About the 2018 Award
Cities of Service held the inaugural Engaged Cities Award in 2018 to elevate the diverse and creative ways that mayors and city leaders are engaging citizens to solve critical public problems. Cities from across the Americas and Europe submitted more than 100 applications highlighting their efforts to meet today’s challenges together with residents.
With help from a committee of leading experts and practitioners, Cities of Service selected 10 finalists based on key criteria, including clear evidence of impact, and potential to apply the solution in other cities.
At a dinner hosted by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on May 16, 2018, we announced the three winners: Bologna, Italy; Santiago de Cali, Colombia; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The next day, we celebrated the diverse and creative strategies of all 10 finalists with city leaders from around the world at our 2018 Engaged Cities Award Summit.
In the following months, Cities of Service created resources, including blueprints and case studies, to share the insights from the finalists with our coalition of cities so they can implement similar initiatives in their own communities.