Are you ready to solve problems in Philadelphia? We are.
That’s why we’re bringing urban thinkers from around the country to Philadelphia for our inaugural Ideas We Should Festival on November 30th—get your tickets here. And that’s why we’re thrilled to announce the Jeremy Nowak Urban Innovation Award, a $50,000 prize to launch one of those ideas in Philly.
Here’s how it will work: On the 30th, our full lineup of speakers—including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; bestselling authors Anand Giridharadas, Chris Hughes and Michael Eric Dyson; anti-gentrification consultant Cat Goughnour; urban technologist Afua Bruce; and Integrity Idol’s Cheri-Leigh Erasmus—will present solutions to urban problems that have worked elsewhere. Those solutions will include high-speed rail, universal basic income, community-centered development, celebrating good civil servants, making school fun for inner city kids—and many more.
We’ll ask Festival attendees to rate the ideas on the 30th. After, we’ll invite all Philadelphians to view videos of the talks, or read blurbs about the ideas, and cast a vote online. A few weeks later, we’ll announce the top three vote-getters, and put out a Request For Proposal open to anyone in Philadelphia who has a vision for bringing one of those ideas to fruition.
Sometime early next year we’ll announce the first winner of the Jeremy Nowak Urban Innovation Award, named for our late chairman—one of Philly’s best urban innovators—and funded by Spring Point Partners. The winner will receive $50,000 to launch their solution here. And The Citizen will chronicle the efforts, and report back on how it worked.
Despite everything we know about Philly—the highest poverty rate, increasing food insecurity, a political system that favors some over others, racial divisions that affect everything from changing neighborhoods to schools to how we work—we know that together, we can fix what’s broken.
Won’t you join us to make that change?