Dive Brief:
- JPMorgan Chase has announced the first winners of its AdvancingCities Challenge, an annual competition to source solutions to problems facing communities. The Challenge is part of a greater five-year, $500 million initiative to create greater economic opportunity and inclusive growth in cities worldwide.
- The winning cities will be awarded $3 million each over a period of three years, for a total of $15 million. The winners are as follows:
| City | Proposal |
|---|---|
| Chicago | West Side United: An effort to leverage hiring, procurement and investment power of health systems to improve local health and economic vitality. |
| Louisville, KY | Digital Inclusion and Economic Resilience program: An effort to use community outreach strategies in low-income neighborhoods to bridge employment gaps. |
| Miami | Resilient305: A comprehensive strategy to tackle resiliency challenges including urbanization, globalization and climate change. |
| San Diego | Advancing San Diego: A collaborative strategy to connect underrepresented residents to high-demand jobs. |
| Syracuse, NY | Syracuse Surge: A "blueprint" to develop long-term strategies to connect talent from vulnerable populations to jobs in high-tech industries. |
- The winners were selected based on how they showcased the strategic drivers of inclusive growth outlined in JPMorgan Chase's Model for Impact. Those drivers include jobs and skills, small business, neighborhood revitalization and financial health.
Dive Insight:
The challenge, unveiled in September, sets out to help underserved communities and break down barriers of economic mobility, which is not always typical of multi-million dollar smart city initiatives. JPMorgan Chase marketed the challenge to ensure communities from all regions were given an equal opportunity at participation. The firm released a memo outlining five key things cities should know when applying for the initiative to help cities develop competitive proposals. The initiative ended up attracting more than 250 proposals from 143 communities across 45 states.
In addition to the AdvancingCities Challenge, JPMorgan Chase is making large-scale investments in cities like Detroit, Chicago, Washington, DC and Paris where there are existing frameworks for inclusive economic success, yet financial support is needed. JPMorgan Chase plans to collect insights and best practices from its collaboration with these cities and eventually share with others to enable peer-learning opportunities.
“We know from experience that collaboration is the key to successfully driving inclusive growth and cities and we were impressed with the collaboration shown in these applications,” said Irene Baker, head of advancing cities at JPMorgan Chase. Collaboration, particularly on a regional basis, has been a growing trend in the smart city landscape, and was recently a focus of the Smart Cities Connect conference in Denver.
