Voting to Give
Amid news surrounding Indiana’s Primary Election Day, Legacy Foundation hosted its own voting event. At the second annual Civic Innovators Convening attendees voted to give their favorite projects grant funding to take it from idea to reality.
Legacy created the Civic Innovators Convening event to harness the positive energy and ideas produced during the Knight Cities Challenge. The Knight Cities Challenge asks the question: What’s your best idea to make one of the 26 Knight cities more vibrant places to live and work?
Knight Foundation received 135 ideas for the City of Gary by individuals, nonprofit organizations, governmental departments, universities and more. All applicants were invited to the Civic Innovators Convening to continue the discussion around ideas for making Gary more successful.
Six candidates from the pool of Knight Cities Challenge applicants were nominated to pitch their ideas at the Civic Innovators Convening. Each candidate was given four minutes to present to the audience and an additional six minutes for the audience to ask questions.
After each candidate pitched their project they were all able to network with attendees during the open voting period. Each attendee received a vote worth $1,000 to put behind the project of their choosing. After the votes were counted, two organizations received $25,000 each.
Emile Cambry, founder and CEO of Blue 1647, and Melvin Thompson of Enthuse Group received $25,000 for their project SoFA (South of Fourth Avenue) Gary. The collaborative pitched a co-working and innovation space in Gary where youth and adults can develop technology skills through classes, workshops and events.
The other winning idea came from the Center for Urban and Regional Excellence at Indiana University Northwest. Assistant Director Caroline Schrenker proposed an interactive space at the Anderson Library that will build on the strong interest of the community in using the university to create conversations, enhance engagement, and generate innovative solutions to community challenges.
We hope that all of the applicants will continue to push for positive transformation in Gary!
