy savings.
Alyssa Collins
2015-16 Fellow, Sierra Nevada Region
Our CivicSpark Fellows have brought a fresh perspective on how we engage the community in energy planning in the Sierra Nevada, and they are not short on ambition.
Nicholas Martin, Sierra Business Council
CivicSpark Project Partner
The projects our Fellow is working on are important for the County’s success in designing and implementing climate action strategies. They are also significant components in broader thinking about long-term sustainability. Without our CivicSpark fellow, these significant pieces of work would be several years out for their completion.
Sally Seymour, Sustainable Napa County
CivicSpark Project Partner
CivicSpark Fellows assist in many ways to build local government capacity to respond to pressing community resilience issues.
CivicSpark Fellows focus on a range of climate change, water, housing, and mobility projects. The video to the left shows an example of a project from the 2017-18 cohort year.
