Providence Wins Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Cities Challenge

An effort to help low-income parents improve their kids’ language skills has won the $5-million top prize for Providence, R.I., in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayor’s Challenge, a competition designed to inspire innovation among local governments.

“If you can’t communicate your ideas and understand other people’s ideas, an awful lot of what’s wonderful about being a human being just is not open to you,” said Michael Bloomberg, the philanthropist and New York mayor. “If this works, and it certainly sounds like it will work, it will have a transformative effect, and it is relatively scalable.”

Providence will receive $5-million for the Providence Talks project, which will be run with help from Nurse Family Partnership and other nonprofits.

Improving how government works is one of five main priorities of Mr. Bloomberg’s philanthropy. His focus is on cities, which he sees as more nimble and responsive than state or federal government.

“It’s fair to say the competition has provided clear evidence that cities really are America’s new laboratories of democracy,” he said.

The other winners, of $1-million apiece, are:

• Chicago, for its SmartData Platform, an open-source platform designed to aggregate data and use the information to forecast what problems face city residents.

• Houston, for One Bin for All, a more efficient trash-collection effort designed to recycle three-quarters of the city’s waste.

• Philadelphia, for its Social Enterprise Partnership, to work with social entrepreneurs who can develop businesses that will benefit the city.

• Santa Monica, Calif., for the Wellbeing Project, an index to measure the economic vitality, social relationships, health, education, and environment of the city.