NEW: Providence lands $5M prize for Early Education Initiative
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Mayor Angel Taveras' "Providence Talks" program beat out over 300 other applicants for coveted Mayors' Challenge prize.
A competition to “inspire American cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life,” the Mayors Challenge contest selected a total of five victors, each taking home over $1 million dollars to support implementation of the ideas pitched.
Providence captured first-place for its “Providence Talks” campaign which, according to Bloomberg “combines a revolutionary approach with proven technology to measure vocabulary exposure for children in low-income households and help parents close the word gap.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe pitch by Mayor Angel Taveras was selected for its “direct, simple, and revolutionary approach to early childhood education,” and the foundation hopes that it will ultimately be shared with other cities to “improve the well-being of the nation.”
“The Mayors Challenge is dedicated to the idea that cities are the new laboratories of democracy,” New York Mayor Michael Boomberg said. “If an innovative program or policy can work in one city, it can spread across the country and even across the globe. Too often, great ideas don’t get the support—or the funding—they need. The Mayors Challenge helps eliminate those obstacles by elevating and funding the most promising and innovative ideas.
The winning cities—which included Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Santa Monica, Ca.—were selected based on “vision, ability to implement, potential for impact, and potential for replicability.”
“In the months ahead, we look forward to seeing these ideas implemented, take root locally, and then hopefully spread across the nation to improve the lives of all Americans,” Bloomberg said.
