As ioby grows larger — we’re up to 18 full-time employees now! — we are also growing more distributed.  We were founded in NYC, and  many of our  team still sits in our Brooklyn office. We also have offices and team members in Memphis, Cleveland, and Detroit, and will  soon bring on team members in Pittsburgh and Washington, DC.  We work with partners and resident leaders across the country, and our team spends a lot of time on videoconferences,  as well as doing  a good deal of travel to interface directly with partners and community leaders in cities from LA to Miami.

We’re actively working on being a better distributed team —  to make our work seamless, transparent,  and inclusive, so that there is very little difference in working from a home office in Cleveland as there is working alongside ten colleagues in our Brooklyn office.

[Another day, another videoconference at ioby]

At the end of the month, we’ll get another opportunity to test and improve on our goal of being a seamless distributed organization: our Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer  Brandon Whitney is moving  to San Francisco! After 10 years as a New Yorker, Brandon will be moving along with his partner  Matt, who will be pursuing a great professional opportunity in the Bay Area.

Other than having to get up painfully early west coast time for staff meetings,  we anticipate  Brandon’s  role at ioby, and his work life,  to remain exactly the same as it has been since he and Erin Barnes founded ioby several years ago.  He will still work closely with the teams he manages, our Leader Success, Product, and Operations teams  via videoconference, tools like Slack and Asana, and phone.  He will likely travel back to Brooklyn  frequently to be part of essential in-person meetings with the Board of Directors and  all-staff meetings.

[Did you ever know that you’re our hero?]

Brandon’s move  also provides some great opportunities for ioby.  The Bay Area is home to many partners, peers, funders, and leaders in the  civic tech  world, as well as countless  leading  community activist and grassroots groups.  We’re excited that Brandon’s move brings a chance to more closely align  with all the great Bay Area-based work being done in our various worlds.

Brandon, bon voyage and best of luck getting settled as a Californian! We’ll miss  your  head sticking up above your cubicle at your standing desk and your bike parked in our Brooklyn co-working space, but we’ll see you on a videoconference very soon!

In the United States, the formal health care system—insurance, doctors, hospitals, pharmaceuticals—tends to dominate the conversation about health. But research is making it increasingly clear that what’s going on in our neighborhoods has as much or more to do with our wellbeing as what insurance policy we can afford or which doctor we see.

In zip codes with  bountiful public transit, inexpensive exercise options, education about nutrition, and affordable fresh food, residents are likely to enjoy good health. In areas without these  essentials, people are much more prone to be dealing with chronic illnesses like diabetes and obesity.

What can we do about that? Well, we thought you might have some ideas.

This summer, ioby is excited to be partnering with the New York State Health Foundation to launch the Healthy Neighborhoods Challenge, which will support residents of nine neighborhoods and cities in New York as they take an active role in creating a culture of health where they live. If you live in Brownsville, Claremont, East Harlem, Hunts Point, the Lower East Side, Morrisania, Niagara Falls’ North Side, Plattsburgh, or the Near West Side of Syracuse and have an idea to make your community a healthier place to live, apply by August 1 to receive fundraising training and dollar-for-dollar matching funds to run an ioby campaign and bring your idea to life.

What kinds of projects will we be looking for?

Any resident-led, resident-engaging, neighborhood-scale initiative that will help create a culture of health in your area by making it greener or safer; improving local access to affordable healthy food; promoting walking, biking, or other exercise; educating your neighbors about healthy choices; etc. This campaign is limited to the nine geographic areas mentioned above, but the types of projects that will qualify are wide open: we’re imagining new community gardens, all-ages exercise groups, weekend yoga in the park, bike-to-work promotions, healthy parenting programs, food justice fanfares, creative nutrition classes, pedestrian parades—you name it! (Literally.)

“One of the reasons ioby is really excited about this match is that it cuts across so many fields and topics we’ve worked on with our leaders before,” says Ethany Uttech, ioby’s Leader Action Strategist & Partnership Manager. “It pulls together the impacts of park advocates, food justice warriors, bike education activists—just to name a few—and connects the dots between them. It brings everything together under the umbrella of holistic neighborhood health.”

ioby has been working with some of the NYS Health Foundation’s key partners, like Brownsville Partnership, Create a Healthier Niagara Falls Collaborative, and Bronx Lebanon Hospital to help spread the word and get ready to support our local leaders. Leaders will fundraise in August and September, and projects will ideally take place in late 2016 and early 2017.

This is a generously-funded program—we’re hoping to support 50 projects—so don’t miss out! Apply by August 1 and make your fundraising work go twice as far to help your neighborhood get up, get out, and get healthy.

For more information, visit ioby.org/healthy.

“What’s really exciting about this partnership is that it’s turning the traditional planning process on its head.”

– David Weinberger, ioby’s City Partnerships Director

The 2016 Livonia Avenue El-Space Challenge is a partnership between ioby and the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) that’s connecting community leaders in Brownsville, Brooklyn with funding and support to reimagine the spaces around the elevated train structure (“el-space”) along the neighborhood’s Livonia Avenue.

Too often, especially in neighborhoods of color that have experienced disinvestment, people often become aware of a big project happening in their backyard after all the decisions about it have been made. But this time, the City is coming to the community first thing, asking the people who inhabit the space every day what kinds of changes they want to see there. It makes the community’s input active, not passive.

Earlier this year, DOT and ioby reviewed a variety of proposals submitted by residents for creative, short-term placemaking projects, and selected four of them for inclusion in the challenge. You’ll be able to read more about the projects and their leaders on our blog later this week!

The partnership takes cues from last year’s Great Streets Challenge, a similar collaboration between ioby and the office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Both initiatives sprung from the conviction that everyday residents themselves are best equipped to identify their community’s assets, challenges, and opportunities.

Another thing that makes this challenge especially exciting is that none of the winning proposals came from people who have a background in design. Some of them have community development experience, but none of the leaders are experts in urban planning. They’re just people who live or work in the neighborhood and have a good idea to improve it.

The challenge is part of DOT’s citywide effort to reconnect communities by improving the spaces around elevated train lines, bridges, and highways. Temporary, innovative projects like these are meant to inform and inspire future urban design and neighborhood revitalization efforts. And: they’re super fun.

For every dollar you donate to one (or all!) of these awesome projects, DOT will give an additional three to make them happen. That’s a 3-to-1 match! The fundraising deadline is June 3, so don’t delay—give today!

Could your transit trip use a makeover?

Would you love to see an eye-catching mural where your bland bus shelter is now? Do you think a freshly-painted crosswalk could smooth your steps to work? Or would you just like to know when the next ride is set to arrive, thankyouverymuch?

In 2014, ioby partnered with TransitCenter to launch the first Trick Out My Trip—a campaign to equip citizens nationwide with the tools they need to make small but crucial changes to their local transit experience. From an enthusiastic lot of submissions, we chose ten awesome local leaders who share our belief that regular riders—people who take transit every day, know the routes, and how they fit within the system—have the ability to improve their transit experience quickly, cheaply, and outside the lengthy processes of capital planning and construction. Take a look at the fabulous ideas they initiated and the progress they’ve made in our first-year report.

Now, we’re positively thrilled to be rolling out our second annual Trick Out My Trip. With fresh funding from TransitCenter, we’re again taking proposals from neighborhood leaders with ideas for improving the mobility experience where they live. All selected participants will run their own crowd-resourcing campaign to fund their projects—but ioby will be there to help every step of the way.

Like the first time around, we’ll be keeping a keen eye out for projects that are poised to deliver not only a positive immediate outcome, but that will also help build long-term systemic change. As our project leaders learned the first time around, even small positive actions can help build relationships with transit agencies. Government-led improvements to transit are much needed, but they can be even better when they’re complemented, and informed, by the faster, “lighter” changes that only on-the-ground residents—who live their local scene every day—can initiate.

Take northwest Denver’s Great Paths, a project to identify top destinations in the neighborhood and promote the ped-friendly path that links them. Or Walk This Way, L.A., which is creating street signs that show the walking times between different destinations to change the perception that many places are too far to go by foot. We love placemaking projects, too—like Memphis’s Bus Stop Love, which asserts: “We cannot change the weather but we can improve the commute!” Bus Stop Love is building a beautiful bus shelter that will celebrate the artistic legacy of the city’s Soulsville neighborhood—and help make riders’ wait times feel shorter, even if they aren’t. Ditto for Lithonia Ride to the Future, for which residents of this Georgia town came together to improve a downtown bus stop—with a bench, bulletin board, and trash can—where before there was only a bus stop sign. Volunteers will also beautify the surrounding area and keep it clean. You can already feel the difference!

Need inspiration and tips to craft your own great submission? Check out our “5 Projects Any Community Can Do To Improve the Transit Experience” guide.

To be eligible to receive matching funds, you must fill out our quick-and-easy idea form by May 20, 2016, and to participate, you must agree to our terms. And be sure to read these additional details on how the match will work, deadlines to know, and other requirements for eligibility.

Want a bit more background info? Read about how ioby works. Or if it’s the personal touch you’re after, you can email David Weinberger, ioby’s City Partnerships Director, at david@ioby.org with any questions.

We can’t wait to hear you how you want to trick out your trip this year!

Come work with us!
ioby is hiring a Development Officer in our headquarters in Brooklyn, as well as five  brand-new  Action Strategist positions in Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC!

And stay tuned; in the coming weeks we’ll be adding even more positions.

[This could be your Executive Director.]

Do you or does someone you know want to join a growing team of passionate, smart, and fiercely fun people who are dedicated to growing a nationwide movement of neighbor-led change? We hope so!

Check out our open positions here.

Building on our existing relationship with our nation’s capital—that’s included some awesome projects and grassroots fundraising workshops with the city’s parks department—we’re super excited to be opening an office in Washington, DC early next year.

We’re especially happy about our growing   partnership with the District Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), an agency with a mission to improve the quality of life of DC’s residents by protecting and restoring the environment, conserving natural resources, mitigating pollution, and educating the public about ways to secure a sustainable future.

[DC’s Common Good City Farm has worked with ioby to raise funds for its youth internship program. Image courtesy Common Good.]

One of DOEE’s particular goals at this time is to support neighbor-led change in several DC districts that have historically been disenfranchised—specifically, wards 5, 7, and 8. The agency—and ioby—believe that residents of these neighborhoods can lead the charge to meet many of DC’s sustainability goals, and can benefit from more support and education about grassroots coalition-building, crowdfunding, and the many possible ways they can improve their communities. That’s where we come in.

DOEE and ioby hope to support citizen-led projects that align with the   Sustainable DC program, the city’s major planning effort to make it the most sustainable town in the nation. Sustainable DC was first initiated in 2011 and involved more than 700 resident volunteers in drafting a vision and developing recommendations for goals and actions around the built environment, climate, energy, food, nature, transportation, waste, water, and the green economy. We’re so glad to be lending our expertise to this community-led greening and urban development effort that’s already reporting considerable progress.

We’re throwing a little party in DC this Thursday, October 8 – that’s tomorrow! – to say a more formal hello and explain how we plan to begin working with our new DC constituents. Registration is still open!

We’re planning more exciting expansions for next year, too: ioby will be launching offices in Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland in early 2016 as well! If all goes according to plan, we’ll be onboarding all of our new staff in these different cities at the same time. Keep an eye on our website for job postings.

[For more on  our approach to getting to know new cities, read our post about Detroit.]

We’re really looking forward to putting down more roots in Washington, DC: a diverse city with a monumental history that remains a hub for new ideas and community-led action. Please spread the word to your DC friends and colleagues that ioby is coming to town! We’ll post news and updates as we get settled.

Last fall, ioby and TransitCenter announced  the Trick Out My Trip campaign. The idea was   to help mobilize citizen leaders    to make small but crucial changes to the transit rider’s experience — the little things that wouldn’t necessarily be covered in a transit agency’s capital budget but can make a huge positive impact on how we get around.

Now, we’re thrilled to announce that the results are in!

We think  that riders—who take transit every day, know the routes and how they fit within the system—can improve their ride quickly and cheaply, outside the lengthy processes of capital planning and construction.  The ten citizen leaders featured in the Trick Out My Trip report have implemented their transit projects across the country, and by working with their neighbors and their transit agencies, have laid an important groundwork for citizen-led transit improvements.