A giant map charts the twenty winning ideas for the Causeway Challenge, which enabled individuals to utilize creative, innovative ways to connect the city at Causeway headquarters on Patten Parkway in Chattanooga on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014.CAUSEWAY AWARDSThe Causeway Challenge awarded 20 local projects that "create a more connected Chattanooga" $2,500 each. On Tuesday night the founders were available to talk about their projects as part of Startup Week Chattanooga.• Block Leaders Connect by Dr. Everlena M. Holmes: connects neighborhoods to Chattanooga by building membership and new leadership in Avondale and Eastdale through the creation of neighborhood directories and recruitment of block leaders.• CARTAgraphy by Alfonso Gómez-Arzola and Arne Heggestad: connects bus riders to Chattanooga through a web-based application or a smartphone app that allow users to find out when a bus will arrive at a specific stop.• Chattanooga Cultural Connection by Laurie Stevens: connects children to language through foreign-language learning and cultural awareness, with the goal of building a community of globally-minded, locally-focused leaders for the future.• Coffee Cruisers: connects UTC students to the city by giving bicycle tours of Chattanooga's local coffee shops to new students, with the goals of showing them how accessible the city is and promoting local businesses.• Community Cafe by Ella Sanders, Elizabeth Ayers and Shelby Denton: connects Chattanoogans to nutritious and affordable food, job skills and to each other through a pay-what-you-can cafe.• Community Match by Robin Howe: connects teenagers to community service projects through a website, with the goal of fostering teens' commitments to Chattanooga.• Ferger Place Park by Tron Wilder, Eddie Piper and members of the Historical Organization of Ferger Place: connects today's people to a historic park, by transforming it into a place of community through installation of interactive elements and organization of neighborhood work dates and gatherings.• Gig Bridge by Anjali Chandra: connects the Hispanic community with access to health education.• Help 2 Work by Robert Lawrence, Chattanooga Community Kitchen Staff and Volunteers Chattanooga Homeless Coalition: connects homeless Chattanoogans to job opportunities by providing a means of transportation for their first month of work.• Here to There by Katie Smith and Cat Collier Martinez: connects Jefferson Heights residents to zoned public schools, increases community-wide school pride and makes pathways safer for pedestrians by painting crosswalks with custom designs.• Highland Park Commons Market by Khristy Wilkinson and Alice O'Dea: connects people with the local food ecosystem through community events that promote sustainable living, the development of a community garden and creating affordable access to local produce.• Micro Grants Chattanooga by Tara Poole: connects individuals to resources by giving small grants of up to $1,000 to help low-income individuals on the brink of economic self-sufficiency.• Nooga Made by Richie Johnson: connects Chattanoogans to locally made products by identifying those made in Chattanooga, with the goal of promoting local inventiveness and commerce.• Open Streets Chattanooga by Christy Smith: connects residents to Chattanooga through a public event that allows them to experience the city's neighborhoods, public spaces and business corridors without being in a car.• Passport to Latino-American Challenge by Gladys Pineda-Loher: connects local immigrants to community through creating a rich cultural symbol to be used in the Latino Festival 2015 in Highland Park.• Power Lunch by Emma Williams: connects middle school girls in Title-1 schools to successful professional women in their own community, with the goal of empowering girls to explore a diverse array of career choices.• Rails to Trails by Jim Johnson: connects Chattanooga's neighborhoods to each other and to the city's expanding parks and greenways by identifying high-potential rail corridors that could be converted to rail-trails or rails-with-trails.• Sunday Showcase by Linda C. Thompson and Barbie Standefer: connects Chattanooga's young performing artists to support through a collaborative performance showcase.• Tech Rebirth Chattanooga PC Literacy Initiative by Scott Harrison: connects low income students with no access to technology to lexia literacy training and global internet resources.• Transit to Transit by Gabrielle Blades: connects people to places through the use of technology, by creating access to an online multi-modal transit app that let's them customize their trips.Source: Causeway
Richie Johnson is working through what exactly will qualify a product from Chattanooga for a "Nooga Made" stamp of approval. But that's to be expected.
Johnson was one of 20 inventive local minds to be awarded $2,500 in the Causeway Challenge, a competition meant to foster ideas that translate into projects or companies that create connections in and to Chattanooga.
The winners were on hand Tuesday night at Causeway's offices downtown to discuss their ideas as part of Startup Week Chattanooga.
Johnson, 33, began playing with the idea of certifying the city's growing number of locally made products a few months ago.
"It's a little something extra," said the Chattanooga resident, who spends his days working as a regional planner.
He used the Chatype typeface to write up "Nooga Made" in a double circle. Johnson plans to use the prize money to build a website and purchase materials such as stamps with the words of pride.
Emma Williams' idea is well into the project phase. She is in the third academic year of running Power Lunch, a program that connects eighth-grade girls to career women over lunches at school once a month.
Time and again, kids will say they want to be a lawyer, a pediatrician, a sportscaster - you name it. But most don't really know what a job entails or how to go about pursuing those vocations, Williams said.
Pulling together a small group of students to ask questions of a professional in an intimate atmosphere helps, the Chattanooga resident said. Williams strives for diversity in her women: from age to ethnic background to vocation, so that conversations are varied, engaging and can inspire.
What the professionals offer is "as much about their lives day-to-day as it is about their jobs," said Williams, owner of Full Circle Communications in Chattanooga.
Williams works with Orchard Knob Middle School and hopes to expand to another school within a year. Her Causeway grant will help pay for a website, among other things.
Contact staff writer Mitra Malek at mmalek@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6406.