Providence Named as Grand Prize Winner in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge

Mayor Angel Taveras joined today with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to announce that the City of Providence is the grand prize winner in the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge, a competition to inspire American cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life – and that ultimately can be shared with other cities to improve the well-being of the nation. Providence was selected as a Mayors Challenge winner out of a pool of over 300 applicant cities, based on four criteria: vision, ability to implement, potential for impact, and potential for replication.

Providence will be awarded a $5 million innovation prize to implement its idea to improve the vocabularies of preschool-age children throughout the City by measuring and rapidly increasing the number of words spoken in their households. Providence will also receive a sculpture created by world-renowned designer Olafur Eliasson to commemorate each of the Mayors Challenge winners.

• The New York Times: Providence Is Top City in Contest of Ideas
• The Washington Post: Providence, RI, wins $5M Bloomberg contest with plan to boost poor children’s language skills
• Bloomberg Philanthropies: Bloomberg Philanthropies Announces Mayors Challenge Winners