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2014

"Thanks to careful planning and continued leadership, Arizona has been successful in the management of its water resources for more than a century... Following in that tradition of strategic planning and action, Arizona now must face its next challenge in water supply security and management."
- Arizona Department of Water Resources

The Challenge
2030

"[B]etween 2030 and 2060, Arizona will begin to have a growing statewide imbalance between its water supplies and demand... The lack of an immediate problem increases the potential for inaction, running the risk of procrastinating and not motivating ourselves to plan and invest in our future."
- Arizona Department of Water Resources

The Challenge
This is your
challenge

THIS IS YOUR CHALLENGE

Over the next 15 years, Arizona will realize "a growing statewide imbalance between its water supplies and demand... The lack of an immediate problem increases the potential for inaction, running the risk of procrastinating and not motivating ourselves to plan and invest in our future." (Arizona Department of Water Resources). We challenge you to raise the public's consciousness of this serious issue by increasing their understanding of the facts.

THREE TIPS TO CONSIDER

As you develop your consciousness-raising strategy, consider these tips. First, teams are invited to participate. Challenges are more successful with teams from a variety of disciplines, even those unrelated to the target issue. Invite experts who know how to activate an audience and who know or can learn the facts of water scarcity (e.g., media and marketing specialists or community organizers).

Second, the winning proposal will receive $100,000 to implement a strategy, and total costs must be detailed in a budget. Many variables affect your costs; one is defining your audience. You may limit your reach to the Phoenix metropolitan area and surrounding communities (the area known as the Valley of the Sun). If your strategy can reach a broader audience, we welcome your concept along with a budget to match your most ambitious goals.

Last, other variable costs include gathering research to inform your strategy. While there is a wide range of available information supporting recent warnings by State officials, we provide links to a library of data. Build your strategy on accurate and reliable sources--wherever you might find them.

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Define Your
Audience

Phoenix

The city of Phoenix is the center of a larger community of residents known as the Valley of the Sun, an area including the adjacent major cities of Mesa, Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler and Gilbert, and several smaller suburban cities.

The Valley has a long and successful tradition of managing water resources wisely. Today, persistent droughts present a significant future threat to the ability of Arizona's population center to support the same rate of growth and economic prosperity, and are already impacting rural areas around the state. Your challenge is to focus on this minimum geographic boundary—targeting the state's major population center—by informing those residents so that they can better understand the facts.

Arizona

You may limit your audience to residents within the Valley of the Sun, but we welcome teams who might choose to reach further, even those wanting to activate the entire state of Arizona. While digital media and other content can be delivered efficiently across geographic boundaries, we still encourage you to develop content that is meaningful to your target audience - get to know them.

Why Phoenix?
Will You Accept
The Challenge?
Challenge Overview
Who Participates
Why Take Part

Challenge Overview

Demand for water in the Valley of the Sun (and across Arizona) is predicted to outstrip supply, starting as early as 15 years from now. You must form a team and propose a strategy for raising the public's consciousness of this threat within a target audience. Your team will compete for $100,000 to implement your proposed strategy. You must follow specific instructions and meet specific deadlines.

Welcome to the Water Consciousness Challenge, an initiative of The New Arizona Prize.

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Who Participates

You must form a team of multidisciplinary experts, including those who know the issues of drought and water scarcity in the region. But, we encourage you to include others, such as experts with seasoned experience activating your target audience. Your team is challenged to propose a strategy for raising public consciousness by delivering compelling content, the kind of media that will active the public and engage their interests - be creative by tapping into the creative talents of your team.

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Why Take Part

After months of research and engaging local leaders across Arizona, we have determined that the challenges of drought and water scarcity are some of the most important issues facing the state. By tapping into the public need for more accurate and useful information, we hope to build consensus around the facts. The next 15 years are critical to the future of our economy. Your team can play a critical role in bringing new and fresh perspective to this emerging threat.

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What Do You
Have To Do?
Register Today
Preview Application
Join A Community
Get Feedback

Register Today

You must register to participate by 11:59 PM, MST, on December 19, 2014. Once you have registered, you may communicate with other registrants and/or invite non-registrants to join your team. Registration allows you to utilize tools which include chat, video conferencing, in-system email, and co-authoring of your application (among your team members). Join today and start realizing the benefits of registration.

Begin Registration

Preview Application

Your team must submit a completed application by 11:59 PM, MST, on January 16, 2015. The Water Consciousness Challenge is a transparent participation process. Even before you have registered, you can learn exactly what is required to compete. The entire application is available on this website for your advance review. Please consider all of the application requirements before committing to participate.

Application

Join A Community

In addition to realizing a winning consciousness-raising strategy, a goal of The New Arizona Prize and the Water Consciousness Challenge is to support a new generation of leaders who understand the issues of water management and conservation in Arizona. By registering, you become a member of this forming community. Your participation allows The New Arizona Prize organizers to contact you with new opportunities as other Challenges are presented in the future.

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Get Feedback

To ensure that every team is treated fairly, and in the spirit of transparency, we are providing a detailed explanation of how each proposed strategy will be evaluated. Your team will be assessed by five credible authorities who will provide specific scores and comments. They will use the rubric that is available on this website. In addition, the identities of each judge are available on this website. We hope that you will learn more about our judges and the scoring process.

Scoring Process

An initiative of the Arizona Community Foundation, Republic Media, and Morrison Institute for Public Policy to create the Arizona of tomorrow. Made possible through the support of the Tashman Fund and the Lodestar Foundation.

Why Phoenix?

After carefully considering the needs of statewide interests and their water scarcity challenges, we have decided to set this minimum geographic boundary, based on targeting the area that commands the largest share of water resources across the state. We realize that there are many communities in need of greater awareness, but we want our teams to focus on those areas which appear to need the most information. Experts representing the interests of the Phoenix metropolitan area agree that stronger awareness of recent warnings of water scarcity by state officials and others would have significant impact by focusing on those communities.

An initiative of the Arizona Community Foundation, Republic Media, and Morrison Institute for Public Policy to create the Arizona of tomorrow. Made possible through the support of the Tashman Fund and the Lodestar Foundation.