Five new community ventures will get $10,000 each and the help of a paid consultant this summer to help implement their plans to bring Chattanoogans together “to live work, play and learn.”
Causeway Challenge, a social innovation incubator that seeks bold solutions to community problems, announced the winners today from among nearly 90 applicants submitted project ideas that answered the question: “How can we make Chattanooga a city where people from all backgrounds live, work, play and learn together?”
“The Challenge has introduced us to an entire network of new ideas and passionate people who want to create positive change in Chattanooga,” said Abby Garrison, Causeway’s executive director. “We were really impressed by the quality of the applications, and we are excited about the potential of not only the five winning projects, but of the entire pool of applicants that we hope to engage in other ways.”
Each winning team will receive $10,000 as seed funding to support themselves and their project, as well as a 4-month experience in Causeway’s incubation program. Incubation services include a paid one-on-one consultant, specialized workshops, 24/7 access to Causeway’s workspace as well as a temporary membership to Society of Work, access to Causeway’s network of pro-bono advisors, a $100 gift card to The Camp House to host meetings, and increased connections to Causeway’s network of investors, supporters and advisors.
The winners of the second Causeway Challenge are:
* ALICE (The American Legislative Initiative for Community Empowerment). Led by Katie Colway, Trish Bazemore and others, this project will create an avenue for average citizens to engage with policy-making by providing research, draft and lobby assistance for necessary legislation to improve their neighborhoods, workplaces and schools.
* 100(100s). Led by Ashley Conrad and Rondell Crier, the idea of this project is to help 100 youth, working on projects to impact 100 people each. 100(100s) will pair youth from intentionally diverse backgrounds, and give them the chance to build leadership skills and bond over a common goal.
* Friends of Rivermont Elementary. Led by Catherine Bentley, Jeannine Alday and others, this is a group of parents, community members, church leaders, retirees, and young adults rallying to improve Rivermont Elementary as an example of what can be done with a diverse mix of people within a school zone to improve public education.
* 800. Led by Josiah Golson, this is an artist collective that will build personal bonds between diverse artists in Chattanooga and mobilize those artists to create consistent community-based art projects that invite the broader Chattanooga community into a dialogue around important issues. 800 was founded in collaboration with Build Me a World and the name was taken because of the group’s meeting spot at 800 Market Street and by “The Eight” an early 20th Century group of artists who pursued “art for life’s sake” instead of “art for art’s sake”.
* Wildcard!. Led in collaboration by Roe Anderson, Harlan Breaux, Tenesha Irvin and Anthony Byrd, Devon Kronenberg, and Marty and Donna Lowe, this superteam combines five team ideas to get Chattanoogans to socialize in a more diverse and inclusive environment.
“Causeway has tasked this power-house of applicants to collaboratively develop an awesome, diverse and inviting event, while also working to make events like this more consistent and sustainable in our city,” Garrison said.
James Chapman, Causeway’s program director, said this year’s challenge is larger and more focused than the first year when recipients were given $2,500 each.
“We see ourselves as the first step in a much bigger picture,” he said. “We put a lot of emphasis on feedback and iteration, so that people have a safe space to test their ideas. We want the projects to launch with the confidence that they are putting their best foot forward,” said
Founded in 2010, Causeway began as an online platform that helped connect causes to the resources they needed to get their project off the ground. In early 2014, Causeway moved from an exclusively online platform to one that is present in the city. Using an entrepreneurial approach, Causeway inspires and equips Chattanoogans to develop smarter solutions to our city’s toughest challenges. Causeway is a local non-profit supported by the Benwood Foundation, Footprint Foundation, the Community Foundation, the Osborne Fund and from hundreds of donations from Chattanoogans wanting to make a difference in their home town. For more information visit www.causeway.org.