Bloomberg Philanthropies Funded Cities of Service Announces Engaged Cities Award
On a sunny Sunday in February, dozens of citizens in the greater Phoenix area descend on Hu-O-Te Park, a shabby community space in downtown that has seen years of neglect. A cinderblock wall behind the playground is partially covered with graffiti. Dead and dying plants stand in a dirt patch, and litter riddles the site.
Then the volunteers—many of them children—get to work.
They hoe out the brown patches and plant drought-tolerant lantana. They pick up garbage from a nearby alley. Local Muralist Andy Brown leads a group of kids as they paint a colorful, Southwestern-inspired mural on the wall.
By the end of the day, the park is transformed. But this was anything but a well-meaning, one-day volunteer effort. Working with Phoenix’s mayor, Greg Stanton, and armed with a $1,000 grant, the volunteers were following a carefully orchestrated blueprint, which depended on their input. The program, called Love Your Block, was developed by Cities of Service—an independent nonprofit that supports mayors and chief executives in their efforts to engage citizens to help solve problems in their own communities. Founded in 2009 by then-New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and 16 other mayors, Cities of Service has been so successful that 235 cities in the United States and United Kingdom, Phoenix included, now participate in the coalition...