The Ford College Community Challenge (C3) is a program run by the Ford Motor Company Fund with the mission to foster collaboration between universities, students, and local organizations to implement practical solutions in critical community need situations. In the 11th year of the Ford C3 program, the theme was “Making Lives Better.” Student proposals had to address an unmet need in their community through changing the way people move through smart mobility, driving social mobility, or building sustainable communities.

Net Impact spread the word about this opportunity to our chapters and six Net Impact members participated. We are excited to announce that three of those six Net Impact members produced proposals that made the top 20! Read about their proposals and watch their video submissions below: 

The University of Illinois at Chicago

East Garfield Park Cafe & Resource Center

Build a center in the East Garfield Park area of Chicago to serve as a place where residents can congregate to socialize and access a variety of programs and resources.

InfoPark

Focused on community building through a central information hub in a neighborhood, InfoPark would be a place where information can be exchanged between residents, local nonprofits, and other key local organizations like churches.

Earth University

Dirt to Power Initiative

Build a park out of recycled and reused materials to serve as a community meeting place to educate locals on a more sustainable approach to food production.

Congratulations to these and all other finalists! You can view all the top 20's video submissions on the Ford Fund website. Up to 10 winning proposals will be selected to receive $25,000 each from the Ford Fund to support implementation of the proposed projects. Stay tuned to see if any of the Net Impact teams are selected!