We Are: Citizen Labs
Who We Are
We are citizens that engage with our government and in our communities as a positive force. We strive to reflect our community and provide opportunities for others to actively participate.
We bring curiosity, experience, skills, and interests together. We live and work in our community. The local insights we bring to problem solving is our strength.
What We Do
We ask questions. We experiment and sometimes fail, but understand that learning cannot happen without failure. We apply what we learn and work to always make improvements.
We come together in-person to share successes, seek support, and work on individual and group projects. When we are not together in-person, we work together online.
How We Do It
We use modern tools and practices to improve how decisions are made and services delivered. We use the following guidelines when working on projects:
- Design with users, not for them
- Invite participation and work in the open
- Use data to drive decisions
- Start small and continuously improve
More About Citizen Labs
Citizen Labs is a Grand Rapids, MI based organization that believes engaged citizens can improve their communities.
Recent Projects
- Open Budget: Grand Rapids: Launched on June 6, 2016, the Open Budget project promotes a deeper understanding of the city budget of Grand Rapids, so that citizens, officials, and other stakeholders can engage in more informed dialogue about how the City of Grand Rapids currently works and how it should in the future.
- Grand Rapids Parks & Recreation Investments: The GR Parks Project launched September 2016 and uses open source OpenStreetMap and data from the City of Grand Rapids to show the parks of the City of Grand Rapids, the tax dollars invested in each park thus far, and details of updates made.
Come To Our Meetings
Check out our Facebook page for the next location and time. We meet the first and third Tuesday of every month. Some meetings are focused on a specific project, at others we organize our efforts and brainstorm new projects. Meetings are casual and everyone is welcome to join.
Citizen Labs can be found on: Facebook | Github | Twitter | Medium
Mission: Citizen Labs works together with our entire community to promote transparency, better understand problems, and support informed decisions. We apply open data and open source technology, convene civic volunteers, and engage community leadership to create data-driven solutions.
