JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The City of Jacksonville is turning to its youngest residents for fresh ideas to build a greener future, launching an initiative competition promising to fund youth-led eco-friendly projects. <\/p>\n
\u201cManatee Tank\u201d invites local youth from ages 15 to 24 to pitch ideas for a more sustainable Jacksonville. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Those ideas can include neighborhood cleanups, community gardens and other environmental solutions. The city received a $50,000 grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative. Jacksonville was one out of 300 cities worldwide to receive it. <\/p>\n The city is offering individuals awards up to $5000 for the best ideas. <\/p>\n The competition draws inspiration from the hit show Shark Tank. While smaller proposals will receive microfunding right away, larger projects will enter the manatee tank and propose their ideas. <\/p>\n The city will hold a workshop for interested people who can start applying on August 17. <\/p>\n \u201cTake your ideas and work with professionals to make them the best they can possibly be and present them,\u201d said Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan, encouraging local youth to take advantage of the collaborative program. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n City officials emphasize that they are looking for practical, data-driven solutions. <\/p>\n \u201cWe would really like to see things with tangible, measurable output,\u201d said Tiffany Bess, Sustainability Education and Outreach Specialist for the City of Jacksonville. \u201cSo if you do a cleanup, we want to know how many bags of trash you pull from the river.\u201d <\/p>\n Local youth are already brainstorming creative submissions. Neora Varghese, a local student considering entering the competition, is focusing her efforts on urban infrastructure and climate resilience. <\/p>\n \u201cJust reducing climate change more,\u201d Varghese said of her goals. \u201cTree shade could even help, permeable sidewalks, things like that.\u201d <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n For young advocates like Varghese, the \u201cManatee Tank\u201d competition represents more than just financial backing\u2014it validates the role of youth in local government and civic action. <\/p>\n \u201cI really feel like that inspired me not only to think of more ideas but just that my ideas that I\u2019m thinking of, however small they may be, they can actually make a difference in our city,\u201d Varghese said. <\/p>\n Applications will open on August 17th and close on September 28th. Finalists will be notified on October 9th. All projects must be completed by April 15th, 2027. <\/p>\n For more information about the program, including eligibility and application details, visit Jacksonville.gov\/ManateeTank<\/a>.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The City of Jacksonville is turning to its youngest residents for fresh ideas to build…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14189,37627,116,118,117,6489,634,4134,144752,144751,144753,144754,14163,144755],"class_list":["post-355245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action","tag-bloomberg","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jessica_salinas","tag-local","tag-manatee","tag-manatee_tank","tag-new_shack","tag-nioa_varghese","tag-shark_tank","tag-tank","tag-varghese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}