Call for applications from cities across Americas and Europe for 2019 award

NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2018 — Today, Cities of Service announced that it is accepting applications for its second annual Engaged Cities Award. The international award program recognizes cities that have actively engaged their citizens to solve a critical public problem. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the award elevates the diverse ways that city leaders are harnessing the power of people to solve problems and enables cities around the world to replicate successful projects.

“The Engaged Cities Award highlights cities who have successfully engaged their citizens to share their expertise, experience, time, and ideas in meaningful ways,” said Myung J. Lee, Cities of Service Executive Director. “Together, they are addressing serious challenges, creating more effective systems, and building stronger communities.”

To be eligible for the award, the specific problem that a city addressed must directly affect the daily lives of citizens, such as homelessness, neighborhood safety, extreme weather, literacy, or food insecurity, or impact the city’s ability to deliver services, such as ineffective deployment of resources, underutilized programs, or perpetuation of silos or bureaucracy. All applications must show how they addressed the problem with meaningful citizen involvement and delivered measurable results.

Engaged Cities Award applications should fit one of the following five categories:

• Impact Volunteering: Engage citizens in direct service as volunteers to help solve a tangible problem affecting the lives of residents.
• Crowdsourcing: Leverage citizen expertise, experience, and ideas to create or enhance services, resources, or policies.
• Participatory Design: Involve citizens as part of the design process to create or improve services, resources, or policies.
• Citizen-Sourced Data: Engage citizens in data collection and/or analysis to create or enhance services, resources, or policies.
• Other: If a project does not fit into one of the four categories above, applicants must define a category and provide a brief explanation.

Applications will be rated on three core criteria. Successful solutions will:

• Engage citizens as problem solvers
• Show evidence of impact
• Be transferable to other cities

The Engaged Cities Award is open to cities with populations of 30,000+ in the Americas and Europe. Cities of Service, along with an esteemed group of experts, will choose three winning cities. Each winner will receive a minimum of $50,000 and be announced as part of the Engaged Cities Award Summit in fall 2019.

For more information about the Cities of Service Engaged Cities Award, including guiding philosophy, criteria, eligibility, timeline, and the Engaged Cities Award Summit, please visit: engagedcitiesaward.org.

About Cities of Service
Cities of Service is a nonprofit organization that helps mayors build stronger cities by changing the way local government and citizens work together. We help our coalition cities tap into citizen insights, skills, and service to identify and solve critical public problems. Founded in 2009 by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Cities of Service supports a coalition of more than 250 cities, representing more than 73 million people across the Americas and Europe. Visit us at citiesofservice.jhu.edu or follow us on Twitter @citiesofservice.

Contact:
Karen Dahl, Director of Communications
karen@citiesofservice.jhu.edu
(646) 324-8390