Engaged Cities Award
We know that cities around the world are collaborating with their citizens to meet a wide array of challenges. Together, city leaders and residents are reducing community violence, building better budgets, creating safer streets, and much more.
That’s why Cities of Service created the Engaged Cities Award. We aim to find and elevate the diverse ways that city leaders are actively engaging their citizens to solve critical public problems.
Is your city engaged in this kind of problem-solving, world-changing work with citizens? Perhaps you are tapping into the power of citizen science initiatives to collect and analyze data. Or using community expertise to design better public services. Or crowdsourcing resident ideas to find new fixes for old problems.
The Engaged Cities Award celebrates the most effective solutions – ultimately enabling peer cities around the world to learn from, adopt, and improve upon them.
Our Philosophy
Citizen collaboration is a force for good
Local government works better when it is open to the ideas and talents of citizens and starts with an assumption that citizen collaboration is a force for good.
Citizen contributions can take many forms
Citizen contributions can take many forms, from defining and prioritizing problems to generating ideas and volunteering their time, creativity, and expertise.
Citizen expertise can help solve public problems
Citizens have deep expertise in their own lives and in what’s best for their families and communities – and this expertise can be leveraged to deliver better services and solve public problems.
What does "citizen" mean to us?
Citizens are residents who actively participate in their community and who see themselves as an integral part of their city. As citizens, we can all take part in creating better places to live, work, and play.
Learn moreThe Latest
12/21/2018
Mesas de Cultura Ciudadana Case Study
Read our case study to learn how Santiago de Cali, Colombia helped the city’s most socioeconomically challenged neighborhoods develop mesas de cultura ciudadana (civic culture councils) in order to build trust between neighbors, inspire confidence in civic institutions, and reduce violence.
Read more11/13/2018
Cities of Service Launches Second Annual Engaged Cities Award
Today, Cities of Service announced that it is accepting applications for its second annual Engaged Cities Award. The international award program recognizes cities that have actively engaged their citizens to solve a critical public problem.
Read more10/10/2018
Healthy Huntington
Our new case study examines how the Mayor of Huntington, West Virginia, a finalist for the Engaged Cities Award, collaborated with city staff and residents to create "Healthy Huntington," a program that helped dramatically drop the city's obesity rate.
Read more09/14/2018
Urban Data Pioneers Blueprint
Learn how Urban Data Pioneers can be used in your city in our blueprint.
Read more