Bloomberg Philanthropies is holding the 2017 U.S. Mayor’s Challenge to award 5 U.S. cities with the most innovative ideas to combat their city’s most challenging issues. By promoting innovation in cities globally, Bloomberg hopes to create transferrable solutions to issues that affect cities worldwide.

Example Issues in USA: Public health, Education, Budget & Efficiency, Sustainability, Civic Engagement, Economy, and Customer Service.
Example Issues outside USA: Environment, Health & Well-being, Social Inclusion, Mobility, Corruption, Public Health


Submission Criteria:

Vision: A new, bold, and creative idea that will tackle the most pressing issues of City of Austin.
Impact: The plan has the potential to SIGNIFICANTLY improve citizens’ lives.
Implementation: The plan demonstrates that implementation is viable and has support from citizens and key stakeholders.
Transferability: The plan is beneficial to other cities. It has the potential to spread and succeed in other cities because it addresses a timely and relevant challenge.

Timeline: 

  • Sunday October 15: Deadline to submit application the at 11:59 p.m. Click here for application.
     
  • January 2018: 25 Champions will be awarded $100,000 to test and refine their idea.
  • March 2018: Opportunity to attend an in person workshop with innovation experts.
  • August 2018: Submit refined and detailed application.
  • October 2018: 1 grand prize winner is awarded $5 million

Four cities will be awarded $1 million.

Key Takeaways from Past Winners:

  1. Grand Prize winners’ ideas involve utilizing existing technology to solve an issue or to complement the idea that is solving the issue.
  2. Private public partnerships are common in winning ideas.
  3. It is okay to create an idea that furthers an existing initiative or plan of the city.
  4. Grand Prize winners’ ideas are all transferrable to cities around the world because they address issues that impact people everywhere.
  5. Winners’ ideas are transferrable to cities globally, but are most relevant to cities in their geographic region.

Additional notes:

  • Once applications have been submitted, Bloomberg MAY publicize contents of application.
  • Funds will be distributed over a 2-3 year period
  • The Mayor’s Challenge was last held in the USA in 2013.
  • Excess funds may be used to help build winning cities’ innovation capacity.
  • In a June 26 Fortune.com article, Lucinda Shen writes that the challenge is part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ American Cities Initiative which intends to address issues neglected by President Trump: Gun Control, Climate Change, Immigration, and Public Health.

Resources and more information:

Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor’s Challenge: http://mayorschallenge.bloomberg.org/bold-ideas/

Articles:
http://citiscope.org/story/2017/how-sao-paulo-tackling-poverty-and-urban-sprawl-bolstering-farming
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/city-of-sao-paulo-selected-as-the-2016-grand-prize-winner-in-bloomberg-philanthropies-latin-american-and-caribbean-mayors-challenge-2016-11-30-15203330
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/city-of-philadelphia-launches-fastfwd-challenges-entrepreneurs-to-address-public-safety-issues-229900381.html
http://citiscope.org/story/2014/how-barcelona-and-philadelphia-are-turning-procurement-upside-down
http://nerej.com/61473

Websites of finalist projects:
http://www.providencetalks.org/
http://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/chicago-mayors-challenge-367
https://wellbeing.smgov.net/
http://fast-fwd.org/

Mayor’s Challenge Past Winners

  • USA-Providence, Philadelphia, Houston, Santa Monica, Chicago
  • Europe: Barcelona, Kirklees, Stockholm, Warsaw, Athens
  • Latin America: Sao Paulo, Santiago, Medellin, Guadalajara, Bogota

Grand Prize Winners:

Providence Talks: Preparing Every Child for Success in School
Problem: The “word gap” (children from low income households hear fewer words) undermines school readiness and performance.
Innovation: Providence Talks is a program that uses tech to count the number of words children are hearing and the amount of parent-child conversational turns. Coaches visit these homes monthly to talk about progress and offer tips.
Status Update: 60% of children who graduate from the program hear more words. 52% word increase. 9,50014,400 (15,000 for healthy brain development)
Notes: 1900 children served /177,994 population
    Definitely transferable

Barcelona
Vincles BCN: Collaborative Care Networks for Better Aging
Problem: Increasingly aging population=impending future crisis. Elderly go without care they need, and this will only worsen.
Innovation: Vincles App allows friends, family, neighbors, and professional caregivers to coordinate on care-taking tasks. The app intends to cover all the bases such as groceries, who is visiting and when, who has called to check in on them? Who is free to do X household task? All this will reduce isolation and health-risks.
Status update: launched and active in 5 neighborhoods.
Notes: huge issue in Spain because they have a large portion of the total aging global population
    Also transferrable because globally aging population is an issue.

Sao Paulo
Growing Farmers’ Income, Shrinking Urban Sprawl
Problem: 70% of produce in Brazil comes from family farms. Urban Sprawl in Sao Paulo makes it difficult for famers (who live on the outskirts) to sell their produce. Consequently, farmers are leaving Sao Paulo and selling their land which compounds the problem for other farmers. This issue is also affecting urban environmental issues and water supply.
Innovation: Sao Paulo will train farmers to improve production processes, making them more efficient, to raise their income. They will create a digital application that supports local cooperatives and connects supply and demand in the agricultural market.
Status Update: This was part of the city’s 2014 Master Plan that changed 25% of urban land to rural land use.
United States Runners Up:

Philadelphia
FastFWD: Bringing Innovation to Procurement
Problem: A limiting procurement process prevents citizens from submitting proposals to solve problems and prevents innovation in government solutions.
Innovation: The program facilitated a way for entrepreneurs to partner with the city government to tackle tough problems. The city government created a social impact accelerator for the best ideas to be piloted.
Status Update: FastFWD conducted two rounds of the accelerator and engaged 18 entrepreneurs on the challenge of public safety.
As a result of the first accelerator, two companies received contracts with the city to pilot their ideas and have shown positive outcomes. One company improved educational opportunities for inmates and another company improved parolee meeting attendance by 40%. These companies are both expanding their projects throughout the city.
The website for Fast FDW indicates that there have been 9 funded solutions as a result of the accelerators.
Notes: Transferrable. Has the potential to address infinite city issues.

Houston
One Bin for All: A Leapfrog Approach to Increase Universal Recycling Levels
Problem: Inefficient recycling creates adverse environmental effects. Houston sends 80% of its waste to landfills.
Innovation: A state of the art sorting facility that allows all trash, including recyclables and compostables in one bin, dramatically increasing recycling rates.
Status Update: City of Houston selected a vendor to build and operate the One Bin for All facility. The technology exists but the contract negotiations are still in progress and thus the facility has not yet been built.

Santa Monica  
The Wellbeing Project: Measuring and Managing What Really Matters
Problem: Economic growth is not enough to ensure a community’s success. A measurement of wellbeing would be much more accurate.
Innovation: A resident survey that measures personal outlook, environment, health, economic opportunity, and learning and community connectedness. The city is aligning resources, programs, and policies to improve these measures.
Status Update: In April of 2015, Santa Monica released its initial Wellbeing Index findings which was able to shape the goals for the biennial city budge. The city is currently developing a more extensive survey.

Chicago
SmartData Platform: Solving Problems Before They Start
Problem: Chicago receives way more administrative data than it can read and use in a productive way.
Innovation: SmartData Platform is a tool used to analyze data which will lead to smarter decisions about urban challenges sooner.
Status Update: SmartData has helped Chicago increase inspection efficacy, lead-paint detection, rodent control, and West Nile virus protection. The platform is open-source and available to cities around the world.

International Runners Up

  • Stockholm engaged citizens in the fight against climate change by collecting plant waste from citizens. The plant waste produced biochar which can sequester carbon in soil for thousands of years, improves plant growth, and helps purify storm water run-off.
  • Athens created an online platform that allows citizens to engage in problem solving and reform. Citizens and groups can submit volunteer activities and ideas on how to improve their city. The website connects the citizens with the relevant government representatives, NGOs, or corporations that can support their efforts.
  • Santiago implemented a program of healthy competition between schools to promote exercise, eating well, and disease prevention.
  • Medellin created a network of neighbors who pool their financial resources in order to provide access to credit, loans for work materials, and a jobs bank. This “bank” operates digitally and at locations in neighborhoods. This reduces violence that results from citizens taking out illegal loans from drug organizations and gives citizens access to safe capital that they didn’t have before. Community trust allows financial access to be provided at more affordable rates.
  • Guadalajara developed an online platform for construction project permits that publicly displays business names and other details in order to eliminate corruption in construction and speed up development plans.
  • Bogota implemented transportation systems that increase safety for children’s school commutes and increased educational learning time. They created school-bus only lanes during certain times and worked to organize walking and biking paths.