Blog

Through the Bloomberg Arts Internship program, rising public high school seniors receive paid summer jobs at non-profit cultural organizations in Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. Participants gain professional experience in arts management, exposure to overall workplace protocols, and college-readiness preparation. The program is designed to serve students curious about the many facets of a career in the arts.

By Dr. Neena Prasad, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Obesity Prevention Program lead

According to the World Health Organization, without intervention, the number of overweight and obese infants and young children globally will increase from 41 million in 2016 to 70 million by 2025—leaving them vulnerable to premature onset of illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. That’s why I was so encouraged to see G20 Health Ministers last week place childhood obesity prevention among their priority issues. Obesity is a public health issue that virtually every country either is—or soon will be—grappling with, and the ensuing health and economic consequences could be catastrophic, particularly for developing countries.

By Anita Contini, Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts Team

ArtHouse opened in 2016, after Bloomberg Philanthropies selected Gary as one of four winners of our national Public Art Challenge. The center has quickly become a hub of community activity through exhibitions, concerts, and the culinary arts. So far, it has provided more than 3,000 free meals for Gary’s young people, hosted more than 100 events and programs, and trained more than 50 entrepreneurs through its business incubator.

For decades, tobacco giants have tried to deceive the public. In addition to aggressively marketing its combustible cigarettes to children and teenagers in low- and middle-income countries, the industry is pushing alternative products, such as heat-not-burn and e-cigarettes, although the evidence about long-term safety is not yet clear. Tobacco industry-funded research has repeatedly been a smokescreen for behavior that has led to worse outcomes for smokers.

Professor Anna Gilmore, director of the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath spoke to Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Health program lead, Dr. Kelly Henning. They discuss the importance of shedding light on tobacco industry tactics, collaborating with STOP partners, and data’s essential role in the fight against misinformation.

Three years after Mike Bloomberg launched The Young Men’s Initiative and heavily reflective of the program’s efforts, President Barack Obama announced the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative. It aims to address opportunity gaps among boys and young men of color by offering new support from cradle to career through young adulthood. The initiative challenges jurisdictions to act to ensure that no matter who you are or where you come from you have an equal opportunity to thrive in this country and reach your full potential.

By Dr. Kelly Henning, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Health program lead

For the first time in history, more people are dying of noncommunicable diseases (we call them NCDs) such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease than infectious diseases. These diseases, which are responsible for 41 million deaths every year, including 17 million people who die prematurely before the age of 70, are responsible for cutting promising lives short around the world. On top of that, 5 million people die every year from injuries, and road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among young people aged 15–29 years.

At Bloomberg Philanthropies, we are dedicated to “following the data” — and the data on gun violence could not be more compelling or urgent. Americans are 25 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than people in other developed countries. Every day, 96 Americans are killed by gun violence. And every year, approximately three million American children bear witness to gun violence.

By Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries

Thanks to our beautiful location in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, the Serpentine is never busier than during the summer months. If you’re not in London right now, you need only check social media, where visitors to our two galleries have been sharing images of their encounters with art and architecture in the heart – and heat – of the city.

The Bloomberg Philanthropies Vibrant Oceans Initiative is the largest philanthropic commitment to internationally reform small-scale fisheries management. One of our partners, Rare, specializes in local fishing reforms, targeting some of the 12 million small-scale fishers that operate 15km from shore.

By Dr. Kelly Henning, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Health team

Left unchecked, tobacco use will kill one billion people this century. It’s the most preventable cause of death in the world. But saving lives means more than just quitting smoking. It means pushing back against a powerful, wide-reaching global industry that spends tens of billions of dollars every single year to recruit tobacco users through aggressive marketing campaigns.

Public art can be a tool mayors use to build strong communities.

That’s the premise behind the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge, an initiative designed to support cities undertaking temporary art projects that address pressing civic issues. Last month, 14 U.S. cities learned that they’re finalists in the Challenge, with a chance at receiving up to $1 million to carry out their ideas. Information on all of the finalists is here.

Cornell Tech is the first campus ever built for the digital age, bringing together academia and industry to create pioneering leaders and transformational new research, products, companies, and social ventures.

By The Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts Team  

With some of the world’s most well-known museums and galleries, it’s no secret that cities like New York and London are great places to see art. This summer there are also a number of engaging art pieces sparking dialogue and inspiring wonder right on the city streets, or in some cases, on rivers and lakes.

By Becky Bavinger, Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Health team

The Global Road Safety Leadership Course – a two-week course organized by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Global Road Safety Partnership – has trained over 300 people from 50 countries since 2016. Held twice each year – once in Baltimore and the other at a rotating location so far including Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and Nairobi, Kenya – the course is part of the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety which focuses on spreading effective road safety solutions and building capacity of municipalities to implement road safety interventions, and supports national governments in strengthening legislation.

Mayor of Gary, Indiana, Karen Freeman-Wilson believes resident engagement is integral to effective governance. Highlighting the important role residents play in helping Gary care for public spaces, Mayor Freeman-Wilson seeks to collaborate with the community:

“Not only tell citizens what you’re doing but make them a part of it.  We’ve seen that with our comprehensive city plan which we’re engaged in right now.  We’re allowing citizens to plan it with the guidance of the professionals… But, by the end of the process, it will be the citizens of Gary’s comprehensive plan.”

By Dr. Kelly Henning, Public Health program lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies

An astounding 45 percent of adult males in Vietnam use tobacco, compared to only 1 percent of women. These high smoking rates among men in Vietnam are at the core of the country’s health problems with more than 40,000 tobacco-related deaths each year.

The challenges in Vietnam are difficult, but surmountable. Bloomberg Philanthropies’ deep collaboration with the government and local organizations demonstrates that together we can make real strides toward reducing tobacco use in this country of nearly 100 million people.

By Mayor Adjei Sowah, Accra, Ghana

Last week, my colleagues and I broke ground at the Lapaz intersection. It is the first step in making Accra’s roads safer for all our citizens.

The Lapaz intersection is the most dangerous intersection in the city, poorly designed with limited speed restrictions and no safe passage for pedestrians. In 2015, 25 of the 253 traffic-related fatalities were around the N1 highway, along which the Lapaz intersection sits.

It is cities like Accra, in low- and middle-income countries, that bear the greatest burden of road traffic crashes. The majority of the world’s countries lack adequate laws to counter growing numbers of traffic deaths and injuries. As a result, 90 percent of the 1.3 million deaths on the road every year occur in low- and middle-income countries.

This week, we revisit an episode featuring a conversation with Dr. Tom Frieden, one of the world’s leading public health experts, and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, and Allison Jaffin of Bloomberg Philanthropies as they discuss noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and what it takes to protect the world.

The C40 Climate Leadership Group has been helping cities achieve climate goals for over a decade, and their climate planning tools are now public and available to all.

By Patricia E. Harris, CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies

One year ago, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the American Cities Initiative, our umbrella initiative that includes all of our work in U.S. cities. Since then, we’ve made several major investments aimed at helping cities tackle their most pressing issues. We’ve doubled down on helping cities build their capacity to use data and evidence to save money, be more efficient and ultimately improve quality of life for citizens (who doesn’t like their potholes filled more quickly?). We’ve expanded a program that provides training to small and mid-sized cultural organizations in more than a dozen cities to help them think more like small businesses. And, most recently, we launched a $70-million competition to help 20 cities reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of our larger effort to ensure the U.S. meets its commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, despite backpedaling in Washington.

IMT’s Julie Hughes says, “Cities are not only being bold and visionary in their commitments; they’re being strategic and pragmatic, developing and implementing plans in a data-informed method. It’s essential. We can’t afford to take steps that we think will achieve our climate goals. We need confidence in our approaches; we need to deliberately choose actions based on strong data.”

A partner in the American Cities Climate Challenge, the NRDC’s Kimi Narita shares her thoughts on why cities should apply to the American Cities Climate Challenge.

“A woman is economically empowered when she has both the ability to succeed and advance economically and the power to make and act on economic decisions.”

Using the guiding definition of women’s economic development from the International Center for Research on Women, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the King Baudouin Foundation partnered with Foundation Center to create Equal Footing, a freely accessible web portal for information-sharing and collaboration among those who invest and work in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Burundi.

This episode of Follow the Data presents a conversation with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and James Anderson, who leads Government Innovation at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Mayor Fischer is serving in his second term and says that to be a good mayor, you need the “head of a CEO, but the heart of a social worker.”

By Antha Williams, Head of Environment Programs, Bloomberg Philanthropies

Today is World Oceans Day – a time to raise awareness and encourage action to protect our critical global resources. At Bloomberg Philanthropies, we work to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people, and that mission is the bedrock of our oceans program.

Fish is the main source of animal protein – healthier and more affordable than beef, chicken, or pork – for more than one billion people around the world. Unfortunately this vital food source is threatened by overfishing and destructive fishing practices. While the supply of fish is decreasing, demand continually increases—with the world’s population expected to grow by two billion people within the next two decades. Without proper management of our oceans, we will continue to destroy coral reefs and marine ecosystems, and jeopardize a critical global food source.

By Antha Williams and James Anderson

As the days grow warmer, the anniversary of the Trump Administration’s declaration of intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement draws closer.

In the days after this announcement last year, Mike Bloomberg and California Governor Jerry Brown launched America’s Pledge, an initiative to aggregate and quantify emissions reduction efforts of states, cities, businesses, and universities in the U.S. One year after the federal government announced it would pull out of the Paris Agreement, 2,700+ U.S. cities, states, and businesses are saying, “We Are Still In.” Together, these non-federal actors have rallied their commitments in order to ensure the U.S. meets its Paris Agreement climate goals – with or without Washington.

Mike Bloomberg announced an additional $42 million investment in the What Works Cities program to enhance cities’ use of data and evidence to improve resident outcomes and address the most pressing local issues. The investment, part of Bloomberg’s American Cities Initiative, is one response to what the former New York City mayor says is a mounting disdain for facts, which is making it difficult to tackle some of the country’s toughest challenges.

By Dr. Kelly Henning, Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Health team lead

On Monday, May 7, the coastal city of Fortaleza, Brazil rolled out a red carpet in front of City Hall. The guests of honor? Not celebrities or dignitaries — though some wore crowns — but pedestrians. Everyday people who are among the 2.5 million that call this city home.

The event was part of Fortaleza’s participation in the annual “Yellow May” festival. Supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), Fortaleza is joining cities across Brazil — and around the world — to draw attention to road safety and introduce new initiatives to make streets safer and more accessible for vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians.

The heart of Athens historic center is experiencing a revival. The 27-acre district is bounded by three of Athens’ most historic squares: Syntagma, Ommonia, and Monistraki. The Commercial Triangle, locally referred to as “Trigono,” is a working district, with commercial activity dating back to the 19^th century.

Despite its historic and geographic significance, the neighborhood fell into disrepair in the 1980s. As a result, many buildings were vacated. By 2016, 17% of ground floor and 45% of upper floor spaces were vacant, while a survey of shopkeepers in the area found that 50-70% believed graffiti, lack of cleanliness, and illegal parking were serious issues. While there were pockets of economic activity, the neighborhood was not pedestrian-friendly and it was struggling to attract new investment.