Last month, the University of Washington hosted a "Resilience Hackathon" with support from the National Science Foundation LEAP-HI project. Chuck Wolfe, one of the Hackathon participants, wrote an article for GeekWire detailing how this unique policy hackathon brought together state and local government organizations, students and researchers to co-develop testable "resilience pilot projects" that could help Seattle be better prepared for future disruptions. The project pitches addressed different aspects of urban resilience to be tested against a future earthquake, pandemic, excessive heat event, or massive airline flight grounding.
“Crises don’t allow time to invent responses from scratch. Cities need to be adaptable, and the most adaptable cities are those that have a deep reserve of policies and programs they can draw on to keep themselves vital when normal activities are disrupted.” - Dr. Dan Abramson, Associate Professor at University of Washington Urban Design & Planning.
DemocracyLab played a crucial role in facilitating the event, in collaboration with University of Washington's Department of Urban Design and Planning. The platform hosted project pitches and relevant resources, and served as one of the recruitment channels for participants. Mark Frischmuth, DemocracyLab’s Executive Director and Founder, expressed his excitement about the event's potential, "This is in many ways the most exciting hackathon we’ve done, given the diversity of participating stakeholders who can make change. We think there's a lot of potential for collaboration between government officials, academic institutions, and community groups to produce innovative solutions to vexing public policy challenges."
If you're interested in exploring how your community can creatively engage stakeholders to catalyze change, please reach out to DemocracyLab for more information.
You can read the full article in GeekWire here.
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