Orton, Ashoka Partner on Strong Communities Competition, Focus on Innovative Citizen Engmt

CommunityMatters and Ashoka’s Changemakers have announced the Strong Communities: Engaging Citizens, Strengthening Place, Inspiring Change competition, which the two organizations are jointly sponsoring.  Entries are being accepted starting tomorrow, Wednesday, June 16 through Wednesday, August 11.

According to the Community Matters website, "Citizens, practitioners and elected officials can enter innovative, replicable, sustainable projects and ideas to steer change and take charge of the future of their communities. We want to hear from an array of voices, and most importantly, we want to create a community of people who come together to celebrate, collaborate, and share experiences."

Sponsors are "asking people to share their big, crazy, “knock-your-socks-off” ideas, and to inspire us with the transformational projects that are happening in towns and neighborhoods across the country.  In particular, we’re looking for interdisciplinary approaches where different people, organizations and fields come together to learn from each other and collectively solve problems by creating a shared vision of a strong community."

Your organization could be one of three winners selected; each will receive $5,000 to advance your project.  Eight finalists also will be invited to attend the October 5-8 CommunityMatters ’10 Conference in Denver.  There also is a $500 early entry prize you are eligible for if you enter by July 14.

See the full details for the competition and how to enter here.