The city of Phoenix is one of 50 Champion Cities selected as finalists in the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge, a global innovation competition that identifies and accelerates ideas developed by cities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These 50 urban innovations rose to the top of a competitive pool of more than 630 applications from 99 countries.

Phoenix proposes to develop a mobile workforce “middle space” to address connectivity, which is one of the greatest challenges experienced by job seekers and local employers.

As a finalist, Phoenix now advances to the four-month champion phase of the competition. From June through October, the 50 finalist cities will refine their ideas with technical assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies and its network of innovation experts. Fifteen of the 50 cities will ultimately win the grand prize, with each receiving $1 million and multi-year technical assistance to implement and scale their ideas. Grand prize winners will be announced in early 2022.

For more information, visit mayorschallenge.bloomberg.org.

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