Seven Cities Join Bloomberg Philanthropies' Innovation Teams Program
Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced grants to seven cities to help them boost their capacity to tackle major challenges through innovation and improve quality of life for their residents.
The third cohort of cities in the foundation's Innovation Teams program — Anchorage, Alaska; Austin, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Detroit, Michigan; Durham, North Carolina; Be'er Sheva, Israel; and Toronto, Canada — will receive grants of up to $500,000 a year for up to three years in support of a range of efforts, from tackling entrenched poverty to recruiting and retaining public employees. The program is designed to make it easier for mayors to fund in-house innovation teams ("i-teams") and task them with investigating local challenges, design solutions with clear goals, and rigorously measure progress on those goals. Officials from participating cities also receive implementation support and opportunities to share lessons learned and best practices with their peers in other cities...