Connecticut will join Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Working Cities Challenge competition aimed at sparking cross-sector collaboration and leadership to solve challenges affecting urban communities.
The program gives Connecticut the ability to apply for competitive funding to be used toward addressing local issues in a sector of their choosing, such as education, workforce development, small business development, or other areas that can improve economic outcomes for residents.
The Boston Fed doesn’t fund the competition.
Instead, funding for prize awards will be come from the state, which has committed $1 million for the program. Those funds have been leveraged by an additional $2 million commitment from private partners. The Boston Fed launched the program in Massachusetts in 2013, building on research that identified cross-sector collaboration and leadership as the key ingredients in resurgent smaller cities across the county. Rhode Island recently joined Massachusetts as a participating site of the Working Cities Challenge.
Among the Connecticut nonprofits and companies supporting the effort are: United Illuminating; Stanley Black & Decker; Boehringer Ingelheim; Travelers The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; Webster Bank; Eversource Energy; Liberty Bank Foundation; Hartford HealthCare; Barnes Group; Hoffman BMW of Watertown/Hoffman Auto Group; United Technologies Corp.; Charter Communications; and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation.
