Home - CivicSpark

Serving local governments to address community resilience needs in

Climate Adaptation

Become part of a cohort of 135 Fellows throughout California, Colorado, and Washington making an impact in local communities!

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Need help with a sustainability or social impact project in your community? Apply to receive support from a Fellow!

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What is CivicSpark?

CivicSpark is an AmeriCorps program dedicated to building capacity for local governments in California, Washington, and Colorado to address emerging environmental and social equity resilience challenges such as climate change, water resource management, affordable housing, and mobility. The CivicSpark program is administered by CivicWell (formerly the Local Government Commission).

What is a CivicSpark Fellow?

Each year, CivicSpark recruits 100+ emerging leaders who are interested in gaining professional experience in the community resilience field and developing technical skills, all while creating a meaningful and lasting impact in their service community. During the 11-month service year, CivicSpark Fellows will complete research, planning, or implementation projects that provide the support public agencies need to advance their resilience initiatives. Interested in learning more about becoming a CivicSpark Fellow? Visit our FAQ page or, attend one of our upcoming informational webinars.

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

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

I personally feel that CivicSpark has opened an endless collection of doors into many different sectors of society–certainly within the climate change, environmental and sustainability industries, but also with a variety of social justice movements that are connected in so many ways to the work that we are doing. I truly feel like we are strengthening communities–not singlehandedly, but as a collective group of passionate people working to get things done.

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

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 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

I would consider CivicSpark just the program I needed to jumpstart my career and provide me with more possibilities for my future. Additionally, I feel so grateful to have been part of the CivicSpark fellowship program. Beyond the professional development, I have also gained friendships, knowledge and expertise as well as a great community with the Sonoma County Energy and Sustainability Division.

Lauren Lum

2015-16 Fellow, Bay Area Region

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

Our CivicSpark Fellows have been very active, enthusiastic, and engaged with our staff and have been a pleasure to work with. Their outreach work and communication has been wonderful.

Stephan Schmidt, County of San Luis Obispo

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

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100+ CivicSpark Fellows

Each year, CivicSpark hires 100+ Fellows to implement targeted projects to support local governments.

100+ Initiatives

Each year, Fellows work on over 100 capacity building initiatives to help public agencies better respond to climate, water, housing, and mobility needs.

3 Western States

CivicSpark offers opportunities in California, Colorado, and Washington starting 2022.

Our Impact

CivicSpark Fellows assist in many ways to build local government capacity to respond to pressing community resilience issues.

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Our Projects

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.

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