500 Cities Data Challenge
ABOUT THE DATA CHALLENGE
The 500 Cities Data Challenge is a $1 million grant initiative that encouraged communities to dig into the 500 Cities Project and design innovative solutions to address social factors that influence community health outcomes. The ideas generated through this grant competition are building the foundation for better cross-sector collaboration to foster a broad Culture of Health and help communities use data more effectively.
The 500 Cities Data Challenge has selected 10 organizations across the US to receive funding for projects that will improve community health outcomes using the 500 Cities dataset. In 2018–19, these grantees leveraged local health data to address social factors that influence health, including air quality, affordable housing, climate change, noise pollution, and public transportation.
ABOUT THE DATA
The 500 Cities Project is a joint initiative of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the CDC Foundation that provides city-level and census tract–level estimates for 27 chronic disease measures. These data were collected for the 500 largest cities in the United States, representing more than one-third of the nation’s population and enabling organizations in these cities to put local data to work. These diverse indicators allow community organizations, local public agencies, and researchers to better understand the burden and geographic distribution of health-related variables in their communities and assist in planning data-driven public health interventions.
GRANTEES
Get to know the 10 500 Cities Data Challenge grantees and their projects by clicking on the profiles below. Learn about how each grantee used the 500 Cities data, what they learned from it, and their recommendations for others interested in taking similar approaches in their communities. Be sure to follow #500Cities on Twitter and share your own stories of using the 500 Cities dataset to advance health outcomes.
GRANTEE SELECTION
The 500 Cities Data Challenge began with an open invitation to submit creative and brief letters or videos of interest. Organizations with the best ideas were invited to submit full proposals detailing the activities, budget, and anticipated impact of their projects. Applicants were judged on how their projects would meet the following four primary selection criteria:
- thematic relevance of the proposed project, especially connections across sectors
- significance of the proposed project in terms of advancing the use of the 500 Cities data in communities
- degree of innovation in the use of 500 Cities data
- feasibility of completing the proposed project during the grant period
For more information, please stay tuned for our grantmaking toolkit to learn more about the selection and award process.