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Applications are open for the Knight Emerging City Champions Program 2025-2026. Click here to learn more about this opportunity and apply for it.
Opportunity Details
The program invites young civic innovators, ages 18-35, passionate about driving transformative change in Knight Foundation's eight resident communities to apply. This is a unique opportunity to receive funding and build leadership skills while contributing to meaningful, creative solutions for local challenges.
The program seeks creative young leaders with bold ideas that strengthen trust and community connection, foster creative expression and build local resilience.
The KECC program was created to support and better equip emerging leaders with the resources and training to turn their ideas into action. This will be the eighth cohort of KECC. Since its inception in 2015, the program has helped catalyze more than 130 public space and civic engagement projects in communities across eight Knight cities. Projects have ranged from beehives and jukeboxes to mentorship programs and gamified co-design tools.
Twenty successful applicants will receive $5,000 in seed funding and a $500 tech grant to help implement their project idea, ongoing virtual training, technical support from 8 80 Cities and access to a national network of
creative urbanists.
The program is accepting applications from residents aged 18-35 from the following U.S. cities: Akron, OH; Charlotte, NC; Detroit, MI; Macon, GA; Miami, FL; Philadelphia, PA; San Jose, CA; and St. Paul, MN. The deadline is May 28th, 2025, 11:59 pm EDT (8:59 pm PDT).
Applicants must submit their ideas by May 28, 2025, 11:59 pm EDT (8:59 pm PDT).
Apply for Knight Emerging City Champions Program