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
04/05/2019
Q&A with Nicole Isaac
Nicole Isaac is Senior Director of North America Policy at LinkedIn and a member of the Engaged Cities Award review committee. As part of an ongoing series, we asked her a few questions about her work.
Read more05/06/2019
Q&A with Beth Noveck
Beth Noveck is Director of the Governance Lab and a member of the Engaged Cities Award review committee. As part of an ongoing series, we asked her a few questions about the award and her own work.
Read more05/01/2019
Tranforming an Abandoned Mine into a Community Park
When Hamm's last mine closed in 2010, the mayor pushed for the abandoned industrial site to become an asset for the town in the form of a park. He created a citizens advisory committee drawn from a diverse population to shape Lippepark, which has become a centerpiece of Hamm’s postindustrial civic identity.
Read more04/12/2019
Q&A with Sara Mogulescu
Sara Mogulescu is Executive Vice President of The Volcker Alliance and a member of the Engaged Cities Award review committee.
Read more