The category awards were presented during lunch on Tuesday, November 28, 2023.

Topical Category: Innovation in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 
Town of Manchester
Your Voice Matters

Civic engagement and transparency play a vital role in effective decision making. To engage with our community, the Town of Manchester embarked on an effort that went beyond conducting a traditional paper survey. The Town partnered with Bang The Table's Engagement HQ platform to offer the community an accessible, flexible, online space to connect, inquire, and engage directly with Town leaders on important issues and projects. From forums and idea boards to polls and team contacts, "Your Voice Matters Manchester" aims to create two-way communication sharing which allows for opportunity for the community to drive decisions.

General Entry Award: Population Category 1 (20,000 and under)
Town of Ridgefield
Municipal ASP Composting Program

The Town of Ridgefield set out to assess if developing a municipal onsite composting system would be a more sustainable solution, both economically and environmentally, for expanding residential organics diversion from the Town’s waste stream. The primary goal of this project was to create a self-sustaining closed loop composting system for transforming residential food waste into compost for community and municipal use.

General Entry Award: Population Category 2 (20,001 to 40,000)
Town of Windsor
WinWag Photo Contest

The Town of Windsor’s WinWag Photo Contest is a communication and marketing tool used to remind residents that June is dog licensing month. Originally, the contest was based on crowd sourcing photos of Windsor dogs and public voting on the town’s Facebook page. The WinWag Photo Contest can be adapted and “un-leashed” by any community interested in bolstering their community’s awareness of the importance of dog licensing. People love their dogs and are proud to show off furry friends. For Windsor, taking a creative and engaging approach to communicate with our residents far exceeded our intended goals and we are proud to bark about it. In January an inter-disciplinary team from the town’s Town Clerk’s Office, Public Relations and Information Technology Departments met to brainstorm ideas and improved processes.

General Entry Award: Population Category 3 (40,001 and over)
City of Bridgeport
American Rescue Plan Program

After Congress's passage of the American Rescue Plan in March of 2021, municipalities across the country were given significant amounts of funding to address the economic impacts of COVID-19. The City of Bridgeport was the recipient of approximately $110 million-the largest federal grant ever given to the City. In a collaborative effort among the Administration, the City Council, and public stakeholders, Bridgeport was able to deploy the ARP funding faster and with more public input than any other municipality in the state..